As we enter September the announcements and excitement is at fever pitch. Here at Scrapbook Update, Editor Nancy Nally has been busily restoring the site after a catastrophic server failure. While this week has been noteworthy around here for reasons we wish it wasn’t, the scrapbook industry is booming with wonderful things this week! Blogs are bursting with new inspiration as CHA released products hit shelves fast and furiously, new design teams are being formed, and so much more. Here are some of the most noteworthy items of the week:

Rhonna Farrer has been designing beautiful scrapbooking products for many years, and after House of 3 closed, I had hoped to see her branch out on her own. Over the summer she has offered some beautiful digital designs on her blog, and recently put out a call for design team members.

This week she announced her new creative team, and now her website has been re-designed and is open for business with digital designs perfect for digital or hybrid crafting. She announced the details of the new shop on her blog, and stressed that her goal is to uplift & inspire through digital designs and project inspiration.

Speaking of project inspiration, Hambly Studios posted a simple tutorial of how to use washi tapes to create custom banners. Finding a way to use multiple bits of the tape in such a different way is refreshing and I can’t believe I never thought of it! Expanding on their idea, I’m now inspired to punch or die cut shapes from paper that has been covered with tape. A second project using the technique was posted this week on Hambly’s blog on as well. I predict we’ll be seeing a lot of washi tape banners all around the internet!

This week Becky Higgins shared news and images of the new 2012 Project Life designs, Cobalt and Clementine. She shares many photos of the new product designs and promises that there is still a lot more to come. Last Friday she revealed the images of the new binders, and also announced that from now on the albums will be made by We R Memory Keepers.

They are absolutely a leader in binders and albums. And because they’re making our albums, this means you can expect nothing less than … the very best. I’ve been personally using We R binders for all of our family scrapbooks for nearly 10 years.

Higgins answers a lot about the new binders in her post, including the target date for availability late this year.

A new on-line event is coming the weekend of October 20-22. “Spawn of True Scrap” is now open for registration. The event features 17 instructors who each are bringing a new class (presented in video format), make ‘n takes, and more. The instructors include Jennifer McGuire, Nic Howard, Shimelle Laine, and many more – myself included. For more information or to register visit the Spawn of True Scrap site.

Die Cuts with a View announced that they are releasing a number of new paper pads through Michael’s. Don’t look for their name on the product though – it’s being released under Michael’s in-house brand name, Recollections. In the blog post, the company explained:

Basically, these stacks are designed & produced by us at DCWV and sold under Michael’s own private brand, Recollections. We were honored to be chosen to represent them in this way! To us, it means they love working with us as a company and they LOVE our designs What could be more flattering??

The first of the new paper designs are available now, with more designs coming in the next few weeks.

Finally this week, I will share some noteworthy new releases. Pink Paislee’s Nantucket and Phantom collections have been spotted on store shelves. Also in stores some of the new Doodlebug bakers twines and the bakers twine inspired “doodle twine” alphabet stickers that have been anxiously awaited by the Scrapbook Update staff and many others.

“Noteworthy” is a new regular weekly column at Scrapbook Update. Have something new & noteworthy to share? Feel free to leave a comment, or if you have something you would like considered for next week’s column, email may@scrapbookupdate.com with a link or press release.

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