Computer influences are also huge. A lot of crafts are combining traditional elements with digital ones. Not only digital scrapbooking, but also using computer software and templates to create designs for quilts, tote bags, jewelry, home decor items and more.

It's all very creative and very fun and leaves the field wide open for everyone.

Fun products

Almost every booth at the show offered something new. Here's a small sample:

• Stretchable Fabric Transfers from Avery Dennison. These iron-on transfers allow images to stretch with the fabric and provide a softer feel than other iron-ons. They are designed to work with any ink-jet printer and are ideal for use on T-shirts, sweatshirts, tank tops, bags and other accessories.

• Wallies, a division of The McCall Pattern Co. Wallies are easy-to-use, durable vinyl peel-and-stick designs that include chalkboard and dry-erase versions. They are removable and repositionable and can be used as message centers as well as centers of creativity. Chalkboard Wallies work with regular chalk; the dry-erase versions with any dry-erase products. Both the write-on and the regular Wallies come in a variety of fun images, from beach scenes to fantasy to houses, trees, airplanes and animals.

• Painters ColorCutters from Elmers. These combine a marker with a cutting blade, so you can create a perfect border as you cut. The paint is acid-free, permanent and non-toxic, and the blade uses X-Acto technology. They would be great for scrapbooking, card making, tag making and other paper crafts.

• Craft lamps by Ott-lite. These low-glare, low-heat, natural light lamps help reduce eyestrain caused by glare and distortion and facilitate the matching of colors in fabrics, threads, yarns, paints. New for 2008 are a three-in-one floor lamp that includes a magnifier and a pattern clip; a wide-area table lamp with a shade that tilts up and down and rotates almost 360 degrees and includes an electrical outlet on the back of the base; and a dual-flex table lamp with adjustable shade and flexible joint to allow one-hand positioning. They all come with tubes that last up to 10,000 hours.

• Marking pens in bright colors. Color Surge markers from Crayola are ultra-bright markers especially for kids and are meant to be used on special Color Surge paper, where they create bright, vivid images. Bright is also the word for Neon Painters from Elmers. They are filled with acrylic paint and are meant to be used on wood, pottery, ceramics, glass, metal, paper, plastic, fabrics and more.