*NEW* American Crafts & Pebbles - February release

Whatevs is giving me a headache. Too bright and a clash of like cool stuff and early scrapbooking days.

The other is okay. Only 1 paper I like. Have no need for the other stuff and won't buy just 1 paper.

Meh, nothing much I like at all. The only thing that I might add to a wishlist (but will probably forget about) is this bunny paper in Sunny Bloom.

Whatevs is just … so … whatevs. There is no chance they are designing these collections for me! I might grab the paper with cassettes on it in a sale but that’s it (I have a prob and have to buy anything with that motif on it!)

Cedar House doesn't seem cohesive as a collection but there are individual pieces that I like.

whateva - is an easy pass

Sunny Bloom is a litle cutesy for me but I like a couple of the papers

Whatevs looks like they took a Shimelle collection and cranked up the color palette.

Cedar House has me confused, too. I do like the overall colors. I guess I should be happy they didn't just slap "dude" phrases on it just because it's mostly masculine.

I like some pieces of Cedar House and Whatevs (the floral is pretty!). The rest? Hard pass.

My first thought was that Whatevs was an Amy Tan collection and that Cedar House was Wolf Pack crossed with some old Pebbles collections that I got from Joann. I suspect that the paper pads for these collections will be available at Joann for years and years and will sell well to the "average" scrapbook paper shopper. 

Each collection has a paper or two that I like but would probably only pick up if it was a single sheet at Joann or an LSS and easily accessible. I do like the floral in whatevs, but I’ve rarely met a clean floral I didn’t like. I like a few b sides in the pebbles collection. The map b side in Cedar House needs to be mine.
When I saw the Cedar House collection I actually laughed out loud. The whole collection seems uncohesive but every element in it was trendy during the height of the “hipster” aesthetic: the cassettes, the geometric animals (always a fox and deer), the skulls, the warm grunge look. Looking at it now, the colors are nice but the icons seem so out of place for this day and age, except 2014 me would have been all over this. It reminds me of the constant use of dated icons in baking and school collections (50s kitchen appliances and apples). At least those have the benefit of being nostalgic and “vintage”. This is not as dated, but still dated. You’re almost there American Crafts. Just skip ahead a few more years…

Have to add: Whatev ephemera includes the phrase "trying my best". I could have used this for so many life situations. I've not seen it before in a SB collection?

Whatevs reminds me of the "how do you do, fellow kids?" meme with a middle aged Steve Buscemi

You know what's interesting, there was a new DCWV paper pad (Urban Street) that had caught my eye a few months back. I went to look at it again today by pure coincidence and I realized that several of the patterns and a few cut aparts are identical to the Cedar House line (with recolors), so it seems like maybe this is AC's new modus operandi? (In image below, the "hello" is the same design, just different colors; same with the pointy finger label. And I count at least 5 of the same papers, taking into account B sides.)

I actually like the DCWV paper pad a LOT better, because although I love the general design aesthetic/colors of Cedar House, it feels like it's trying to be three different things: retro (cassettes), rustic (bison/skulls), and sarcastic/hip with the phrases. The DCWV paper pad is much more cohesive IMO.

I have to wonder if all of AC's future non-designer lines will be amalgams of past collections. It will be interesting to see. There are definitely some older papers I wouldn't mind seeing again, but not when they're mashed together into a nonsensical collection with weird colorways and themes. 

I like the one bunny paper that has been posted, it's really cute. I suspect that I might like more of that Pebbles line in person but the photos seem very dull.

I hate that I always feel like such a negative Nancy on these threads but seriously, why is scrapbooking stuff so darn ugly these days? Like I can appreciate the idea behind Whatevs. It's a response to what many have been asking for with realistic phrases, things not always being the "best ever!!!!!" but it's just SO UGLY. I've bought a lot of printed vinyl this past year and I often wish the patterns were available as papers, so I know there are designers out there capable of making fun, fresh designs in a 12x12 printed format. Do scrapbooking companies just not look past the boundaries of their traditional designers? Or maybe, as another poster mentioned, they are trying to save money by not hiring designers at all.

There's not much catching my eye in those collections. Maybe a pp or 2 in each line.
However I do like the alphas but they're puffy stickers and for whatever reason, I can't make myself like puffies.
Thanks for showing us PaperAngel.

I guess I'm weird. I instantly loved the first two and not one other person on this thread does.

Of course, I knew I was weird socially. Now I'm weird scrapbookily...