CHA Summer 2013 | Hot Pick: Amy Tangerine
Welcome back to the CHA Top Ten Hot Picks list!
So here, in no particular order, is the next hot pick for CHA Summer 2013 (aka Create-n-Connect)…
Amy Tangerine has been one of the hottest brands in the industry since its debut last year. With just one collection per show, Amy has built an iconic signature style and each new release has been eagerly snapped up by her legions of fans. Each collection coordinates with and builds on the previous ones, with an ongoing style thread and variations on the same color palette.
The amazing thing about Amy's collections are their versatility. The latest collection, called Cut & Paste, has bright colors that make it perfect for back-to-school, everyday scrapbooking, or travel, but with gray undertones that don't make it look out of place for fall.
This Hot Pick is almost an extension of the last one in some ways - Project Life. Because part of what makes Amy Tan's latest release so hot is its appeal to the Project Life trend adherents. Most Project Lifers have been using the system by purchasing core kits, and then searching the rest of the industry's offerings for items that coordinate to build on the kit with to create additional elements, or more dimension. But with the release of the new Amy Tangerine Cut & Paste Project Life mini-kit, Amy's fans can just come to her full coordinating collection to find perfectly coordinating add-on elements - a big selling point. (This will also be true for the Dear Lizzy and Maggie Holmes mini-kits.)
As always, Amy's sticker designs are impeccable. Her Thickers always seem to be among my first purchases from American Crafts' new releases at each show - she hits just the right note with fonts and colors.
The trendy label maker font in hot hot hot gray and the tiny words will be very popular. The retro photo corners reinvented in patterned fabric are a great example of Amy's style - retro updated with pretty graphic pattern and some texture.
These stamps show how much the Amy Tangerine line is just perfect for Project Life-rs. They are both scaled and themed appropriately for using with Project Life, and with an MSRP of only $3.99, they are a great add-on.
Perhaps the real magic of Amy Tangerine is that no one does embellishments and accessories for a line like Amy Tan does. This time around she had tags that are punched (perfect for stitching - one of her signature obsessions), rub-ons that look like pencil sketches, wood cards, vellum pockets (not pictured), and chipboard shapes (not pictured).
Instead of brads, the collection has another Amy signature twist - it offers adhesive resin bows.
Each of Amy's collection seems to have an attention-getting tool of some kind. In January, it was a magnetic date stamp. At Create-n-Connect, it was a pair of embroidery stencil kits, which retail for $8.99 each, and which make either the alphabet or a collection of shapes that coordinate with the collection.
Despite all my emphasis on Project Life when talking about it, this collection is certainly not just for pocket scrapbooking - as the beautiful booth samples attest: