I received this card from a friend, and I had to share it with you. Beautiful sentiments for a beautiful time of year. (Card by Kathy Davis Designs.)

From all of us here at Ella Publishing Co., may your holidays be merry and bright!

(Remaining winners from the 12 Days of Christmas contests announced Monday.)

Day 11

The holidays are all about family, right? So, today we've teamed up with Ancestry.com for today's awesome giveaway!

Don't know much about Ancestry.com?

Anyone can sign up for a Free Trial of an Ancestry.com US Deluxe Membership and start searching for ancestors. You'll be amazed at how much information you can find and how quickly. Ella Friend Keshet tried out the Ancestry.com Custom Family Tree Poster service, and we're going to give one away too!

Here are Keshet's thoughts:

"Working on this project meant so much to me. When I first started, I looked at the small family tree and figured 'this should be easy!' I quickly learned how much I didn’t know—the many family members who I didn’t even know a name for, and the many many more relatives I only had a name for, and no other information.

"In the process of researching to fill out the holes I found numerous family names that had been passed down through generations and then forgotten, and even learned that I’m related to a very famous rabbi in Jewish history!

"As I used my grandmother’s historical records to trace the family tree down to the present day, I was stunned by how many branches of the tree ended in the devastation of the Holocaust. It made me feel a greater responsibility to live up to my family’s legacy, especially because so few of us are left. 

"This project also made me proud to be a scrapbooker---to be leaving a history of myself for the generations after me. I plan to keep the poster and add to it by hand as I learn more information about my family."

Leave a comment sharing the oldest Ancestor's name that you know (even if it's just a great-grandfather), and we'll pick one random winner who will get to order a family-history tree poster of her own! (Note: Winner must complete and order poster by December 31, 2010.)

Comments close Thursday, December 23 at 10:00 a.m. MST

Bonus: here's one more offer from Ancestry.com for everyone!

Day 9
Ella friend Monika Wright got to use a digital kit created by two super talented digital designers Liz of Paislee Press and Danielle of Kitschy Digitals called Curated. One random winner from today's comments will win this kit--a $16 value.

(Comments close in 24 hours on December 21 at 10:00am MST)

About the Kit
This kit is an eclectic yet refined collection of Quick Pages that can be used to create individual scrapbook pages, or use the entire collection to create a cohesive and complete album that you'll cherish for years to come. It's the perfect blend of the minimalism and eccentricity that you've grown to love from Paislee Press and Kitschy Digitals. Who knew two totally different styles could come together to produce such a lovely collection!

Day 7

Today the giveaway is a for a spot in an upcoming Big Picture Class called Decorate Your Life. Ella friend Diana Chen will be in the class, and she is working on the pre-class project. Enter the giveaway by leaving a comment.

Comments close December 18 @ 9:00 am MST

From Diana
"This project and class are firsts for me. It's my first scrapbooking class online. I'm really excited about it. It's also a first for me as I have never done a mini album before (I've started a couple but never completed them), and certainly never something so crafty. I actually printed the circle template directly onto the patterned paper and cut that out and then stuck it to my white cardstock.

I searched high and low but couldn't find Christmas balls in a clear plastic tray. I will keep looking though, hopefully I'll find it so I can play along with this aspect of the class too. (If anyone wants to mail a clear plastic ornament tray to me in Jamaica let me know!)"

Teacher Darci Dowdle

Decorate your Life class description

After the holidays, it is customary to take down the decorations. Darci however, thinks the New Year is a perfect time to acknowledge the decorations that adorn our lives all year long: personalities, relationships and ordinary routines that add sparkle and shine to our everyday. Spend this January with Darci, packing away holiday decorations and getting out a different kind, as you gather products, paper and pictures to "decorate" 14 layouts documenting daily life. Darci has created a proven process, full of surprises, for gathering materials ahead of time and compiling simple, fun and meaningful layouts in just a few minutes each day. read more

**Update**

Winner is Sara Lara 

Is there enough of Wendy to go around?
You bet there is! We'd like to wish our own Wendy Smedley great success in a new opportunity that has come her way!

Here's the announcement. Wendy is still a partner, blog manager, deputy editor, and creative goddess here at Ella Publishing Co., and her involvement with Ella will remain unchanged. But now she's also sharing her talents with Stacy, Kayce, and the Big Picture family. We look forward to strengthening our relationship with Big Picture Classes through this move, and we wish Wendy much success in her additional role.

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 Two

Today's post comes to you courtesy of cardstore.com, home of beautiful, customizable holiday cards and photo cards. Cardstore.com is offering a little something for everyone: 20 percent off your first purchase when you use the code CSHOLIDAY20 by December 31, 2010! AND we also have one $25 giveaway to cardstore.com for one random commenter on today's post. (Comments close Monday, December 13, at 9:00 a.m. MST.)

I used this service to create my holiday cards this year, and I opted for the 7 x 5 double-sided postcard option. I love how it turned out!

CLICK IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEWS

Since 2006, we Lucases have been sending this exact sort of family update (a photo plus a written update that includes one tiny fact per month, see them here) to our friends and family. But in the past, we've custom designed the cards as either the 5 x 7 or 4 x 6 photo size and just ordered a bunch of standard prints from a photo developer. The process takes quite a bit of time. (I select photos, write the update, and start a very novice Photoshop design. Then my graphic-artist husband steps in and polishes the design, since my skills are minimal.) And it's been dificult to find envelopes to fit a 4 x 6 print adequately. Then, there's the whole laborious address labelling process.

This year, I completed the entire card myself using the gorgeous templates on cardstore.com. There are regular holiday cards available on the site, but I loved the postcard option that's customizable on both sides and even allows you to add photos to the back side! (And it's eco friendly as it saves on paper, compared to the folded-card style, and envelopes too.) Once I selected a design template I liked, I uploaded my photos in seconds, after converting two of my color photos to sepia tone so there wouldn't be such a jumble of competing colors on the card. (Note: My favorite trick for sepia photos can be found in Special Effects for Digital Photos by Renee Pearson, just $5.99.)

Here's an honest review of my experience.

What I Liked

• The options for card designs are versatile, modern, and gorgeous.
• You can easily browse by holiday (Christmas, Hannukah, New Year's), style (modern, traditional, whimsical, vintage) or number of photos you want to include.
• There are even pink holiday cards for breast cancer (40 percent of sales go to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation), a cool option if breast cancer hits close to home for your family, as it does for mine.
• The photo uploader tool was simple to use, and once my photos were uploaded, I could (and did!) try them out in multiple different designs.
• You can easily save a design and come back to it later.
• There's a nice variety of font choices for your text.
• There are volume pricing breaks if you purchase 10, 25, 50, or 100 cards featuring the same design. (With the 20 percent coupon code, my cards were $.87 each.)
• You can opt to have your cards mailed directly from cardstore.com to your individual recipients. Or you can have the stack mailed to you for you to hand address and stamp.

What I Didn't Like

• The text entry field was fairly small, and I couldn't zoom in on it, so it was hard to tell if my text had any typos. (However, the next step allows you to preview and zoom in on your final cards, and if you notice mistakes, you can go back and fix them and then preview again.)
• While it is possible to convert a photo to black-and-white or sepia right in the program, the sepia conversion looked wonky and I didn't trust it. So I converted my photos myself and reuploaded them.
• After you finish a card and click into the addressing feature, it appeared as though I had to enter all of my recipients' addresses by hand. I could see no easy or obvious links to uploading an address book, although the function does exist. Just click here. (A huge time saver.)
   

So, leave a comment on this post about anything related to holiday cards for your chance to win! Don't worry, if you haven't already sent your holiday cards, there's still time, especially if you choose the option to mail directly from cardstore.com to your recipients. If you have already mailed your cards, use your 20 percent discount to send a handful of personalized holiday thank you cards or fabulously festive New Year's cards instead.

Enjoy!

p.s. Oh, and I just barely noticed the customizable photo gift tags. Adorable! I just might be trying those next year.

**UPDATE**
Today's winner is commenter #22, jenevang. Congratulations!

Cocoa with marshmallows, cracking fires, and spending time with loved ones are just a few of my favorite things about this time of year in my house. When it comes to scrapbooking – I have favorites as well. It’s Ella Best Friend May Flaum here, and I’ve got some holiday favorites to share with you here today. With all the hustle & bustle and to-do lists growing every minute, it’s a time of year where I like to put even more focus into getting things done (quickly) and get my stories preserved. When it comes to my favorite scrapbook products to work with, you might be surprised to learn that I lean heavily on non-themed product. I’ve found that cardstock, glitter, metallic finish, and other sparkly items work great and if I don’t use up my purchases they will remain useful all year-round.

When it comes to my photographs, my favorite photos tend to be those awful group shots with bad indoor lighting, and the annual cheesy mall Santa pictures. They are usually the worst of all my pictures, and yet I love them most. They capture very real moments, and the awkwardness of my own childhood photos is something I cherish, and something I want for my kids as well. For better quality photos I suggest snapping a lot of photos, and also making sure to take photos earlier in the day or event. I try to grab people and pose photos right when they arrive instead of when a gathering is in full swing.

I have some suggestions I’d like to share for holiday scrapbook supply shopping:

• Think about the subject(s) of your photos and shop for appropriate papers. Thinking about the background of your celebrations – elegant, casual, outdoors, whimsical, vintage, etc – as well as who is in the photos will help you avoid products that while you might love, won’t actually work for your pages.
• Think about color! I love the new Dear Lizzy Christmas line because it has traditional red and green with touches of other colors. The rub-ons made even this Santa photo (with an aqua velvet cushion) a joy to scrapbook!!
• Multiple uses- I love lines like Tinsel & Twig (The Girls’ Paperie) because the paper is both themed and neutral enough to be used on any number of pages. Finding double sided papers with a subtle or non-themed back side is great in case you buy more than you can use.

No matter what your style is or what you buy – the key is really to have a good time with what you have. This goes for both your holiday photos and products you work with!! My top 5 suggestions for products that are timeless and great to work with this (or any) holiday season are:

·         Rhinestone Brads (Making Memories has been making these for a long time – I still love them!)

·         American Crafts Christmas cardstock pack

·         Stickles (glitter glue)

·         Kaiser Craft Journal tags

·         Webster’s Pages sparklers (non-adhesive designer buttons)

I love ribbon on layouts, but sometimes cardstock works too! With the odd aqua seat Santa had, and my daughter’s pink dress, not to mention the decorative photo frame I wanted to make sure and not overwhelm the photo with patterns so I opted to go pure cardstock instead. I punched some trees making a ribbon of sorts – as well as added lots of fun festive bits all over. This page was fairly simple to make – and it came together quickly.

Now that I have shared my layout and favorites, two of my fellow Ella Best Friends have their own favorites to share – I can’t wait to see what they have to say!

Francine shares,
My favourite moment from last Christmas was watching what Kieran made of the Christmas Tree. He was quite curious about it, but I am happy to say he was very careful and only batted gently at the ornaments. The is one of the photos that I captured of him checking out the tree.

My absolute favourite photo however, made it onto this layout, which totally sums up the moment

Since I don't scrap many seasonal photos, I tend not to buy a lot of themed paper. When it comes to scrapping the holidays I prefer to use products that are graphic, but still have a classic take on the holidays. Do you see those Christmas Trees on the layout? I cut them out from this sheet of patterned paper by Pink Paislee

It's called White Christmas and is from the Tinsel Town line which sadly has been retired. You can still find some stores selling it online though if you do a search. Anyway, I love that paper and have been hoarding my one sheet for the last two years judiciously cutting little trees out to use on Christmas layouts and projects. Maybe I should try to buy the last ones that I can find in stock!
 

Valerie shares

I’m not usually a big fan of themed product, except during the holidays (well, and Halloween, too – but that’s a post for another day!) Since there is so much fresh and fantastic product on the market every year, I seem to find a new collection of faves each season. Last year was my ‘silver foil cardstock/ silver thread/red button & kraft’ season, as illustrated in this layout from last December. I think it’s my all time favorite Christmas layout ever:

So, today I share a few of this year’s fave products ‘according to Val. I’m a lover of old stuff so it’s no surprise to me that most of my picks are vintage-inspired:

Martha Stewart Adhesive Scandinavian Die Cuts: Translucent and graphic, these are great to layer, sew through and stick down – and add a little pop of color.

Martha Stewart Bakers Twine: I use this in place of ribbon or thread

Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist/Silver Sugar: makes everything – especially chipboard – look like old silver.

Tim Holtz Tissue Tape/Tidings: just enough stick to hold things in place, but not enough to destroy paper when repositioned. Love to sew through it and use it to add graphic lines to projects.

Vintage Words from Scrap Rat – these are handmade with an old typewriter on old paper and come in sets for different occasions. I love them on layouts and on cards.

and here’s a layout that includes all of these products:

I hope you’ve enjoyed Francine, Valerie, and my ] favorites – I invite you to share your own holiday favorites here with us.

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"