You're invited to a PAR-TAY!

On September 1, 2009 at 8:03 p.m. MST, ellapublishing.com made her official entrance into the world. This little bundle of joy began offering top-quality eBooks, a free monthly eZine, and tons (get it? TONS? She's an elephant?) of blogging and memory-keeping fun.

To celebrate, we're having a party here on The Daily Trumpet every single Monday in September. Stop by each week for your chance to win incredible prizes from Ella Publishing Co. and our birthday-party sponsors Shutterfly and Scrapbook.com. There are hundreds of dollars of great prizes up for grabs. Hope you can make it!

Is there anyone else out there who shares Ella's birthday? Speak up, birthday buddies!

** Psst! If you're on our mailing list, watch for a special email announcement to hit your inbox at exactly 8:03 p.m. MST tonight.

Hello all you Ella Fans out there! Would you like to become an official part of the Ella Publishing Co. family? We're now accepting applications for our second Ella Friends team! Part design team, part social-media ground crew, our Ella Friends team is an instrumental part of helping Ella spread the good news of scrapbooking far and wide.

We can't thank our group of inaugural Ella Friends enough for all they've done to help us through our first year in business. (Linda, Noel, Moon, Jodie, Monica, Tami, Katie, Katrina, and Barb, you've been the best!) Are you scrapper enough to follow in their footsteps?

(photo from Flickr Creative Commons, by epSos.de)

Answer our Ella Friend call! Here are the details...

What We're Looking For
Passionate scrapbookers who are active online, whether via blogs, online scrapbooking galleries, Facebook, Twitter, manufacturer design teams, and more.
Paper, hybrid, and digital scrapbookers. All creative types are welcome to apply!
Scrapbookers who offer a wide variety of styles, from simple to artsy
Scrapbookers from all over the world and from all walks of life
NOTE: Previous design-team experience not expected or required! We're looking to work with current influencers AND fresh new faces in the industry. This is not a popularity contest! And while we had nine Ella Friends last year, we are not limited to any specific number. We may choose eight, we may choose a dozen!

What You'll Do
Act as our marketing ground crew, helping us spread the Ella news via blogs, Facebook, Twitter, scrapbooking forums and galleries, and more!
Share ideas, insights, and anything else you'd like to share to help Ella grow and evolve.
Write articles, blog posts, and possibly even eBooks.
Support and participate in design challenges and product showcases on the Ella blog.
Offer feedback and guidance about Ella's upcoming editorial plans.

What You'll Get
Free advance copies of all new Ella eBooks.
Product packs from our sponsor manufacturers.
A profile on ellapublishing.com, with links back to your blog.
Opportunities to guest blog, write articles, and possibly even eBooks.
Opportunities to design pages and projects for articles, eBooks, blog posts, design challenges, and more.
Occasional "happy mail" from Angie and Wendy.

How to Enter
Send an email to submissions@ellapublishing.com with "Ella Friend Call" in the subject line by Monday, September 13, 2010. In that email, attach pictures of four layouts or projects that you feel illustrate your scrapbooking or paper-crafting style. And in the body of the email, please answer the following nine questions:

1. Why do you want to be an Ella Friend?
2. Why do you scrapbook and/or what are your scrapbooking goals?
3. What are your top three sources of scrapbooking inspiration? (Apart from Ella, of course!)
4. Where and how are you active online?
5. How many people are you able to reach with your online efforts? (Share number of Facebook or Twitter followers and/or blog traffic numbers.)
6. What design teams are you on now or in the past?
7. How would you describe your scrapbooking style or philosophy?
8. Please tell us where you live and with whom. (In other words, describe your family!) 
9. Give Ella one sincere compliment (insincere compliments are also welcome):

The new team will be announced on or around September 27, 2010.

As you may have noticed from the sudden infusion of PINK into our website, Ella's Essential Guide to Scrapbooking Girls is on sale now! (Don't worry, boy mamas, Ella's Essential Guide to Scrapbooking Boys goes on sale in September!)

To celebrate, we've decided to give some fun stuff away!

Leave us a comment telling us what kind of girl YOU are (girly girl, diva, tomboy, career woman, athlete, craft goddess, mama's girl, daddy's girl, fashionista, mama bear, etc.) and four random winners will win one of these amazing prizes:

A copy of Ella's Essential Guide to Scrapbooking Girls:

The "Perfectly Posh" collection from Imaginisce:

The "Flirty" collection from Bella Blvd:

The "Snugglebug" paper line from Little Yellow Bicycle:

You go, girls! (And by that I mean, comment.) I hope you win!

Every now and then, we like to take a moment to recap all the AMAZING and fun ways to keep up with Ella every day. (Keep reading for a chance to win Ella's complete library of eBooks and/or to get a $3 coupon!)

Here we are, Wendy and Angie, in a photo Designer Travis took for our newest eBook, Time to Scrapbook! 9 busy women share 27 tips for fitting it in, just $4.99. Do you have your copy yet?

Here's How to Keep Up With Ella:
(Elephants are notoriously slow. It's really not that hard.)

1. Sign up for our Free Newsletter. We're not pests, really. And you'll get to find out about all the new eBook releases (and the free eZine) right in your inbox. So convenient!

2. Join our Facebook Page. Just click on over and "Like" us and you'll get to hear in-the-moment news, deals, exclusive offers, and funny stuff. We like funny.

3. Follow us on Twitter. Yes, we have been known to tweet every now and then. (Everybody does it!)

4. Read our Blog. Okay, you're already doing that one. Check.

5. Check out our Free eZine. It's free. And it's an eZine. And it's full of fabulous ideas.

6. Shop for eBooks. So lovely, so affordable, so educational. And one of them is FREE.

Why these reminders, you ask? Because we've got a group of visitors joining us today from the U-CreateCrafts blog and Write.Click.Scrapbook. Welcome friends!

Regular readers, if you click over to the U-CreateCrafts blog and/or Write.Click.Scrapbook. and read the Ella spotlight posts, you'll discover the clue to a secret coupon code that's embedded somewhere in THIS post. Go there, read clue, come back here, find coupon code. It's that easy! And that coupon code will get you $3 off any eBook purchase (expires 8/27/2010). Who doesn't love a good scavenger hunt?!? (Also, we're giving away 10 eBooks on Write.Click.Scrapbook. today, and we're giving away our entire library of eBooks on the U-CreateCrafts blog! That's a total value of $77.87. So head on over to both blogs and comment.)

Well, that does it for us. Keep an eye out next week for our upcoming eBook release, Ella's Essential Guide to Scrapbooking Girls. If you're signed up for the newsletter, you'll find out FIRST.

Hugs and kisses!

~Angie and Wendy

Speaking of birthdays (thanks for that segue yesterday, Wendy!), Ella herself will be turning one in September. We can hardly believe our baby is almost 1 year old!

In honor of this incredible milestone, we'll be devoting our September issue of Scrapbook Ellaments to the all-important birthday theme. And we'd like a birthday-themed layout to grace our cover, too! Would you like to be our cover girl?

To enter, email a scan or a photograph of your layout to submissions@ellapublishing.com by Wednesday, August 18 with "September cover" in the subject line. The winning designer will mail the layout in to be photographed, be profiled on our website, and will win a free Ella eBook. Here's what we're looking for:

OTHER ONGOING CONTESTS!
Free eBooks and other goodies are up for grabs...

Use paint as a photo foundation, following Lisa Dickinson's creative lead, by August 12th (tomorrow!) Link up your layouts here.

Join the Inspiration Chain (make a layout inspired in any way by Katrina Simeck's layout) by August 15th! Link up your layouts here.

Make a layout from someone else's perspective, inspired by our July Liz's Loves! Due date: August 16th. Email layouts to submissions@ellapublishing.com, with "perspective" in the subject line.

Create four layouts with only eight supplies (as Celeste Smith did here) for a chance to win a monthly kit from Studio Calico kit club! One winner per month through March 2011 will win a kit from Studio Calico and eBooks from Ella! Email layouts to submissions@ellapublishing.com, with "Eight is Enough" in the subject line. We'll be awarding our first winner later this month!

 

LAST WEEK'S WINNER
The Scrapbooking from the Inside Out courage kit goes to commenter #42:

Courage means believing in yourself when others don't.
Posted by: LinaH on Thu, 08/05/2010 - 17:30

Congrats!

Thanks everyone for joining us for a fun-filled week last week! We had a blast and hope you did, too. We're busy compiling a complete list of all 100 winners' names to post here on the blog. Coming soon!

What else is happening this week? The Craft & Hobby Association summer tradeshow starts tomorrow in Chicago! We're sitting this one out (we're exhausted!), but we'll definitely be at the winter CHA in Anaheim, in just six short months. Still, we've got some fun CHA-related giveaways coming over the next month, since our own Wendy Smedley is so good at keeping up with the latest releases from afar.

CHA summer is an anniversary of sorts for Ella, too. It was last year at CHA Orlando that we started handing out business cards, offering a sneak peek of our website, and inviting people to sign up for our newsletter. We had 900 people signed up that very first day. And the number has decupled since then! (Decuple = x10).

Katie Scott generously hosted us in her time-share condo, and made us feel oh-so welcome.

We got to hang out with Ella friends Tami Morrison, Noel Culbertson, and Katie Scott, two of whom we had met for the very first time! Pictured below: Katie, me, Tami, and the talented Emilie Ahern (formerly of The Scrap Review)

Pictured below: Ashley Harris of The Scrap Review, Noel Culbertson, and Lain (formerly of Ella Publishing Co.)

We got to be panelists on the Paperclipping Newsbreak, which later turned into a recurring stint on the Paperclipping Roundtable. (Pictured below: Lain, Nancy Nally, Noell Hyman, me, Ana Cabrera)

We got to see the latest and greatest releases and visit our first CHA consumer show. And I clearly did not take enough pictures.

Ah, good times. Here's looking forward to more to come!

Stay tuned!

p.s. How about you? Are any of you heading to CHA? Do any of you WISH you were going?

Welcome to the Most Influential Scrapbooker Awards BLOG TOUR! If you're ready to have some fun, you've come to the right place. (If you'd rather not have fun, well, stick around anyway. Maybe the 100 prizes that are up for grabs will change your mind.)

Here's how it works:
Every day this week, two of the MISA nominees will be spotlighted here on The Daily Trumpet, and we'll link you directly to their blogs, where you can go and leave a comment for a chance to win one of the amazing prizes described yesterday. There will be ten winners on each spotlighted blog, each day. This means that if you visit every featured blog this week, you can enter a total of ten times. This also means that there will be 100 prizes given away to 100 winners in just five days!

And the fun starts right now, on this blog. Leave a comment right here on this post telling us another possible thing the initials "MISA" could stand for (other than "Most Influential Scrapbooker Awards"), and we'll award TEN randomly chosen commenters.  (examples: "Most Ignorant Surgeon Awards" or "Make It Stop Already" or "My In-laws Smell Awesome.") Can't think of one? Just second someone else's choice!


Today's Spotlight: Cathy Zielske

Cathy Zielske may have lost 33 awesome pounds in the last six months (way to go!), but that is not why she was nominated. She made the list because, after losing her job when Simple Scrapbooks closed last March, she chose to dive into the industry with both feet. She supercharged cathyzielske.typepad.com, developed awesome new classes at bigpicturescrapbooking.com (including the top-attended class ever for BPS), developed a series of popular digital templates for designerdigitals.com, became the eBook designer for ellapublishing.com, and was even featured on the Martha Stewart Living Radio blog. Read her complete profile here.

We asked three "in the know" scrapbookers who have been following her career to share a few thoughts about Cathy. Here's what they had to say:

"Cathy has inspired me to: stop obsessing about chronology and get caught up; include our everyday stories in my albums instead of focusing solely on events and holidays; design better pages through the use of common margins, focal points, and other useful design tricks; and not be afraid to use my real voice in telling my stories, both in my scrapbooks and on my blog. But none of that makes as much of an impression on me as this: she is first and foremost a great mom. I like that she has her priorities straight."
~Barb Wong, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

"I have had more 'a-ha!' moments reading Cathy's blog, participating in her online classes, and listening to her tutorials than probably all other teachers combined. She has a lovely way of making every project approachable and conveys to her audience that she has every confidence that they are perfectly capable of doing the same. The most important lesson I've learned is that you don't have to tell every story, but those you choose to tell should be real and authentic. You can never make a bad page if it is genuine, though she has many ideas to make it look good too!"
~Lee Currie, Oakville, Ontario, Canada

"I admire Cathy's ability to inspire others, whether it be to try digital scrapbooking or to grab your sneakers and start running, even when you think it's next to impossible. (That actually did happen, for me.) She is so real and so honest in everything she does, she makes you believe you can do it too. And that it's totally okay if it's not perfect. From Cathy, I've learned to relax. Keep it simple. Don't sweat the small stuff. Trying is better than not. In scrapbooking and for everyday life."
~Debbie Alvarado, Homer Glenn, Illinois



Now, head over to Cathy Zielske's blog today, where another ten prizes are being given away as we speak! (And she gets to tell you her criteria for picking her ten winners.)

*****

p.s. Don't forget to check out Time to Scrapbook! 9 busy women share 27 tricks for fitting it in, Ella's newest eBook, which features advice and layouts from all nine nominees.

GREAT GUESSES everyone. Not only did you mention tons of people we were also considering, you gave us some great ideas of people to pay attention to. And you reminded us how HARD the choices were!!! And we feel very gratified that every single one of the nominees was guessed by you guys at least once.

Make sure you click all around our special Most Influential Scrapbookers section, read the nominees' bios, find out the selection criteria, and see how YOU can nominate someone for our next award.

Feel like someone's missing from our list? Nominate her (or him) for next time! Also, read the Most Influential Scrapbooker Awards FAQs to learn about our mystery 10th nominee. We originally named 10, but one was unable to participate due to scheduling, so she wanted to wait and see if she gets nominated next year. (Oops! Gave it away! It's a girl!) And to keep things authentic, we decided not to pull in an alternate. Please, nominate anyone you feel is missing by clicking here!

And the winners from our three-day guessing game are:

MONDAY
rosarivero, goldnuggt, rebeccak

TUESDAY
Myra, buenvsh, bigredtx

WEDNESDAY
Cyn, buenvsh (hey we didn't say you couldn't win two days in a row!), julesspud

And did you see that the 9 nominees' new eBook is live??? (We never could show you the complete cover before today, because both Maggie and Margie are pictured.)



The secret is finally out. Whew.

We've got less than 24 hours to go until the BIG REVEAL!

You ladies are some good guessers. Eight of our nine nominees have been guessed at least once in the last couple of days. There's just one person who hasn't yet been named! Keep the guesses coming...

Here are today's hints:
Eight of our nominees have blogs, while one no longer does.
Six of our nominees have companies named after themselves.
Three of the nominees have companies that are not named after themselves.
One of our nominees earned the nickname "Penelope" at age 12.
At least three of our nominees are baffled by the "skinny jeans" trend.
Two of our nominees have never heard of reality-tv star (and tabloid princess) Kate Gosselin. (We just had to ask!)
Of the remaining seven nominees, three would like to see Ms. Gosselin get out of the limelight and stay home with those eight kids, while four think she's just misunderstood. (We should stage our own version of The View with the nine nominees, don't you think?)

Again, the FIRST THREE comments today that contain at least one correct guess (and NO incorrect guesses) will each be awarded a $10 gift certificate to ellapublishing.com. Yes, you can guess people who have been previously guessed. It's the first three correct guesses each day that win.

(Note: we won't be announcing this week's blog winners until after Thursday, when the full list of Most Influential Scrapbookers has been posted.)

Last week, we gave you a quick heads up about an exciting event happening here on our website this month! And for the next three days, as we lead up to the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT on Thursday of our nine Most Influential Scrapbookers, I'll be dropping little hints here on the blog.

And, over the next three days, we'll also award nine $10 gift certificates to ellapublishing.com! All you have to do is guess who you think was nominated by leaving a comment on this post.

The FIRST THREE comments each day that contain at least one correct guess (and NO incorrect guesses) will be awarded a gift certificate. So, guess as many times as you'd like, but be careful about including more than one person's name in each comment, because if one name is wrong, the whole comment doesn't count!  (Note: we won't be announcing this week's blog winenrs until after Thursday, when the full list of Most Influential Scrapbookers has been posted.)

Today's Hints
Only one of the nominees lives in Utah.
There are two nominees living in Arizona.
Two nominees live in East-Coast states and one lives in a West-Coast state.
Two nominees live in states bordering Canada and two live in a state bordering Mexico.
Five of the nominees lives in landlocked states.
One nominee lives outside of the United States.

p.s. Keep an eye out for our new eBook, to be released this Friday! It features hints, helps, and eye-candy from the nine Most Influential Scrapbookers of 2010.