A step up or a passing fad?

Being an avid paper collector, I am always on the hunt for the new and the unusual with which to create my layouts. I like to keep current so the Hang Ten kits are always classic but fresh.

I have noticed that several paper companies are using either slick papers on which to print their designs or having parts of the patterns printed with a slick surface. Altered and mixed media artists have long been enhancing their projects with various applications to achieve a gloss shine. What is fairly standard for these artists now appears as new in the scrapbook paper industry.

A friend of mine from The Little Scrap Box reminded me that there was a paper company that attempted a shiny paper edition a bit of time ago that bombed with scrappers. I'm not sure if that was due to timing or what was popular at that time in papers. I am also not sure if the companies coming out with slick, shiny papers are doing this to put themselves apart from other paper lines whose designs are similar.

What I do know is that I like the shiny papers but they are sure hard to photograph! lol. Rouge de garance is a new paper line coming out of France. It is all slick paper and double sided. Its designs are graphic and the colors vibrant. As I've said before, the most cool thing about this is that the company issued 6x12 sheets as well as 12x12.

Now Stemma by Masterpiece Studios has also come out with several papers that also have a slick, shiny approach. The papers are made in China according to the removable sticker on the back. Where RdG papers are slick all over, Stemma has isolated elements on the papers which are shiny. The paper, over all has the texture of smooth wall paper, to me, which is how I can best describe it. It is single sided and the colors are similar to the RdG line. These would mix and match well.

The two I have here on the blog are Little Lotus and Lotus Garden. Will I buy more of these....absolutely. Do I think this is just another passing fad in scrap book papers? Only time will tell!