Exciting New Products from Plaid!

Hey, friends!  If you followed along on Twitter and Instagram, you know that there were lots of awesome things going on at CHA this weekend.  One of the particular highlights of the Craft and Hobby Association {CHA} MegaShow for me was the special breakfast I got to attend this morning with my friends from Plaid Crafts!  Not only did they feed us, they gave us a tour of their amazing booth and showed us some of the most exciting new products hitting the market this year!  Since, despite your requests, I couldn’t manage to fit you all in my suitcase and bring you along with me to see everything, I figure the least I can do is share with you about what I saw…are you ready for some awesomeness?!

Here are some of my top favorite things that are new additions to the Plaid line for 2014; some are already available, while others will be released later this year.  Take a peek!

1. New Handmade Charlotte Stencils – available now!
First of all, can I just take a minute to be a total fan-girl and shout, “Look at me next to Rachel!!”  If you don’t already know, Rachel Faucett is the designer behind the Handmade Charlotte line…she’s the one in the middle who’s much taller than me!

Rachel was excited to show us these gorgeous Moroccan stencils that would look gorgeous on just about anything, including the pretty silk scarves we got to make right there!  She instructed us to go very easy on the paint since the silk absorbs it so quickly, and gave us some expert tips.  These are such fun patterns, and the stencils are washable and reusable for project after project…yay!  Oh, and P.S. in case you were wondering, Rachel is just the sweetest; she offered to give us all hugs and be BFFs, and I almost fell over when she told me she knew my blog!

2. Stencil 1 Line by Ed Roth – coming in March!
You guys, this is so cool.  There are a bunch of awesome designs, but my favorites come in sets of three, designed to give you everything you need to create a work of art.  You get a geometric pattern, a shape, and then a more detailed overlay, and they’re available in both 6×6 and 12×12 sizes.  Take a look at this sample.

The background is a honeycomb pattern, there’s a basic bee stencil, and then a detailed bee to go right over top.  Stencil it right onto a piece of wood or a canvas, and you’ve got instant wall art!  How great is that?!  Then there’s this one…  Seriously, how cute is that?!  I definitely have to have these!  That detailed overlay makes all the difference, doesn’t it?!

Of course they’re perfect for a canvas or wood sized exactly to 6×6 or 12×12, but of course you can think outside the box too, and use them however, wherever, just like on this large piece of wood in the Plaid booth!

We got to meet Ed himself too, which was awesome; he’s a super cool guy, and it’s just incredible to hear about products straight from the mouth of the person who designed them!

3. Wooden Stitchables – coming in July!
Honestly, friends, I am so bummed we have to wait until summer for these because you are going to looooove them.  They’re wood cutouts and you stitch them!!  Yes, you heard that right.  This particular display shows you the seasonal ones, but there’s a whole other set of them with cute year round designs, including flowers and the cutest little hedgehog you’ve ever seen!

I love these because they make stitching so modern and relevant, and there are so many practical uses for them outside of the embroidery hoop!  Ornaments, gift tie-ons, add-ons to photo frames, decorations on wreaths…the possibilities are endless!  I cannot wait for July to get my hands on that little hedgehog…

4. New cross stitch/embroidery patterns with embellishments – coming in March {most designs…a few will be later}!
I. love. these.  The colors, the designs, the sayings, and oh, those buttons!  The blue bird and the owl were the ones that caught my eye immediately when I first saw them, but honestly, there isn’t one I don’t like.  They’re simple enough that they don’t take a year to make, they’re on-trend, they’re fun, and they’re just so darn cute!!!

5. Wearable Chalkboard Paint
Did you hear that?!  Chalkboard paint you can wear, use, and wash!  I’m not kidding!  How cool is that?!  Plus, there’s a whole line of stencils to go with them…a cute cupcake, a speech bubble, a rocketship I know LC is going to want…LOVE them.

6. Leather Paint!
You know, we crafters have tried it all when it comes to painting on leather.  Nail polish, markers, fabric paint…you name it, someone has tried it.  And Plaid noticed.  So they said, hmmm, let’s make a paint specially formulated to actually work on leather.  And they did it!  It comes in standard colors, neons, and glitter, and you can get it in regular finish or gloss.  Plus, there are special brushes and tools, one that’s almost exactly like my beauty blender sponge, designed specially to work well on the leather surface.  Imagine all the fun you could have upcycling just about anything from Goodwill with this stuff!!  There’s a special line of decals too that work a lot like temporary tattoos.  Seriously fun.

7. Nail head Studs
This look is definitely a popular trend at the moment, and just imagine what you’d pay for a jacket like one of these.  Now, make your own!

8. Monogram Beads – available now!
Of course you know I couldn’t leave the booth without a good long look at what’s new in beads and jewelry, right?!  First, I had to play around with this fun display showing off a huge variety of Plaid beads…

…and so did my stylish buddy Tori from Lil’ Mrs. Tori {if you don’t follow her, you should!  Go visit her now!  Well, after you finish reading this post, that is}.

Then, we got down to business making beaded bracelets with a jewelry designer!  YAY!  We got to use fun sparkly beads along with the new monograms, which are designed to resemble the old time wax seals.  Of course, I was so busy making and then wearing my new bracelet that I neglected to actually photograph it.  Blogger fail!  But I did get a pic of the monogram collection to show you:

I’ll be sure to blog about the bracelet all by itself in a post soon so you can see it!

I’m also really excited about Mod Podge Sheers and the Mod Podge Rocks line of adhesive stencils, but I get to show you some of those things very soon!  In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this little sneak peek of what Plaid has in store for us this year!  I know I sure loved seeing it all!  Thanks so much to my friends at Plaid for the breakfast, the super goody bag, and the booth tour; it was a great start to the day!

Hugs & Glitter,