Day 4

Today Jennifer Larson is showcasing a photo planner by Per Annum. 

Jennifer says: "I didn't put photos in the planner, even though it's easy to do so; they would be old during the planner year. Instead, I created 5x7 monthly pages to introduce each section of the planner. I picked a simple formula that made it quick and easy to make monthly pages."

* 7 pieces doubled sided monochromatic patterned paper in various colors (for me, BoBunny and Doodlebug)
* 3-5 sheets border stickers (I used Doodlebug)
* Month stamps (in this case, Studio Calico)
* Die cuts (these were Doodlebug)
* Various latter stickers and jewels from your stash

"On the back of each page, I adhered a journaling spot on the outside of the page protector. I'm a sticky note gal who keeps goals lists regularly, so I thought it would be helpful to keep a monthly goal list in the planner, easy to find and keep focused on the goals!"

"The planner came with 5x7 photo paper for each month, so I now have that photo paper to play around with, and if I want to slide a photo in at any time, I can. I can also slide these months pages out and reuse them for next year's planner. This was a quick, easy, and cute project to make! Perfect for gift giving."

Thanks Jennifer! This planner is totally customizable and would make a fantastic gift. We'll pick one winner from today's comments who'll get one of these for FREE.

Comments close in 24 hours at 9:00MST on December 15

**UPDATE**
Today's winner is commenterstinkydudette. Congratulations!

Day 3

Today we are showcasing customized monogramed fabric labels created by Sweetwater Designs. Ella friend Donna Januzzi created the adorable project below.

"The inside of both of the books features a sketchbook. Gabe's book has slots for colored pencils and Nathan's book holds crayons. The pockets are customizable and so you could include any number of supplies on the non-notebook side, such as a watercolor set and brushes or charcoal pencils for someone who likes to draw. I can also see this idea being great for other crafters too, such as those who knit or crochet; you could put an instruction book on one side with the needles on the other.  With a monogram label, it makes a really nice personalized gift."

A few more products that caught our eye

See more products by Sweetwater here. And to see what they have been up to, visit their blog.

To enter leave a comment with your favorite holiday treat!

Comments close Tuesday, December 14, at 9:00 a.m. MST

**UPDATE**
Today's winner is commenter scrapyoga. Congratulations!

Welcome to Ella's first-ever 12 Days of Christmas! For the next, you guessed it, twelve days, the illustrious Ella Friends will be spotlighting one cool gift idea, holiday decor project, or other holiday must-have each day. AND we'll be giving away prizes and discounts each day, too. These are much better prizes than French hens and Lords-a-Leaping, we assure you. (Well, we suppose that depends on how attractive said Lords are...) Check back daily except Sundays for your chance to win!

Day 1 Scarlet Lime bead art Watch Kits

Today we are showcasing an awesome gift idea. Watchband bead kits from Scarlet Lime. They have the best selection of kits with the most colorful and unique mixture of beads. Jenni Hufford played with her kits and loved how they turned out.

"I had the wonderful opportunity to make a Watch Band with Scarlet Lime's Watch Bead kit.  I've had little experience with bead work, but to my surprise this kit was very easy to put together.  Scarlet Lime offers a wonderful step by step instructional video on their Website which was very helpful as I assembled the band.  I was able to complete the watch band in about 30 minutes.  The beads are beautiful, charming, and chunky!!  What I love most of all is that the bands are interchangeable with the watch face.  There are so many different kits to choose from, making this a truly versatile watch band that will match any outfit, season, or event.  It would be a wonderful activity for a girls night, gift for a friend, or a gift to yourself!!"

A few more watch kits that caught our eye

To see the large variety of kits available go here, and to see their other products go here and here.

GIVEAWAY:

Scarlet Lime is offering a lucky Ella reader $50.00 in bead art product. To enter leave a comment sharing your favorite watch kit.

Giveaway closes December 11 at 9:00 am MST

Winner will be contacted then posted here.

**UPDATE**

And the winner is, commenter #95, CraftyP. Congratulations!

At Ella Publishing we love to share creative and doable ideas. We came up with a memorable holiday wrapping formula that will be sure to save you time and allow your creativity to breakthrough.

paper + trim + topper + tag

you can interpret this formula anyway that works, use your scrapbook stash and get wrapping

Here is May Flaum's take

tissue paper + ribbon + trinket topper + monogrammed tag 

"One of my only rules when doing my own holiday gift wrapping is that I want a project that can be re-used again by the recipient. I try to make it so that it’s not one-time use, and I want to make it have some wow factor. To be one of the gifts a person can’t wait to dig into!

For my gift wrap project I was challenged to use tissue, a monogram tag, ribbon, and a trinket. That’s a lot of fun stuff! First I took a box (purchased at craft store) and wrapped it in a strip of torn tissue (using regular scrapbooking tape runner) and then tied a ribbon bow around it as well.

For the handle I used two (large) brads to secure a 1 ¼” strip of cardstock to either side. Then I stamped with an ivy design, and decorated the sides with leaves, and of course some jewelry trinkets!

For my monogram tag I used a scrap of patterned paper, a large letter, and some ink to bring out the design of the paper. I love monogram tags- especially at Christmas.

The trinkets you see are Making Memories jewelry pieces – I used some double sided tape wadded up to secure them, and it will easily come off once given so that the recipient (an avid jewelry maker) can use them!

I love how a few of my scrapbook supplies plus some tissue peeking out the top could create such a fun looking gift. Give it a try"

Want to get to know these talented ladies better? They organized a blog hop last Friday and our sharing more about themselves.

Monika Wright

Valerie Mangan

Check them out and say hello!

it is Wendy, kicking off another week of Ella goodness here on the Daily Trumpet. Here is a snippet of what is going on in the scrapbooking world.

Jessica is offereing a free class, sign up- you are sure to get something out of it.

Lots of holiday card ideas are popping up all over the web, like these two shown on the PaperCrafts magazine blog.

This kit club is doing a month long gratitude project on their blog, pretty cool idea.

and if you are interested in making an latered printers tray, Kerri Bradford has prepared a kit for one with a gratitude theme

Wow, what else is going on?

It is a teeny tiny pink elephant! Yes Ella is celebrating Angie's new baby. As I have been looking around for baby gifts that Ella should give Keira I have narrowed it down to these four choices. You get to help me choose one.

mini mobile

vinyl wall art

sweet collage

print

Which is your favorite?? Leave a comment sharing your choice by Friday- Ella needs your input!

mobile

vinyl

collage

print

Here is the states Halloween is in full swing with decorations everywhere and costumes being gathered for all sorts of parties. At my house we are doing a decorating project that should be pretty spooky and fun. (hopefully it will turn out)

The idea and instructions are shared here and here.

What Halloween decorating projects are you making or have you made that you love?

Last year I did an article for the Ella October ezine, using some Tim Coffey Halloween products and this year you can win a set of Halloween goodies to use on your pages.

Leave a comment below sharing what your favorite Halloween decoration is and one lucky person will be randomly selected to receive this goody box from EK Success.

Giveaway ends Thursday, October 21 at noon MST

(giveaway products may vary from images shown)

Isn't it fun that Ella has one for each?

For more...

read about the contributors

Girl

Boy

see sneaks

Girl

Boy

Which one do you want?

In the July issue of Scrapbook Ellaments (and also on our blog last month), we announced an amazing ongoing contest based on Eight is Enough: Easy ways to stretch supplies and use leftovers by April Foster and Studio Calico. If you don't have the eBook yet, first of all BUY IT HERE or check out Celeste Smith's article to see what this cool contest is all about.

Our September winner is...

Jennifer Alfonso!

(See August's winner by clicking here.)

Every month, as we select a new winner, we're pulling from our entire pool of entries. So if you submitted an entry already, you could still be chosen in future months! Jennifer's entry came in quite a while ago, but we loved her creative use of her supplies and had to share it with you.

Layout #1

"I used my scallop punch to create the banner. I lifted this idea from Maggie Holmes (on the Studio Calico DT). I also used the scallop punch to very carefully punch the red half circles that I placed between the banners. Then I hand doodled on the banner and around the layout."

 

 

Layout #3

"I hand cut patterned paper to create the borders on this layout. Then I used the rest of the pattern paper as the backdrop for the pictures."
 

 

Layout #4

"I used the leftover banners to create the flower in the bottom right hand corner. I lifted the idea off the Jenni Bowlin website. I also cut up a border sticker to create the journaling lines."

 

Jennifer's conclusion: "This was such a great challenge for me! I plan on doing this challenge several times to help me use my own scrap stash."

 

note: If the final layout in the series looks familiar, it's because it was also featured in a recent Liz's Loves spotlight here on The Daily Trumpet.

Jennifer has won Studio Calico's September Kit (pictured below) and a $15 gift certificate to Ella Publishing Co.

Your Turn

It's your turn! We hereby challenge you to come up with your own list of eight items from your stash of supplies and to stretch your list into four great layouts. (Absolutely no shopping allowed.) Make sure you include a mix of papers, accents, tools, and alphabets—whether stamps, die-cuts, or stickers. You can only use the items on your list, but cardstock, fonts, and standard tools (such as trimmers, journaling pens, or a sewing machine) are freebies.

When you’re done, e-mail us pictures of all four of your layouts, plus a picture of your eight original supplies, and an explanation of how you stretched them, and we’ll pick one winner each month through March 2011!  E-mail questions and entries to submissions@ellapublishing.com, with “Eight is Enough” in the subject line.