Brands that have run their course

Just my opinion...but, Teresa Collins - used to love her stuff, now I just feel like it's Heidi Swapp reincarnated.

I just may hear a collective gasp on this one....I haven't been interested in anything Echo Park for a while now. Except for the occasional piece of paper that catches my eye, I'm, for the most part, over with BoBunny.

I will add that with some of the big names closing up like basic grey, I've begun to notice smaller companies like Kaiser craft and there's still a lot of good stuff out there!

Eta I'm just now discovering jillibean soup and photo play too!

I am sick of Doodlebug and their big-headed creatures. But, that's just me!

I used to adore everything 7 Gypsies and I'm hoarding the treasures I have from them. It doesn't seem like there have been more than a few new designs since Canvas Corp bought the brand years ago and the products are very hard to come by for an international. No promotion or marketing and very few stores sell the products.

It's not the first time Canvas Corp has done this to a brand. Tattered Angels is another loved brand (I have a Raskog tray filled with their products – love them!) that Canvas Corp managed to effectively kill off. The founder of Tattered Angels, who had sold the company to get more time for the development and design work and get rid of the boring business side of running a company, was soon forced to leave over night despite being promised that they would let her stay on, and she even moved to the same city – she lost everything as the contract stated that she could not work in the business for any other company (she told the entire sad story on her blog when it happened).

The connection between 7 Gypsies and Tim Holtz is that he was wise enough to hire the 7 Gypsies design team full time (two very talented girls, if I remember correctly).

I'm kinda over Dear Lizzy, Amy Tangerine and I've never been a fan of Shimelle's collections. I think AC should get fresh, new, one off designers to do collections and see what they come up with. Just because a designer has one great collection in them, doesn't mean they have 4 or 5.

I love the new Dear Lizzy line and absolutely adore Amy Tan and Maggie Holmes, but you are so right.  New designers with FRESH ideas would be great!

this is me exactly.  I have a renewed interest in 7gypsies and am hoarding and stashing what little of their stuff I can still find.  I'm more into their embellishments and ephemera than their chipboard stuff. 

Amy Tangerine. Every collection looks the same and I am bored of it.

I'm not a fan of some brands like Bella Blvd, Echo Park and Doodlebug but I can appreciate that all their collections are different, even if they're not my style.

Not Amy Tangerine. I couldn't be any less phased by their new releases and it all always looks the same. At least Maggie Holmes is all samey but it's freaking adorable.

Dare I say: Studio Caico

I think its time for them to either shake up their designers or move along. Everything they do is the same.

I like Echo Park, but it is too themey for me to actually buy.

Teressa Collins is another one I never purchase form. It all just looks the same. I actually think she would be better off going full time in home decor stuff. 

The AC group is over done as well. It all looks the same. For the first time, I didnt buy any Amy Tan papers. Just more of the same.

I have not read through all the responses but right when I read OP's question the answer in my head was Doodlebug. Cutesy has been overdone IMO.

I still miss Basic Grey. And am hoarding some of the papers of the final collection they put out earlier this year. Kaisercraft is considered a small(er) company? They're pretty big in Europe (and Australia I'm guessing). I'd say it's one of the few brands I'm 100% sure to encounter in any of our country's scrap stores. Nice paper quality too.

I'm over any company who's been in the game for so long they can afford to use terrible quality paper (and bad printing) because they're holding the scrap industry by the b***s. I'm looking at you, AC + MME + whichever other big name I've ordered something from recently only to wonder where my money has gone to besides your pockets because the printing was terrible (like big visible lines all over the paper kind of bad) and super flimsy. Even half-boring bad customer service SC is at least able to keep up some paper weight in the $5 coupon mess.

PS: Yah, I just got a few products from MME's Yes Please line because I knew it would work well for my minimalist style but I'm so disappointed in the paper quality. And the impossibility to use the B-side because the foil was pressed too hard into too thin paper meaning it's a hot mess.

I never really liked Studio Calico.  Never saw what the hype was.

Ditto Teressa Collins.  And she uses really odd color palettes. 

Amy Tangerine has always reminded me of the old ki memories Love Elsie lines....just made me go dig those out of my stash.

Other brands under the AC umbrella...  still on the fence.  Crate Paper is having an identity crisis but I like some of their most recent stuff.  Pink Paislee is hit and miss.  Heidi Swapp - pretty but boring.  Pebbles is doing o.k. but nothing really stands out to me.  Et cetera. 

I haven't liked a line from MME since Cupid's Arrow...they've embraced the off white and distressed look and I can't get behind them as a result. I just hate it all. The ugly pinks and creamy browns or whatever they use. I have no idea how anyone can like the My Story lines...I think they are hideous. Then again, I'm used to being in the minority in terms of what I like.

Pink Paislee is another that is really going downhill this year. I think they were knocking it out of the park last year and this year, not only have I liked less of their releases (and never really cared for the Paige Evans stuff, either...again, I know...minority opinion here) and the fact that their ephemera count has gone from nearly 100 pieces a few years ago, to 70 something (still not terrible) in lines like Cedar Lane (it would be hard for any company to top my love of that line) to Outfitters having 40 pieces and for the same price or a price increase. It's disappointing.

I will also complain about EP branching out into ephemera. The designs are almost all repeats of the sticker sheet and the bigger pieces from the cut aparts, just in slightly different sizes (even the colors are the same)...and a paper is 99 cents...a 12x12 sticker sheet is $2.99...but their ephemera is FIVE BUCKS and you get like 30 pieces...you get so many more from the stickers and paper for sooooo much less. Talk about feeling like getting ripped off. But that's not what you were talking about, was it...sorry...I'll shut up now.