Noteworthy | 12.9.2011

CHA might not be for seven more weeks, but manufacturers are not waiting for the show to release exciting new products and debut new lines. In fact, the current trend is to release product year-round instead now! I'm not complaining - I am enjoying a more steady stream of new products. This week, Noteworthy features three new product line announcements, as well as some creative ideas that took me by surprise.

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.