About
The Papercrafts Festival began as an idea and a dream by Deborah Segaert, editor of the Australian Paper Arts magazine of Pride Publishing/Creative Living Media. In keeping in line with the name of the magazine (which subsequently became the Australian Paper Crafts magazine) the show was originally called the “Paper Arts Festival”. The very first Paper Arts Festival was held in the main hub and centre of paper crafts in Australia – Brisbane.
(Previous logo for the first Paper Crafts Festival held in Brisbane)
The inaugural Paper Arts Festival was held in early March and the show was very well received and warmly welcomed by the enthusiastic crafters of the sunshine state. It was the first festival of its kind as it was a show specifically targeting and catering to the paper crafts segment of the crafts market. Activities such as stamping and especially scrap booking were really beginning to take off in Australia, following a trend that had began in 1980’s in the USA and had grown exponentially since.
1981 is the oft cited year that modern scrap booking began and was started by Marielen Christensen of Utah in North America. Marielen shared her fifty volumes of what she called her “family memory books” by putting them on display at the ‘World Conference on Records’ in Utah and also published a how-to book on scrap booking called Keeping Memories Alive. The book was so successful that she and her husband shortly afterwards opened a scrap booking store with the same name. The store remains in business to this very day and scrap booking remains a very popular hobby in the USA and Australia. The Paper Arts festival featured scrap booking amongst a wide array of other paper arts such as stencilling, stamping, paper tole, punch art, decoupage, quilling, calligraphy, parchment craft and papercasting. And of course scrap booking remains a popular feature of today’s Papercraft Festival shows with numerous exhibitors selling related equipment and supplies and various workshops on scrap booking prove to be very popular as well.
The Paper Arts Festival also catered to the wholesale and retail sections of the paper crafts market by putting on an event specifically for such businesses in the industry to trade. The very first trade show associated with the Paper Arts Festival was held in November of that same year. Now known as the “Papercrafts Festival Trade Expo” it was back then called the “Paper Arts Festival Trade Night” and it was held during the second Paper Arts Festival, this time in Sydney – at the Exhibition Centre in the Sydney Showgrounds at Homebush Bay. During the early 2000’s, the popularity of the internet was on the rise and digital cameras and home computers were also becoming more accessible to the general public. These factors resulted in technology becoming integrated with many paper crafts such as scrap booking and card-making. The subsequent Paper Arts Festivals reflected such trends and the number of visitors to the shows increased along with the fun factor, excitement and educational elements to the show. The latest technologies were on display such as computer programs for scrap booking and photo manipulation. A “Technology and Craft” stand was set up as a continuous interactive work station where visitors could view demonstrations as well as try for themselves the latest techniques made easier to do by the aid of computers. Each visitor was given an entry form to a competition which was drawn daily and of which the prize was a copy of Scrapbook Factory Deluxe, a packet of Celcast Photo Gloss Paper and Lexmark Printer. Competitions remain a strong feature of the Paper crafts Festival today and as with all the past shows, each visitor receives an entry into a daily draw where multiple prizes are drawn and one major lucky door prize is drawn on the third and last day of the show. The most recent winner was Margaret Fecht of Camden and she was the lucky recipient of a ‘craft workstation’ furniture set, a clever Australian design by Kangaroo Kabinets and generously donated by Horn Furniture Australia.
By 2004, Australian Paper Arts magazine became Australian Paper Crafts magazine and the Paper Arts Festival underwent a similar and simultaneous name change to become the show that has the same name today - the Paper Crafts Festival. As always there were two Paper Crafts Festival shows held in the year, one in Brisbane in March and again in November in Sydney. As the number of Exhibitor stands increased along with visitor numbers, the show moved to a larger venue in Sydney, going to the Exhibition Pavilion at Sydney’s Penrith Panthers World of Entertainment.
(Previous logo for the first Paper Crafts Festival held in Brisbane)
The inaugural Paper Arts Festival was held in early March and the show was very well received and warmly welcomed by the enthusiastic crafters of the sunshine state. It was the first festival of its kind as it was a show specifically targeting and catering to the paper crafts segment of the crafts market. Activities such as stamping and especially scrap booking were really beginning to take off in Australia, following a trend that had began in 1980’s in the USA and had grown exponentially since.
1981 is the oft cited year that modern scrap booking began and was started by Marielen Christensen of Utah in North America. Marielen shared her fifty volumes of what she called her “family memory books” by putting them on display at the ‘World Conference on Records’ in Utah and also published a how-to book on scrap booking called Keeping Memories Alive. The book was so successful that she and her husband shortly afterwards opened a scrap booking store with the same name. The store remains in business to this very day and scrap booking remains a very popular hobby in the USA and Australia. The Paper Arts festival featured scrap booking amongst a wide array of other paper arts such as stencilling, stamping, paper tole, punch art, decoupage, quilling, calligraphy, parchment craft and papercasting. And of course scrap booking remains a popular feature of today’s Papercraft Festival shows with numerous exhibitors selling related equipment and supplies and various workshops on scrap booking prove to be very popular as well.
The Paper Arts Festival also catered to the wholesale and retail sections of the paper crafts market by putting on an event specifically for such businesses in the industry to trade. The very first trade show associated with the Paper Arts Festival was held in November of that same year. Now known as the “Papercrafts Festival Trade Expo” it was back then called the “Paper Arts Festival Trade Night” and it was held during the second Paper Arts Festival, this time in Sydney – at the Exhibition Centre in the Sydney Showgrounds at Homebush Bay. During the early 2000’s, the popularity of the internet was on the rise and digital cameras and home computers were also becoming more accessible to the general public. These factors resulted in technology becoming integrated with many paper crafts such as scrap booking and card-making. The subsequent Paper Arts Festivals reflected such trends and the number of visitors to the shows increased along with the fun factor, excitement and educational elements to the show. The latest technologies were on display such as computer programs for scrap booking and photo manipulation. A “Technology and Craft” stand was set up as a continuous interactive work station where visitors could view demonstrations as well as try for themselves the latest techniques made easier to do by the aid of computers. Each visitor was given an entry form to a competition which was drawn daily and of which the prize was a copy of Scrapbook Factory Deluxe, a packet of Celcast Photo Gloss Paper and Lexmark Printer. Competitions remain a strong feature of the Paper crafts Festival today and as with all the past shows, each visitor receives an entry into a daily draw where multiple prizes are drawn and one major lucky door prize is drawn on the third and last day of the show. The most recent winner was Margaret Fecht of Camden and she was the lucky recipient of a ‘craft workstation’ furniture set, a clever Australian design by Kangaroo Kabinets and generously donated by Horn Furniture Australia.
By 2004, Australian Paper Arts magazine became Australian Paper Crafts magazine and the Paper Arts Festival underwent a similar and simultaneous name change to become the show that has the same name today - the Paper Crafts Festival. As always there were two Paper Crafts Festival shows held in the year, one in Brisbane in March and again in November in Sydney. As the number of Exhibitor stands increased along with visitor numbers, the show moved to a larger venue in Sydney, going to the Exhibition Pavilion at Sydney’s Penrith Panthers World of Entertainment.
