After the CHA-Winter tradeshow, the Daylight company generously offered to send Wendy and I review models of two new lamps we saw at the show. I have to say that I have seen the light about one fact in particular: light quality does make a difference to my creativity, motivation, and color perception.

I had the Daylight Table Top lamp to test in my home. The light was even, natural, and it flooded a surprisingly large space. Wendy Smedley, Elizabeth Dillow, and I crowded into my family room last weekend during a girls-only sleepover, and we all had plenty of light (from just one lamp) to paint our canvases for an art project! (To see our finished projects, visit my blog sometime in the upcoming week.)


The lamp is off in this shot. We're relying on the uneven overhead lights, which cast strong shadows.


The limits of my photography skills aside, you can see how clear and natural the light is. What you can't see is how large an area it lights.


Here's another view, this time showing an optional magnifying attachment arm, which is covered by a white fabric cloth. I had everything out of the box, set up and working within 5 minutes.


Here's the optional magnifying arm. You can attach it or not; it's up to you.


And here's an image from the Daylight website that better shows the scale of the lamp.

I'm used to working underneath an old artists' lamp, circa 1986. (It looks exactly like the lamp in the Pixar logo that hops into place at the beginning of any Pixar film.) The light it casts is very yellow, and it gets so hot that I'm surprised I haven't caught on fire yet. So the difference was amazing! The Lucas household is hooked.

And as for the Smedley household, they're on board as well. Wendy was able to try out the Twist Portable Lamp, which is small and compact and easy to take to crops or move from room to room in your house. It would be great to take to a crop as well (as long as there's an available power outlet) to help combat the unpleasant fluorescent light at many crop venues.

This image, borrowed from the Daylight website, shows the lamp itself better than I could. (You can clearly see how you can angle the lamp to light up your workspace, and how it folds into a tube for easy transportation.) But I did take some illuminating photos of a layout Wendy recently created.


The lamp is off in this picture. But isn't the layout adorable, nonetheless? The journaling says, "I forget you are nine years old SOMETIMES. I know that seems silly, but after all, you do have four older brothers, and they are all teenagers. You know the newest lines from The Office and have a vast knowledge of popular music. I reguse to let you have your own email address or Facebook page until you are older, even though you ask regularly. I do try to do things with you that are age appropriate and sometimes it is just you, me, and dad heading to the park. For now I try to balance the big kid stuff with enough fun stuff for your age because I do not want you to grow up too fast."


Now we'll shed some nice, natural-looking light on the subject. The colors of the layout in this picture are far more true.

Are you convinced? Well, the Daylight Company is offering to give one of each lamp away to a lucky Ella reader! Just leave a comment letting us know what kind of light you use in your scrapbooking (recessed, chandelier, fluorescent, floor lamp, table-top lamp, etc.), and we'll pick two random winners to receive either the Daylight Twist Portable Lamp ($74.99) or the Daylight Table Top Lamp, with magnifier ($129.99). Let's hear it!

p.s. You can still comment on yesterday's giveaway until midnight, April 1! I'll announce winners for both contests on Monday.