Dear Photograph,

I stood here on the hotel steps on a house hunting trip to Cheyenne in April 2000, wishing like anything that I could live in one of these beautiful historic old houses (but knowing the two year waiting list made that impossible). I never could have imagined that 12 years later, my home would be the house with the side porch peeking out from behind the cottonwood trees on the most beautiful circle imaginable. Even though it's only temporary until the Air Force sends us somewhere else, I am grateful.

Thank you,

Elizabeth

Happy National Photography Month! Read about Ella's Dear Photograph challenge and join in by linking up your Dear Photograph post here.

In case you haven't heard, May is NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY MONTH, and we're celebrating with photography ideas and fun all month long here in our blog, in our eZine, and even with the release of a new book from Rebecca Cooper, Real.Life.Photography.

And on that note, I have found the coolest photography site ever! And I just had to share it with you. It's called Dear Photograph.

The Concept
The idea behind Dear Photograph is simple: hold up a photo from the past in front of the place where it was originally shot, then take a picture of the picture, adding a dedication about what the photograph means to you. The results, however, are astounding. By turns nostalgic, charming, and poignant, Dear Photograph is a stunning visual compilation that evokes childhood memories, laments difficult losses, and above all, celebrates the universal nature of love.

If the concept looks familiar, it seems to have inspired a popular television ad for Chevrolet, as was pointed out in an article from AdWeek.

 

About the creator of Dear Photograph:
Taylor Jones, at just 22 years of age, was inspired to start his website Dear Photograph as he flipped through old family photos at his parents' kitchen table. When he came across an image of his brother sitting at that very same table, he lifted it up and snapped a picture of the picture. In a moment, the idea for DearPhotograph.com was born. After taking more photographs, Jones posted them on a website and asked people to submit their own renditions -- but he had no idea how overwhelming of a response he would get. In just six short weeks, millions of people had visited, hundreds had submitted, and Jones had created an internet phenomenon that captured the world's attention.

Are you in?

To play along, post your own, Dear Photograph, on your blog or any hosting service (Flickr, etc.) then link it back to this post.

We are *hosting the challenge here on our blog until the end of May. And check back because we will be posting our own Dear Photographs throughout the rest of the month from members of the Ella Publishing staff and the Ella Friends team.

*All participants will be entered into a random drawing to win a copy of the book, Dear Photograph, and some other surprise goodies, too.

Oh, and you can listen to an interview with the author here.

Good morning, everyone! It's time to pull out your cameras and keep them handy all day for this special Saturday edition of the Take Twelve photography challenge! Do you have a lazy day planned? Is it full of errands or fun or a little bit of both? We're looking at a crazy day filled with work, gymnastics, birthday parties, and hopefully a little time to squeeze in some laundry. (You know it's busy at my house this month when I am hoping for some laundry time.) Whether you have a wild ride or an ordinary routine ahead of you, have fun capturing it all today.
 

We love to see what you're sharing in the Take Twelve Flickr group pool! Check out Aly Dosdall's great photo collage from Aprill:

Can you spot Aly in the blue cardigan? Have you made an appearance in your own Take Twelve photos yet? No? Get on it. Ahem.
 

We've featured a page by Take Twelve Flickr group user MajiclnOz before, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to share this page that followed along with April's theme of technology:

What a nifty look it adds to round the photo corners in this way...
 

And how much fun is this Easter-y page by Kathleen Ducharme?

A whole lot of fun, that's how much. It's also a great reminder that you can interpret your twelve photos however you'd like: a photojournalist's approach to the day or a feature photographer's editorial approach to Peeps (or whatever else). Your choice—we love to see it all!

Be sure to regularly check out the Take Twelve Flickr group for inspiration, and if you haven't purchased a copy of the Take Twelve Guided Inspiration Kit you might want to consider that, too—it's filled with ideas and checklists and sketches and more to make the 12th of the month even more fun.
 

This month our prize comes hot off the presses: two lucky winners will receive a brand-new print edition of Everyday Storyteller, a new book from Jennifer Wilson/Create More Media with a slate of amazing contributors. I already have a copy and I can say it's an excellent resource full of beautiful pages and reminders about why we scrapbook.

We've been so busy with Spring Training (which was SO fun!) and our upcoming eBooks (need some extra photography help anyone? Stay tuned for a fun annoucement later this month!) that we may have neglected to tell you about our FIVE newest episodes of Books & Crafts!

Yesterday, we released our 6th and final episode from season 3. And we're busy working on our 12 awesome installments for season 4. We have more ideas than we'll ever be able to film, but we'll give it the old college try anyway.

Our newest episode, Stamping Secrets, includes a special $2 coupon if you listen closely...
 

And here's another favorite from season 3, Glass Plate Collage inspired by the book Crafting a Meaningful Home:
 

To watch the rest of these fun, quick and simple videos (which include plenty of great ideas for Mother's Day, which is coming up this weekend), just click here.

We're pleased to direct your attention to a new eBook (with print copy option as well) brought to you by Ella Friend Jennifer Wilson! She had a brilliant idea, and we love supporting scrapbookers who turn their ideas into reality, especially when they're on our team of contributors. This fun new title was released this past Saturday in honor of National Scrapbooking Day

Jennifer has put together a fabulous group of 33 scrapbookers (some truly BIG names included!), who each share real-life scrapbooking solutions in 33 articles contained in the 81-page eBook. And one of those contributors is yours truly, along with Ella Friends Katrina Kennedy and Jennifer Wilson. In my exclusive article, I share a peek into my journaling and journal-keeping process that I hope will inspire you to pick up paper and pen more often.

It's beautifully designed and full of rich, inspiring content. Watch the trailer below then head on over to Everyday Storyteller to grab a copy for yourself!

Here are the contributors:

Cheryl Ashcraft
Anna Aspnes
Katie Clemons
Elise Blaha Cripe
Paula Gilarde
Sara Gleason
Michelle Hernandez
Debbie Hodge
Katrina Kennedy
Amy Kingsford
Cindy Liebel
Crystal Livesay
Angie Lucas
Robyn Meierotto
CD Muckosky
Nancy Nally
Christine Newman
Ashli Oliver
Amanda Padgett
Renee Pearson
Elle Price
Heather Prins
Traci Reed
Lauren Reid
Amber Ries
Kristin Rutten
Betsy Sammarco
Jenn Smith-Sloane
Jessica Sprague
Melissa Stinson
Amy Tan
Tiffany Tillman
Jennifer Wilson

I'm sure there are some names on this list that you've heard of and others that you haven't, but all are definitely worth getting to know!

Happy Monday, everyone.

Well, folks, today is the last day of NEW content for Spring Training 2012. But our Craft-letes still have a week to finish up each daily challenge and upload them to our exclusive gallery for a chance to win one of 13 prizes (over $1,000 of prizes in all!) Then it will be "graduation" time for our Craft-letes.

In the meantime, we hope you'll check out these awesome events for interNational Scrapbooking Day, which is Tomorrow! Our Spring Training Craftletes are surely in top scrapbooking shape by now, and ready to tackle a marathon OR a sprint of crafting creativity.

Here are a few things to do tomorrow:

In Celebration of interNational Scrapbook Day

Big Picture Classes and Creating Keepsakes Magazine are teaming up to bring you our 2nd annual, fun-filled Creative Crop for National Scrapbook Day! The online event will kick-off Saturday, May 5th at 9am PST. You can look forward to 12 jam-packed hours offering creative challenges every hour, live chats with industry professionals, amazing giveaways, and constant inspiration and interaction!

The best part? It's all FREE! Sign up HERE.

If you know of anything else, feel free to add it in the comments!

If you have been to the craftnasium today you know that our creative coach, Nichol, is suggesting we tamper with what might otherwise be seen as perfection! And, why not? Seasoned scrapbookers are very likely to have drawers, cute little pails, and even metal strainers (wink to Wendy on that one!) full of embellishments but we all know that sometimes even with an embarrassment of embellies, we still cannot find just what it is we are looking for.

That is where today's video challenge comes in...if you do not have the embellishment you are looking for then alter, adjust, colour and play to your heart's content and change what you have into what you need! I used 'blank' embellishments but you can just as easily use embellishments that are patterned and you can change or alter the patterns any way you like! Now, let's get started.

The letters on this layout started out as bare chipboard. I ran them through my humble Cuttlebug with an impression plate (oh, how I love my Cuttlebug) and then I sprayed them with Mr. Huey's Shine. In case you are unaware, if you spray buck naked chipboard with Mr. Huey's Shine, you are left with the most lovely, muted, pewter-y, silver colour. I know. It really is that good.

I have a little secret. I am a misting virgin. Yes, I have seen it being done on many layouts. I have noticed the pretty bottles lined up on the shelves at my local scrapbook store. I have even BOUGHT some bottles of the glorious stuff...but have I used it? No. I guess I had some jitters about the whole thing. I was worried about wasting the mists, ruining my paper, and just generally making a mess of things.

Enter Ella Publishing's Spring Training Coach Nichol Magouirk! In just a short 12 minutes, she had me inspired and encouraged to give misting a try. I loved her fun video and how she showed me just how to use masks to created beautiful effects with my glimmer mists. I had never thought of creating my OWN masks, and I immediately went to work cutting out a mask on my Silhouette craft cutter on vinyl. I was going to DO this!!

I decided on a beautiful lace background shape from the Silhouette Store, and cut two pieces out of adhesive vinyl. While I was waiting for the intricate pattern to cut, I pulled together my papers and embellishments and planned out my page. I loved the idea of using a die cut shape as a mask to use with my mists. I hadn't thought of that, and it opened up a HUGE world of possibilities! If you are like me, you have a lot of die cut shapes, punches, etc to make quick work out of creating custom masks. Besides that, it felt a little "naughty" spraying mists all over my paper! I loved it! Here is what I came up with:

Click image for larger view

Am I a misting pro, now? I’d say ‘no’, but (and here is the important thing) I can’t WAIT to try it again! I will definitely be getting out my mists for my next project. Thanks, Nichol!

Supplies: Tattered Angels “Peppermint Stick” Spray Mist, Becky Higgins Project Life 'Clementine' patterned paper, Silhouette shape “Grandma’s tablecloth background”, and various ribbons and bling from my stash.

Interested in Spring Training? Learn more about this live event here. Yes, you can still register.

Already registered? Click here to visit the exclusive Craftnasium. (Must be logged in to your Ella user account for the link to work.)

Spring Training participants get the chance to win great prizes from 13 crafty companies, including today's spotlighted sponsor:

Hello there!  Today I get to share what I have been doing with this fabulous Spring Training!  Are you feeling a bit more fit in your techniques, ideas and overall paper crafting?  I am!  LOVE IT!  

So many of you who know me, know I am a card maker first, scrapper second.  So it really never occurs to me to take a layout of mine and use it to inspire a card.   It is a total, DUH moment for me for sure.  After watching Lisa's fabulous video, I was totally inspired to do this.  So here is my inspiration layout:

I chose to take the layout and make a sketch out of it.  So here is my card:

This came together so fast and easy.   It probably took me less than 10 minutes to complete this card as I already had the design "guts" to get me started.  So fun!  I loved this and I hope you have been inspired by this as well.  Have an amazing day!

Interested in Spring Training? Learn more about this live event here. Yes, you can still register.

Already registered? Click here to visit the exclusive Craftnasium. (Must be logged in to your Ella user account for the link to work.)

Spring Training participants get the chance to win great prizes from 13 crafty companies, including today's spotlighted sponsor:

Coordinating patterned papers can be tricky, but Lisa Dickinson's three techniques make it stress-free. In the past I would match up papers just based on what I thought went well together, if I did that step at all. More often, I would use a coordinating line or a kit, where the matching has been done for me!


For this layout I matched five patterned papers from five different lines using color as my inspiration. I started to gather papers that had a common robin's egg blue, but also found many that shared a similar washed-out yellow as well. I choose embellishments in warm neutral tones as well as some that coordinated with the color scheme of my patterned papers. 





I love the patchwork look of using lots of patterned papers together and enjoy that I now have three specific techniques that can help me combine patterns more effectively. In the selections for this project, I also used Lisa's tip to combine patterns of different styles - from geometric to organic (and everything in between). I find this adds a lot of interest versus using all florals, for example. 




texas by Jennifer S. Wilson. Sketch: Simple Scrapper Premium Membership. Papers: October Afternoon Boarding Pass New York, Basic Grey Wander Embark, Making Memories Panorama Ledger Palm Tree, Studio Calico Roundabout, Cosmo Cricket Odds and Ends Eclectic. Letter Stickers: American Crafts. Embellishments: October Afternoon Farmhouse butterfly and word tag, American Crafts Chap badge, The Girls Paperie clock, Studio Calico sticky note. Paper Tape: Bella Blvd.

Interested in Spring Training? Learn more about this live event here. Yes, you can still register.

Already registered? Click here to visit the exclusive Craftnasium. (Must be logged in to your Ella user account for the link to work.)

Spring Training participants get the chance to win great prizes from 13 crafty companies, including today's spotlighted sponsor: