This week, we've been in the studio filming six new episodes for season two of our Books & Crafts show for mycraftchannel.com. Here are a few sneak peeks of what we've been up to this week—and what you can expect from season two!

Our Desktop Flip Frame episode (featuring quotes and pages torn from books). Super cute, and inspired by a Heidi Swapp project from her "Create to Remember" show on My Craft Channel.

Who wouldn't love to make a pillowcase monster? Another episode filmed this week.

And we even had a fabulous guest, Kari Sweeten from U-createcrafts.com, who shared five great ideas for making decorated library totes.

All this and more! You'll be the first to know when our new episodes are live.

And we hope that one day you'll get to glimpse the blooper reel. We had the WORST laughing fit while trying to record the "outro" for our last episode of the week. It's that inappropriately timed laughter that just escalates the more you try to stifle it.

I stumbled over the word "Books & Crafts," accidentally saying "craps," and then we giggled and guffawed like we were in Junior High for a solid minute or two. The poor cameraman was patient with us while we tried four more times. "Okay, okay, I can do this..." I'd say while laughing through my tears, and then I'd compose myself and start again, "Thanks for joining us for this week's episode of Books & ..." and Wendy would bust up again. And again. And again. And it's all. on. film.

Yeah, January is half over, but that doesn't mean there isn't still time to get organized with an AWESOME 2012 customizable photo planner! 

You can win one of FOUR planners I'm giving away on my personal blog, angielucas.com.

Here's my customized cover for 2012:

And there are lots more pics where that came from. Click here to enter to win!

Just a quick note to let you know that we have three fun items on sale this month!

Save $2 on 8 is Enough
Keep your page simple by limiting yourself to just 8 products. These 8 designers show you how to stretch those supplies with gorgeous results.

Save $2 on 31 Thank You Cards
What better way to say "thanks" than with a beautiful, handmade thank-you card, brought to you by card-making superstars Kristina Werner, Kimber McGray, and Heather Nichols

Save $2 on Double-Page Design
With the Take Twelve challenge going on, this eBook has lots of tips and ideas for designing gorgeous two-page spreads—including at least three awesome ideas for 12-photo layouts!

And with that, I'll leave you with an inspiring quote from Martin Luther King, Jr., on this holiday:

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."

Don't you just love that?

As you'll read on our Take Twelve page, this photography challenge (and well, it's a scrapbooking challenge, too) encourages scrapbookers worldwide to take 12 photos featuring their everyday life on the 12th of every month, for 12 months, during the year 2012.

But what if you didn't even find out about this challenge until January 13th? (Or March 22nd for that matter.) Does that mean you can't join in the challenge? NO.

There are LOTS of ways to participate, even after January 12th has come and gone! Here are a few.

1. Fake it for January
For the month of January, take your first 12 photos on the 13th or 15th or even 27th of the month. You don't have to tell anyone! (And we won't tell either...) Then make sure you join our email list, so you'll get a reminder to take your photos on the 12th of the month every other month this year.

2. Start Any Month You'd Like
You don't HAVE to start the Take Twelve photography challenge in January. You can go from February to February, or June to June. It would be extra fun to start on your birthday month or your anniversary month, and do the Take Twelve challenge for one year from that date.

3. Focus on 12 Photos From Your Whole Month
You can also do the Take Twelve challenge in hindsight and focus on highlights from the whole month. In other words, at the end of each month, look back through your photos, choose your 12 favorites, and make a page. The Take Twelve Guided Inspiration Kit and Take Twelve Templates will still help you scrapbook your 12 photos in style, no matter what day you took them.

See, it's flexible! You can make this project your own. We even heard from one Take Twelver who is asking her family members from across the country to each email her a few photos taken on the twelfth, and then she's turning all the photos into a collective family scrapbook page. FABULOUS idea!
 

Because I love my fellow procrastinators, I'll even offer you a coupon code for the kit and the templates, which will expire on January 31. Use the code PROCRASTINATOR to save 10 percent on either the kits or the templates (or both)!

$20.12 Peek inside before you buy!

$12.12 Just $1 per template! Peek inside before you buy!

Here's a little peek at the 12 photos I took on January 12th, just waiting to be added to a scrapbook page. Seeing them all together makes me SO happy! (Especially that crazy photo of my dog, mid-jump.)

So, won't you join 700 other scrapbookers worldwide (and counting) and start your own Take Twelve project?

We had so many great entries that we definitely had a difficult job* this year selecting our 2012 Ella Friends.

But we're thrilled to unveil our "baker's dozen" of new Ella Friends, with the fabulous Elizabeth Dillow in our new "Ella Friends Ringleader" role. (We just can't resist the circus terminology around here.)

And without further ado, here they are...

Aren't they the CUTEST? Visit our Ella Team page to learn their names, read all about them, see one of their favorite layouts, and get links to their blogs, galleries, and more! We're excited to get to know them all better this coming year. So much talent all in one place. We get giddy even thinking about it!

And while we're at it, we have to offer our deep thanks to our 2011 Ella Friends, who have inspired us in countless ways this year. Thanks to:
Brenda Johnston
Diana Chen
Donna Jannuzzi
Francine Clouden
Jenni Hufford
Jennifer Larson
Keshet Shenkar
Lee Currie
Mary-Jo Johnston
May Flaum
Monika Wright
Valerie Mangan

I love this industry! So many great friends to meet. So many inspiring stories to read. Here's to another great year!

*In fact, we had such a hard time selecting, that we've also invited another 12 ladies to our new Take Twelve design team. You'll get to meet them later this week!

I don't know about you, but I'm REALLY excited to get started on the Take Twelve photography and scrapbooking challenge for 2012. And here are just a few of the reasons why:

1. I don't take as many pictures during the day as I'd like to, so I'm excited to have one dedicated day each month where I know I'll be toting my camera around all day.
2. 2012 will be a big year of change for my family. My stepson will be graduating from high school this summer (ack!), and my daughter will grow out of her baby stage and firmly into the toddler years—right before my eyes. And we're hoping/planning for other exciting changes, too.
3. With a baby, a teenager, and a business and household to manage, I often let the actual act of creating scrapbook pages fall by the wayside. Now I've committed to scrapbook 144 pictures this year!
4. I think I convinced my sister and two sisters-in-law (all very creative and crafty but not frequent scrapbookers) to join the challenge, too!

I've been so excited, in fact, that I "practiced" by taking twelve photos on December 12, which happened to be the day we bought and put up our Christmas tree. (It was our first live tree in years, and it was a pure delight—apart from the price tag, that is.)

Here are my 12 photos from December 12, all taken with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone:

I didn't intend for each photo to have a different filter/effect (I didn't realize the app was set to "shake" mode, which switches lenses and film for you randomly between pictures), but it turns out I really like them all as a group!

I haven't decided yet whether I'll take the bulk of my pictures with my "real" camera or my phone camera. I may just let the mood of the day guide me.

For my December pictures, I'm probably going to use one of the two templates below from the Take Twelve Template pack to assemble my page. Of the twelve in the pack, I chose these two because they both have exclusively square photos, to match my Hipstamatic pictures. Since this layout isn't actually going in my 2012 Take Twelve album (which will be 8.5 x 11 although I probably should go with 12 x 12 just because it fits the "12" theme so well!), there are truly no constraints as to size for my December page. Darn it! Sometimes constraints are just the thing you need to help you make decisions.

12 x 12 single page template

8.5 x 11 double page template

If you're not sure how to use templates, check out this step-by-step video that will truly make it a breeze!

So, the countdown is on. I hope you'll join us! Make sure you sign up for our email list, if you haven't already, so you'll get that email reminder on January 11th to encourage you to get out that camera and snap away.

Hi everyone! I've got a great idea for quick and inexpensive Christmas gift albums that you can make for anyone on your list—scrapbooker or not.

Here are three little albums I made for three family members this year—all in one evening! I used $1 brag books I found at my local big box store (just cheap 4 x 6 plastic photo sleeve albums), plus supplies I had on hand and the List It! Christmas Edition (digi plus) png files. The cool thing about the List It! products is that you can download the product once and then print it as many times as you want to make as many gift albums as you want.

I used the included List It! title page on the one side, with a quick page on the left side, featuring a photo of me with three of my siblings and Santa, circa 1984. BUT because I used the .png version of the files, I could colorize them a nice holiday red. (The printable version comes in neutral color palette.)

And guess what? Colorizing and customizing .png files is really quite simple. I even recorded a quick screencast last night to show you how it's done.

See how simple?

The idea with these albums is that my family members can just choose 12 favorite pictures from Christmas to slip into the photo sleeves next to the 12 prompted journaling lists I printed and included in each book. There are a few fun quizzes included in List It! Christmas, so I used a few of those as well. (Click image for a larger view.)

I will also include with the gift an instruction card giving my family members permission to use horizontal OR vertical pictures, just choose their 12 favorite Christmas pictures without regard to whether they "match" the topic of the list on the facing page, and use their own handwriting (no matter how they feel about their handwriting) for a truly meaninful keepsake for their kids. I'll also remind them that this one snapshot of Christmas memories does not constitute a requirement to do this every year. But if it sparks that desire in them, all the better!

I created my three albums assembly-line style to save even more time. So the interior contents of all three are identical. But I couldn't resist customize the covers differently.

The List It! Christmas Edition comes with several types of blank lists (blank title area, lines only, and completely blank inside). I printed a handful of blanks to include in the back cover of each album, in case anyone's not inspired by the particular lists I chose and wants to make up their own.

And, if you're signed up for the Ella email list, you'll be getting a nice coupon today that you can use on any one item between now and December 31.

I plan to give my albms a bit early, so my family can take advantage of that pre-Christmas anticipation that can be a real fuel for creativity and journaling.

Enjoy!

The Ella Friends have put together an exciting blog hop TODAY featuring handmade cards inspired by our eBook, 31 Thank You Cards: Express yourself beautifull with 138 tips, tricks, and tutorials.

Visit each of the blogs below, where you'll find a coupon code that will save you $2 off your purchase of 31 Thank You Cards, and find several chances to win a FREE copy of this fabulous eBook for yourself. Visit one and all for more chances to win!

Hope y'all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Did you hear the news about our Black Friday sale? Check our homepage or sign up for our email newsletter to make SURE you're in the know.

And in all your Thanksgiving/Black Friday shopping madness, did you by any chance buy anyone a book?

Well, here's a fun gift-giving idea that's perfect for the readers on your list! Personalize that book-related gift by including a handmade bookmark or two. We've got a bunch of easy and fun ideas in our latest episode of Books&Crafts.

Our book picks this week were:

And you can always find our book recommendations in our Books&Crafts Amazon store!

Happy shopping (and crafting)!

Angie

Did you see our brand new List It! product on sale this week? It's our Christmas List It!, which will help you capture all your favorite holiday memories using lists, quizzes, and shaped journaling cards (star, ornament, tree).
 

Ella Friend Valerie Mangan used a list to capture her must-see holiday movies on this festive layered layout.

And Ella deputy editor, Wendy Smedley, used one of the included quizzes to capture memories from a recent Christmas in mere minutes! There may have been no tiny tots with their eyes all aglow, and grandma stayed out of the way of the reindeer this year, but Wendy still had herself a merry little Christmas.

Me? I plan to use the Christmas List It! to create some little albums for my family members (shh! don't tell them!) so they can quickly fill-in-the-blanks, slip in some photos, and have a mini book of Christmas memories to look back on for years to come.
 

So, what are you waiting for?

Well, if you'd rather wait, you may be in luck. If you wait until Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, you could save up to 30%! We've got a new coupon code being offered each day from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. Make sure you're on our email list so you hear the news!
 

AND, all of our List It! Digi plus versions are on sale for $1 off through Monday. And yes you CAN use your Thanksgiving weekend coupons on sale items.

Get any of the following for just $8.99. (Regularly $9.99.) They include all the printable lists plus the PNG files too so you can colorize, resize, and generally do your digi thing with them.

List It! Christmas digi plus

List It! Everyday Life digi plus

List It! Childhood digi plus

List It! Holidays digi plus (includes a few Christmas lists but all those other holidays too!)