With the beautiful bold patterns and designs, many crafters struggle to figure out where to cut it or how to use Webster’s Pages patterned paper. They are beautiful and over the last few years have definitely been among my favorites, but their surprising new announcement has me excited, and I believe other scrapbookers will feel the same. Webster’s announced this week that they are creating something new – Clean & Simple papers will be “dedicated to a cleaner, simpler version of Webster’s Pages.”

And no, this isn’t a one-time deal. ALL of our new collections will have a corresponding Clean & Simple paper line, the perfect complement to Classic Webster’s. So instead of having 6 papers per collection…we’re now having 12 papers per collection {6 papers Classic Webster + 6 papers Clean & Simple}

I do not think it is only clean & simple style scrapbookers who will enjoy and appreciate this addition to their lines. This takes out a lot of the intimidation factor of Webster’s Pages’ papers, stretches the usefulness of their lines, and gives crafters more options. I look forward to seeing their new release (Sunday Picnic) which should arrive in stores in January, as well as how this new development adds to their future lines.

This looks like it would be a bit time consuming, but for the chevron lover, it could really be worth it for a fun and unique party decoration.  Aimee over at betsywhite.com shares her tutorial for how to make your own chevron streamers through a few simple steps. It looks like folding the streamers would be the time consuming part, but for shorter lengths, vertical hanging, and a truly cool way to make your crepe paper decorations stretch farther and be more exiting this would be a great budget-friendly project.

American Crafts is at it again, this time with a line extension for the popular Amy Tangerine line. The mini book has been quite popular – so much so that they are adding 4 new ones and calling them “daybooks” now. These books as well as the few embellishments that were also revealed yesterday all perfectly match the existing Amy Tangerine line. I have found this line to be incredibly well thought-out and useful for both travel and everyday scrapbooking, and for a wide variety of subjects. Having purchased and used quite a bit of it since it released, I am excited to see more coming out. American Crafts has these products in stock now and is shipping them to stores.

Dina Wakley posted on her blog this week about what to do when you make an ugly page. Having just shared about some recent crafty failures, this really spoke to me and I appreciated the reminders and how she approaches art journal pages gone wrong:

You learn artistic lessons from every page you do. How can you learn and grow as an artist without making mistakes? You can’t make amazing art every single time, that’s unrealistic. If anything, you learn what not to do again. Or you learn when to stop. Or you learn not to use certain colors together.

Her thoughts are inspiring and to the point, and it’s great to be reminded that ugly pages happen. Perhaps more importantly, that it is ok, and they are a part of the process.

A new partnership was announced this week – one that will have Jenni Bowlin fans very happy. On the JBS inspiration blog, it was announced that Jenni is now releasing punches with Fiskars. Featuring lever, squeeze, and border punches, these items will work beautifully and offer some unique designs. Jenni says the new line is a great fit with her existing partnerships and products:

“My goal has always been to stick with what I know best, and partner with great companies on what they know best.  And Fiskars knows punches!  This will round out our existing partnerships with Ranger for Inks and Paints and Coredinations for Cardstock.  Everything works together with the Jenni Bowlin Studio line for one cohesive look.”

The tab squeeze punch, grandma’s doily lever punch, and the jester border punch shown above are at the top of my wish list – though I would love to have any and all of these new punches! According to the blog post these can be expected to ship after the holidays.

A lot of crafters are participating in craft projects such as 12 Tags of Christmas, and there are a lot of interpretations out there. But by far the most inspiring and creative use of the Tim Holtz blog series I have seen is taking them 3D! Richele Christensen is taking the daily tags, and creating a configurations style box for each day. The results are stunning, and I look forward to seeing what she does for every tag. I really like the idea of taking the tag ideas and using them in other ways - and this is sure to be a project to treasure when finished. You can see this project in progress at Richele’s blog.

Noteworthy is a weekly column on Scrapbook Update. Have something new & noteworthy to share? If you have something you would like considered for next week’s column, email may@scrapbookupdate.com with a link or press release.

Want to stay up-to-date on all the latest scrapbook news?

This week I’m back to rounding up the best announcements, tutorials, and information in general, so let’s get December started:

Pink Paislee has begun their annual 12 days of Christmas series on thier blog, this year re-named “Winter Wonderland” to fit in with their winter themed Snow Day product line that is in stores now. It  promises to be as fun filled as ever:

 Each day we will post a new project from our creative team that includes step by step tips and tricks so you can create along with us; and we will also provide FREE printables and host daily blog giveaways so we can give out secret scrappy gift boxes filled to the brim!

The event takes place through December 12 on the Pink Paislee blog. With the free printables, prizes, not to mention tutorials for projects I am really looking forward to this.

Thousands check out the Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas posts, of course, but also worth watching is the Ranger blog, which promises a daily prize drawing for a box filled with holiday inspired Ranger products during Tim’s 12 tags event. Some of the Ranger staff will also be creating tags inspired by Tim’s daily tag and posting those as well.

American Crafts announced a brand new type of product this week called flutterbys.

Garlands are everywhere these days, from wedding receptions to scrapbooking layouts. We love their versatility, so here at American Crafts we’ve created a new product to make adding that festive touch oh-so-easy. Introducing Flutterbys — pre-made, paper mini-garlands in six fantastic designs!

American Crafts continues to announce new products and introduce lines on a more regular basis, getting away from the more traditional use of CHA to debut all new products. I am interested to see how sturdy and easy to use these tiny garlands are, as well as what will be unveiled by the American Crafts family of companies next month at CHA.

Jenni Bowlin has announced her first online class through JBS mercantile:

Your class fee includes the kit as well as a detailed instruction PDF download and video highlighting various techniques.  You will also get three bonus PDFs from Jenni highlighting some additional “house” themed crafts, a recipe for her favorite Christmas treat complete with packaging ideas, along with some of her favorite holiday decorating ideas.

The kit is available for sale at JBS Mercantile for $42.99, and the main mini-book project would be a great holiday project, or could be made into a more general “home” book.

Ali Edwards announced this week that she is a part of the 2012 Project Life creative team. The team page shows nine crafters, all of whom will be sharing their Project Life albums on a regular basis in 2012. For those who participate, this looks like a great resource for encouragement and inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration and Project Life – Colin Kartchner is back with a fifth episode of his “Crafting with Cleetus” video series on YouTube. This episode focuses on Project Life, and Becky Higgins selected the video as a winner for her 12 videos of Christmas series on her blog. More reader videos will be shared during December, though I doubt any others will feature pockets for beef jerkey in their Project Life binders!

Last but not least, www.designerdigitals.com has started their days of December promotion. With a new 99 cent item each day, and hundreds of items being marked down, it’s a digital and hybrid crafter’s wonderland. I always end up purchasing products to use on holiday cards, gift tags, and more.

Noteworthy is a weekly column on Scrapbook Update. Have something new & noteworthy to share? If you have something you would like considered for next week’s column, email may@scrapbookupdate.com with a link or press release.

Want to stay up-to-date on all the latest scrapbook news?

‘Tis the season for sales, and www.designerdigitals.com is having their amazing quarterly sale - all of their digital scrapbooking products are 30% off now through November 16th at 3am EST. Many digital and hybrid scrapbookers (myself included!) look forward to this quarterly sale and use it to stock up. With a wide variety of styles and products from beautiful brushes by Katie Pertiet to word art from Ali Edwards and page templates by Cathy Zielske, there’s something for everyone. Even if you’re not into digital scrapbooking, there are many products that can be printed out and utilized beautifully on paper projects as well.

Stacy Julian’s Photo Freedom episode on My Craft Channel was especially inspiring this week. Focused on telling your stories, and not scrapbooking to “catch up”, Stacy inspires with numerous stories and layouts of her own. All previous epsiodes of her show on My Craft Channel can be viewed here.

I love the concept of JBS Mercantile’s collaborative design team Christmas garland. It shows off all kinds of wonderful Jenni Bowlin products, while day by day revealing pieces that are wonderful on their own as well as a whole project. I have found myself inspired to do other paper crafting projects based on some of the ideas shown. I look forward to seeing what other designers will create, and what ideas will be shown. The banner pieces are being revealed on the JBS Mercantile blog.

Jen McGuire is up to her usual tricks (and tips) with a great video for Studio Calico utilizing one of their stamp sets in three unique ways. I really love how she makes the banners into a tree, a sun, and more. Three cards are shown, and it is a helpful video showing how to get more use out of a stamp set – in ways I wouldn’t have thought of. The video and images can be viewed on Studio Calico’s blog here.

Shimelle Laine is back with Journal your Christmas 2011, an online course that she has been teaching since 2004. Each day she encourages and inspires through uplifting prompts delivered via email. One of the great things about this class is that you can simply write and make notes, basically treat it like a journal project if you do not scrapbook or do not wish to scrapbook a lot of pages. Shimelle says about the class:

Journal your Christmas started from a personal journal I kept just for me, as I tired to rekindle the magic of Christmas in what had otherwise been a rather unglittery time. It worked. I found myself remembering exactly why I loved the holidays and how they could bring hope to the darkest of winters and I realised the magic of Christmas did not belong to children alone. Christmas can be magical at any age, no matter what the circumstances.

With Shimelle’s positive outlook and approachable style, I understand why so many are excited for this class to begin! To read more about the class or register visit Shimelle’s site here.

Cocoa Daisy is hosting a star-studded online crop this weekend on their site. You can view the information and line-up here on their blog. The crop will be November 11th – 13th, and this “craft fair” themed crop is to help celebrate being in business for five years. With guests like Ali Edwards and Amy Tan issuing challenges, not to mention several chats with amazing crafters including Julie Balzer, I am sure that this will be a great event. To attend you need to register for their message board, and then log in and enjoy. The weekend is filled with challenges, chats, and some classes from their design team as well – and it looks like a fun and inspiring time. View this blog post for the schedule and more information.

Finally, I have a couple pieces of great sale news to pass along! First, Maya Road is having a massive rub-on clearance for a limited time. Here is a link to their website with information.

Also, our resident sale shopping expert, editor Nancy Nally, is busy putting together Scrapbook Update’s Black Friday sales page. She has already discovered that the Cricut Imagine with two bonus cartridges will be on sale for just $187 at Walmart on Black Friday. For details on this, and more great deals as she discovers them, keep an eye on the 2011 Black Friday Scrapbook Sales listing as it is updated continually between now and Black Friday!

Noteworthy” is a weekly column on Scrapbook Update. Have something new & noteworthy to share? If you have something you would like considered for next week’s column, email may@scrapbookupdate.com with a link or press release.

Want to stay up-to-date on all the latest scrapbook news?

Let’s start with a company and their customers who have made a $60,000 donation possible! I’m talking about Stampin’ Up! and their recent donation to the BCRF (Breast Cancer Research Foundation) in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

A special Strength & Hope stamp set and Strength & Hope digital kit were designed specifically for the campaign, and contained inspirational messages and images. Both were promoted through Stampin’ Up! direct-sales representatives, also known as demonstrators.

BCRF is dedicated to preventing breast cancer and finding a cure in our lifetime by funding clinical and translational research worldwide. For more information about BCRF, visit www.bcrfcure.org.

It’s always so wonderful to see a company doing something to give back and working towards making a difference for a cause.

Big Picture Classes announced their 2012 line-up of 4-Expert Classes this week. Most notable for 2012 is that Big Picture will be featuring Scrapbooking’s first true celebrity designer Becky Higgins in her first ever online class.

We are celebrating 5 years of 4Experts at Big Picture Classes! We are thrilled to announce Becky Higgins, Heidi Swapp, Nic Howard and Stacy Julian as our expert line-up in 2012. We join you in anticipation of these four 12-week workshops, hosted in unique and custom classrooms, designed to provide the very best that BPC has to offer.

More information on each class, the dates they will run, and a video from each instructor can be found here. Registration opens approximately eight weeks prior to the start date of each class.

Speaking of new classes, Something Splendid announced their newest offering, the “My Thankful Journal” class:

We are so thrilled to announce the next splendid online workshop entitled “My Thankful Journal” starting November 10th!

What are you thankful for? What puts a smile on your face? How are you blessed?

This class will focus on creating a chipboard album, and there are options for both receiving a kit ($52 including shipping within USA/$58 international) or simply signing up for a ‘class ticket’ ($15) which will give you access to the class materials. More information and a promotional video can be found on the Something Splendid site.

Let’s take a moment and talk about new products! The Picadilly and Little Black dress lines from BasicGrey (including the coordinating Hero Arts stamps) hit shelves this week, which is very exciting indeed!!

Next, let’s look at the Red & Black line extension that just came out from Jenni Bowlin. This classic line never gets old – I love these new papers and can see myself adding them in and using them in addition to my existing JBS stash!

Finally, American Crafts mid-release line Chap is hitting store shelves! The colors are fantastic in this line – I plan to explore the possibilites of this line for some travel, outdoor, and other random pages.

Noteworthy is a weekly column here at Scrapbook Update. Have something new & noteworthy to share? If you have something you would like considered for next week’s column, email may@scrapbookupdate.com with a link or press release.

Check out the October Kit from Scrapbook Update, Autumn Sunlight!

Want to stay up-to-date on all the latest scrapbook news?

Jenni Bowlin’s signature vintage style was reflected in her booth decor – it was absolutely stuffed to the gills with her signature antiques!

The Red and Black collection has become a tradition for this company as they release an extension each year that incorporates new designs while at the same time staying true to (and coordinating with) the line’s original look and feel.

Isn’t the chunky font on these days of the week stamps wonderful?

These reproduction divided cigar boxes are a new item that Jenni Bowlin debuted at this show. There are so many possibilities here ranging from home decor to gift wrap…even storage (imagine that)!

Jenni’s Christmas line is full of traditional reds and greens with vintage holiday icons scattered throughout.

And the Jenni Bowlin Halloween line is also fabulous, with its vintage imagery and playful patterns.

Jenni Bowlin is also updating her signature product line with Ranger by adding three new colors to the ink pad and paint dabber line – Lavender Sachet, Weather Vane, and Speckled Egg – while retiring three others (Chicken Feed, Chili Powder, and Soap Powder).

These doily flowers really caught my eye as an example of some of the timeless and innovative embellishments that this company continually produces.

The ever-sophisticated Teresa Collins had three new collections at CHA Summer 2011. “World Traveler” is my favorite of the bunch – anything with a map print is sure to catch my eye, and it was a major trend at the show as well.

Teresa has some lovely brads and bling to match each of her lines at this show, as well.

And of course, Teresa Collins is known for her signature damask papers.

“Christmas Home” takes all the elements you’d expect from Teresa Collins – home decor icons such as chandeliers, rich damasks, and bits of bling – and combines them into a lush and lovely line.

I love the bling centers on these snowflakes!

Is that baker’s twine that I spy at the top of this trim card?

“Haunted Hallows” puts a spooky twist on Teresa Collins’ signature style.

Damasks are a huge trend for Halloween this year, and of course they are Teresa’s signature.

“Notations” was Teresa Collins’ mid-year release, bringing patters from her popular Notations mini album kit into a 12×12 format.

While no new Blingage was debuted at this show, it continues to be one of Teresa’s hottest items.

We’ll wind this tour down with a peek into the Cosmo Cricket booth. The veteran company brought two new lines to CHA Summer 2011, including their new Christmas release.

“Clementine” features a spring-y color palette not often seen at Summer CHA shows, but Cosmo seems to be on the same page as Pink Paislee (with their Nantucket debut) and Echo Park (with Victoria Garden) in introducing this type of line at a show normally dominated by Halloween and Christmas.

Cosmo Cricket has changed up the way they package their popular Doilies and Butterflies embellishments, electing to deliver them as a sheet of stickers instead of the package of die cuts shown at the Winter CHA show.

Cosmo Cricket went completely vintage with their “Dear Mr. Claus” holiday line, sticking to an almost exclusively red and green color mix accented with whites and blacks.

The third line in the Cosmo Cricket display was the mid-season “Odds and Ends” release that is already on store shelves. This line is also heavy on vintage icons and has been a popular line since its release.

Where will Scrapbook Update go next with our CHA Summer 2011 coverage? Even we’re not sure at this point, so stay tuned to find out!

Want to stay up-to-date on all the latest scrapbook news?