As promised, today I’m kicking off my coverage of the Summer 2011 New York International Gift Fair.  If you follow me on twitter or instagram you’ve already seen a few sneak peeks, but there’s tons more that I’m excited to share.  Like the National Stationery Show, the Gift Fair is a wholesale trade show, but this show takes place twice a year and covers way more than paper.  There are sections just for global importers, handmade products, home and bath, baby and kid products, and lots, lots more.  It’s huge!  I only feature a small part of the show here – and today we’re starting with a few of my favorite exhibits in the Handmade section!
First up, the lovely Shanna Murray, making her trade show debut at this show. Â I’m a longtime fan of Shanna’s wall decals and was thrilled to see her beautiful booth at NYIGF. Â Shanna recently introduced some gorgeous new designs, as well as a brand-new collection of decals specifically for windows!
My friend Laurel from Laurel Denise is a trade show veteran and I always look forward to seeing her creative booth displays.  This year Laurel went with a cool industrial vibe – using old manuals and charts! – as a cool contrast against her delicate jewelry and beautiful glass vases.  I’m loving the colorful new silk edition of her simply stated collection below.
The 2012 edition of Laurel’s awesome yearly planner (available for pre-order here).
I also checked out the Walk Up Press booth a couple aisles over. Â The fill-in-the-blank letterpress cards and day of the week lunchbags are so much fun, and I’m loving the new letterpress gift wrap sheets!
2012 write-on monthly desk calendar
New letterpress wrapping paper!
It was such a pleasant surprise to find Jessica Rust Designs at this year’s show. Â I love Jessica’s personalized mugs and heirloom plates (they make a perfect wedding gift). Â Jessica recently added some new etched glasses made from recycled wine bottles to her collection, along with some farm animal designs and cute personalized pet food bowls.
Speaking of dinnerware, it was wonderful to see Asya from Gleena at this year’s show. Â I’ve been a fan of her beautiful numbered porcelain bowls for a couple of years now, and I love the newer botanical designs and color additions to her collection.
Also in the Handmade section, Brooklyn-based Haptic Lab – they make the most gorgeous embroidered fabric map quilts.  Each of the large quilts is literally hand sewn (no machines)!  Such a lovely heirloom.  They also have a fun DIY option; city maps are screen printed onto smaller quilts and come with little icons and patches that can be sewn onto the quilt to indicate homes, locations of first dates, etc.  They also have a DC version, which made me very happy.
After checking out the exhibitors in the Handmade section, I wandered off to Baby & Child where I had a great time catching up with the folks from Wee Gallery. Â We played with their rubber stamp sets and checked out the new (moveable) wall decals and art cards, and my husband and I totally want to get the temporary tattoos for our niece and nephew!
I’ll be back with more from NYIGF tomorrow! Â You can check out past year coverage from NYIGF right here.
Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper
I’m so happy you mentioned Laurel Denise! She’s from my little city (Charlottesville, VA) and I love her beautiful booths. 🙂
I enjoyed looking at these images. You always wonder the behind the scenes of products in stores.