National Scrapbook Day is coming up on Saturday, May 2nd! Scrapbook Update will be running a series of giveaways on Saturday in honor of NSD – visit the site, my Twitter feed, or my Facebook page throughout the day to take part! (If your company would like to donate prizes, it’s not too late to take part. Email scrapbookupdate@gmail.com for information.)

What is your scrapbook store or company planning on doing for National Scrapbook Day on Saturday? Post in the comments or email me at the address above and I’ll try to include as many responses as possible in the National Scrapbook Day events round-up that will be published on Friday on Scrapbook Update.

You can’t beat the convenience of punches for the job they do, especially for punching out circles and squares that are consistent in shape and size. But they can be difficult to use and they don’t store well, being oddly shaped and bulky.

Punches have undergone some design progress in the past decade. First there were the punches designed with a button on top that usually requires putting the heel of your palm on it and then pushing down with your shoulders to move the punch.

Then came the thumb punch design by EK Success that had a lever action. It was a vast improvement but still required a lot of effort (usually two thumbs stacked on the small lever, a painful method, in my experience) to use.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the bulk of bunches for storage. In fact, the improved use of thumb punches was somewhat offset by an awkward shape for storage.

Because of all this, over the years, I’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship with punches. Love the concept…hate the reality. I own about 40 of them (was shocked when I added that up for this article) but other than a very few like corner rounders, they don’t get used very often except maybe on cards occasionally.

That may be about to change. Thanks to EK Success’s latest re-design on their punches, I am in love now with the reality of punches, not just the concept.

The redesign of EK Success punches that I am so in love with was introduced at CHA-Winter 2009 and is being called the “slim line” design by EK. When the punch is not in use, it can be locked into a flat position for storage using a sliding button on the bottom of the tool. Sliding the button to the other position releases the spring-loaded lever upwards into the punching position. Below is a comparison of the old EK Success medium punch design alongside the new medium punch design:

I love this design for several reasons. First, punching is easier than even with the old style thumb punch. Also, if punching is too difficult for one handed use, the new design has a much wider & more comfortable lever to allow for placing two hands on it. And finally, the new design is nicely rectangular and slim for storage. The redesigned punches take about half the storage space of the old ones, and can be lined up vertically in the drawer for maximum usage of space.

The newly redesigned punches are now starting to ship to specialty stores although they have been in Michaels for several months under a special arrangement with EK Success. They are at both Scrapbook.com and Two Peas In A Bucket already (including the super-cool Medium Airplane punch pictured above that I can’t wait to use on some travel layouts from the CHA show). The one I am most coveting is the border edger punch called Binding Edge that makes your paper look like spiral notebook paper.

It’s great to see companies like EK Success thinking creatively and striving to improve their product lines with such great results.

Want to win one of the new slimline EK Success border punches? Scrapbook Update will be giving one away on National Scrapbook Day! Check back on Scrapbook Update on Saturday or watch my Twitter feed or Facebook page on Saturday for more details!

Today’s news briefs are both magazine-related, as a lot of scrapbooking news seems to be lately:

No Replacement for Melissa Inman at Scrapbooks Etc

Last week Melissa Inman announced that she was moving from her position at the top of Meredith Corp’s industry-leading publication Scrapbooks Etc. to a position heading up editorial content for the company at Parents.com. This of course raised the question of who would succeed her in the high-profile editorial position at Scrapbooks Etc, a very important position in the scrapbook industry and potentially the most sought-after position in the struggling world of scrapbook editorial.

According to a statement issued to Scrapbook Update by a representative of Scrapbooks Etc. and Meredith Corp., the company is reorganizing their Crafts Group publications. Melissa Inman will not be replaced as the Executive Editor of Scrapbooks Etc. Instead, Michelle Rubin (who held the title of Editor under Inman) will report directly to an Executive Editor who is responsible now for the entire Meredith Crafts Group, Jennifer Keltner.

Keltner provided a vote of confidence in Rubin’s taking on of her new responsibilities:

“As editor of Scrapbooks etc. for the past four years, Michelle has shown remarkable passion for scrapbooking, developed an outstanding reputation in the industry, and demonstrated a keen eye for delivering content that is both inspirational and attainable. I look forward to working with Michelle to grow the business and am excited to watch her expand the scope of her responsibilities to achieve even greater success across multiple platforms.”

For her part, Rubin hints that the changes at Scrapbooks Etc. aren’t finished yet. She says that, while her title and the staff working for her remain the same, “an exciting refresh of the magazine’s look—to deliver more of what scrapbookers want—is under way.”

Scrapbook Trends Offering Digital Issues

One of the biggest complaints about Scrapbook Trends is the cost of $14.95/issue. Northridge Media has just introduced a new way for readers to still enjoy Scrapbook Trends and the other beautiful Northridge publications (Cards, Simply Handmade, Bead Trends and their idea books) at a lower price by subscribing to digital versions for as little as $4.99/issue. There is also an option to subscribe to all of the Northridge publications and idea books for a $9.99/month subscription price.

Northridge is marketing the digital edition as environmentally friendly, and pointing out that it is printer-friendly for subscribers who like to archive their favorite ideas for later use. The issues also feature clickable navigation – readers can go directly to an article from the table of contents, or to an advertiser’s website from an ad. It also features a keyword search that includes supply lists for finding all projects created with certain products, etc.

Scrapbook magazine subscribers have always been notoriously resistant to the concept of digital publications in the past. But the significant price discount on a magazine that they already enjoy but can’t afford on a regular basis may be enough to overcome the built-in resistance to the digital format for some people.

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