New software products make craft projects easier

Whether it's scrapbooking or needlework, craft projects usually involve the use of your hands.

But crafts have entered the 21st century along with the rest of us, and they increasingly involve the use of a computer mouse.

New products on exhibit at this year's Hobby Industry Convention in Dallas included computer inventory software for crafters of all kinds; scrapbook page layout programs and CD-ROMs containing vintage images to print on various media.

Laura Stradling of Kent, Wash., started producing crafters' inventory software after years of frustration in her own cross-stitching projects.

"I personally probably have five generations of charts and books" containing needlework patterns, she said. "When I wanted something, I was spending all my time looking for things."

Her first computer program was for needlework. Crafters can record their inventory from pre-set menus of threads and colors. There are spaces to record where a certain pattern is located, ideas for new projects and magazine page numbers for inspiration. Insurance companies accept the inventory reports for loss replacement values.

The "Organized Expressions" software now offers programs for quilting, sewing, knitting and crochet, rubber stamps and scrapbooking.

"It really just kept evolving because people kept saying, 'I want one for what I do,' " Stradling said. Each program sells for $29.95.

Scrapbookers with digital cameras will now have an easier time laying out their pages with software such as My Scrapbook 2, from Ulead Systems Inc. in Torrance, Calif.

Ulead Director of Marketing Michelle Gallina — an avid scrapbooker — suggested the idea because Ulead already produces photo editing software called Photo Express. Why not customize that program for scrapbooking?

"I wanted to bring my hobby to work because I'm absolutely addicted to it," she said. Gallina was also armed with statistics that impressed the company:

• Scrapbooking is a $3.8 billion market, according to the Hobby Industry Association.