Hello Ella Blog Readers!
 
Its Katie Scott and every Friday for the next 7 weeks, we are going to be talking TV. Why? Well, last month was sweeps month, so chances are that between the Winter Olympics and all the new shows on primetime, then your TV has probably been on more than usual! (At least it has been in my family.)

How does TV relate to scrapbooking? It doesn't, except that the monitor in my scrapbooking room doubles as a computer screen and as a television (thanks honey), and that I find that if I've got a theme, it makes it easier for me to scrapbook more quickly. And as I thought about TV last month, I was inspired to creative and quick pages that I might not have otherwise thought of making.
 
Let Me Explain: If you are an Ella fan, then you are probably familiar with Wendy Smedley and her book with Aby Garvey "The Organized & Inspired Scrapbooker" (which is unfortunately sold out). This book is pure eye candy; but the most interesting part of the book for me was "Chapter 3: Approach," which explores how most scrapbookers fall into four categories when it comes to starting a layout: 1. Story First; 2. Photos First; 3. Supplies First; and 4. Design First. (Tip: for an excellent discussion of the Process of Scrapbooking, take a listen to Paperclipping Episode #7, where Angie Lucas and other scrapbookers discuss how they approach scrapbooking.)
 
Ok, back to the point: I am usually a "Story First" or "Photos First" type of scrapbooker, which means that I either (1) have an idea for a page then go about finding pictures and scrapbooking supplies to support my story or (2) I sift through my photos and come up with an idea and then go about finding the scrapbooking supplies to complete the page. By choosing a theme first (like TV), then I can think about stories associated with that theme or find photos that fit into the theme. I find I think up layouts and execute them more quickly. I completed the 7 layouts you will see in this series of blog posts in ONE AFTERNOON using this Theme Approach!
 
My first page was a combination of the story-first and photos-first approaches. Story First: I knew I wanted to do a page about a TV show that my family is currently enjoying, and we like to watch Survivor, The Simpons, and American Idol as a family. Photos First: Then I flipped through my photos and found some photos of my son playing the American Idol home game. Based on that, I picked American Idol for the page. (But if I would have found pictures of our many kayak trips to an uninhabited island near our house, then I probably would have done a Survivor-themed page. And if I found pictures from our last trip to Universal Studios it would have been The Simpons.)

Journaling reads: "I'm pretty sure our family has seen every episode -
its good clean fun & there isn't much of that on tv now days. We
even bought the at home game. The funniest thing was that Mac went
straight into AC/DC (thanks to our old "Manny" Gino) and Allison sang
'This Little Light of Mine' (thanks to Church School). "

Supplies: patterned paper (American Crafts); American Idol graphic printed from a google image search; letters (QuicKutz Studio); font (Calibri).
 
Ella friend, Barb Wong made this sketch to go along with the layout, Thanks Barb!!

Your first Ella challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to play along and create one TV-themed layouts every week for the next 7 weeks. Create your first layout about or inspired by a tv show that you or your family is currently enjoying. I can't wait to see what you create!

(Post your finished layouts in this gallery at Scrapbook.com by next Thursday, and tag them Ella TV challenge. We'll pick one random winner out of the gallery each week who will receive a free eBook. We'll also pick one random winner from the past 7 weeks who will receive a $50 gift certificate to Scrapbook.com!)

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Wendy and I are busy planning our April eZine, and it's going to be Ella good!

In our Editor's Note, we'd like to share YOUR best layouts and projects that have been inspired by anything you've read or seen in an Ella eBook. Send your entries to submissions@ellapublishing.com with "April Inspirations" in the subject line by March 17, 2010 at midnight MST to be considered for this article! Make sure you explain which eBook inspired your page or project and include a complete supply list. We'll pick 3-5 winners who will be featured in the article and will each receive a free eBook of their choice. (Please click here for complete guidelines and quality standards.)

Here's one Ella inspiration submission we received a while back, just to get your creative juices flowing!

Nita Vleeming of The Netherlands was inspired by Stacy Julian's How to Make a Smiles Mini-book (half of the proceeds of which go to benefit Operation Smile). So she created this precious accordion album (size 2.5 x 2.5) for her tiny grandson.

How sweet is that? To see more of Nita's work, visit her on twopeasinabucket.com or Flickr.

Congratulations to Leah Larson of Washington, the random winner in our grand prize drawing for a Cricut Expression (from our Six Weeks of Sketches contest)!

We had a total of 159 entries in our 6-week challenge, and we added each entry to a handy-dandy spreadsheet in order of entry. And random.org gave us the random number 117!

Lucky Leah happens to already have an older Cricut model that she takes VERY good care of, but that doesn't mean she can't win this one too! And guess what her plan is? She's going to raffle off her old Cricut through her local scrapbook store, Paper Pals, where she's a design team member. The proceeds from the raffle will go to the Red Cross for Haiti relief. Way to go, Leah!

Now for a quick Q&A with our winner:
1. What did you like most about the sketch challenge?
"It allowed me to be more creative. I usually scraplift and had never followed a sketch before this challenge.  With the sketches, I had to create the page around the sketch. It was challenging and fun."

2. Did you have a favorite sketch?
"My favorite sketch was the 4x6, 4x4, and 4x4 arranged in a line across the middle of the page.  I love the layout I did for that sketch. I have copied all the sketches in my journal and will use them again and again."

3. What's your favorite treat?
"Light butter microwave popcorn.  I am on weight watchers.  If you're asking about a non-food treat, then I would say scrapbooking pictures of my daughter."

4. What was your favorite layout created during the challenge?
"My favorite layout was the star layout titled Yogurt for WEEK 4.  Made with my favorite sketch!"

5. Did you use your Cricut to create any of your layouts for the challenge?
"Yes. Visit my blog to read about how I created this dimensional duck accent (see below) for WEEK 2."

Here are the rest of the layouts Leah entered during the challenge. See all of these (and more) on Leah's blog: Confessions of a Scraplifter.

WEEK 1

WEEK 3

WEEK 5

WEEK 6


Congratulations to Leah!
And thanks to everyone who participated. We had a blast, and we hope you did too!

Thanks for participating. We at Ella had so much fun doing this that we have another Friday series of challenges for you that starts in March.

This first layout is a landscape version. The stamped title and muted colors work really well together. Great page!

The simple lines and cheerful colors complement the photos perfectly in this layout by Di_Turner.

And finally, a winning cat layout! The photos and journaling speak to Mr. Darcy's personality, and the product choices support the theme.

These three winners will receive a coupon code for a free eBook. And after all the entries from every week of the contest have been gathered, we'll draw one random winner who will receive a Cricut Expression (a value of $349)!
The grand prize winner will be posted the first week of March!!
Important note: grand prize winner will pay shipping, whether domestic or international. If grand prize winner chooses to decline the prize, we'll pick another random winner to win the Cricut Expression. And we hope the winner will agree to create a project or two with the Cricut to be featured on our blog!

Thanks again for playing along. This week was another stellar one full of color, kids, fire stations, and even some pool shots.

Leah Larsen has the sweetest little girl. (It seems as if she is handing flowers to us!) You get a visual story because or her excellent photo placement. Another great layout!

The colors and use of rub-ons on this page grabbed my attention as well as the excellent use of consistent margins. Outstanding page, famille1999.

This single page layout by Cynthia made me laugh, and the circular title works well to balance out the angular lines.

These three winners will receive a coupon code for a free eBook. And after all the entries from every week of the contest have been gathered, we'll draw one random winner who will receive a Cricut Expression (a value of $349)! Important note: grand prize winner will pay shipping, whether domestic or international. If grand prize winner chooses to decline the prize, we'll pick another random winner to win the Cricut Expression. And we hope the winner will agree to create a project or two with the Cricut to be featured on our blog!

Can you believe that it is the final week of our challenge?  I have had so much fun working on new sketches for you all during the past six weeks.  I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for the great participation and the wonderful comments left by you all.  It makes me so happy that you have enjoyed these sketches!  And I love seeing how one sketch can be the inspiration for so many layouts each with their own style and personality.

Here is the final sketch of our Six Weeks of Sketches challenge:

The 12x12 version features one 4x6 photo with three smaller photos on the upper left-had side of the page.  The smaller photos are sized 2x3, very small indeed but perfect for detail shots.  Also, there have been some requests for single-photo sketches so if you’d like you can always replace those small photos with patterned paper squares or create little mini-collages in that area.

The 8.5x11 sketch is below:

 
Now admittedly, it’s a little squished.  It doesn’t have exactly the same feel as the original, but I think it is a great sketch on its own.
 
As a bonus for our last week together I’ve drawn two more sketches based off of the original design.  Each is a two-page version of the original sketch - one 12x12 version and one 8.5x11 version.  I think that the 8.5x11 two-page spread is a little closer to re-creating the feel of the 12x12 since it has a lot more white space.
 

 
Finally, in my take on this week’s sketch I took the three photos on the left-hand side of the page and put two photos there instead:
 

I recently decided to take up running again.  I haven’t run since before my two boys were born.  As I took out my new running shoes and prepared to throw away the old ones I couldn’t help but notice the difference in the two pairs.  The old shoes show proof of what almost seems like another life.  I ran a lot of miles in those shoes.  But, I’m not hanging on to the past.  I’ve set some goals for myself this year and even if I can’t run as fast as I used to or train as often as I’d like, I’m going to get moving.  I’m actually excited about getting back into shape.  It’s definitely going to be hard work, but I think its’ also going to be lots of fun.  Wish me luck!!

So, let’s see what you do with this final sketch.
Post a link to your layout in the comments of this post by Thursday, February 25 to enter this week's contest! Three winners will each receive a free eBook. And everyone who participates this week will get another entry into our grand-prize drawing for a Cricut Expression (a $349 value)!

With all the giveaways that have been happening on The Daily Trumpet lately, you must be thinking to yourself, "Are Angie and Wendy attempting to BUY my affection?" The answer to that question is YES, and we're not ashamed to admit it. Will you be our friend? We'll give you stuff!

Another reason for all the great giveaways is our recent return from CHA, where we met with lots of cool people who are eager to spread the word about their products, services, and classes. People like Renee Pearson of reneepearson.com ("Digital training for crafters and artists"), who would like to give one of you a FREE spot in an upcoming class!

Class Title: Get it together. Keep it together! Organize your digital lifestyle with ACDSee Photo Manager
Instructor: Molly Newman
Class Dates: March 17 – April 13 (4 weeks)
Description: Get a handle on your digital photos, scanned images and digital scrapbooking supplies once and for all with this hands-on class. You’ll learn how to design, step-by-step, an organizational system that works for you and the way you scrapbook. Get the encouragement and motivation you need to create a system you’ll actually enjoy keeping up to date. Scrapbook more and faster than ever before when you know just where every holiday snapshot, vintage family photo and piece of digital paper is located.

Take it from me. I've known Molly Newman for years, and not only is she incredibly smart, creative, and talented, she's also one of the wittiest people I know. Get ready to learn AND to laugh! Learn more about Molly's class by clicking here.

If you'd like to enter to win a free spot in this class, leave a comment on this post telling us roughly how many digital photos you have stored on your computer! (Angie Lucas happens to have 6,813 digital photos, approximately 15 percent of which are of dogs.)

Good luck!

Hope everyone is enjoying their week, so far mine has been eventful, in a good way.
The prize for this week is a packed box of CHA goodies including

• assortment of new release products from Karen Foster and My Little Yellow Bicycle
• tote and apron from Making Memories
• class kit from Quick and Easy Quizzes class that Angie and I taught
  at CHA

To enter leave a comment with your name and the where your name came from, for example

My name is Wendy and I was born in the late 60's when the play Peter Pan was very popular. My dad saw it and loved the Wendy character so much, he wanted to name his first daughter Wendy. (and for a few years in junior high I believed I was destined to marry someone named Peter)
Easy enough??
You have until Friday, February 19th at midnight, MST to enter.

winner of last week's contest, uptown cat who said her favorite season was

"I love summer. The flowers are blooming. Everything is green.
Afternoons/evenings at the pool or in the back yard. Open windows. Love
it all."

Thanks for playing along everyone.

Week 4 had the most layout entries yet. Great job everyone, and thanks so much for being willing to share your talent and inspire others with your layouts!

The layout winners this week are:

Agata who lives in Switzerland. We love the colors, photos, and the little accents on this layout.

The use of product and simple layering caught my eye on this layout by Ella user thehodgees. Great job!

Young college student Jess showcases her scrapbooking talent with this layout.

These three winners will receive a coupon code for a free eBook. And after all the entries from every week of the contest have been gathered, we'll draw one random winner who will receive a Cricut Expression (a value of $349)! Important note: grand prize winner will pay shipping, whether domestic or international. If grand prize winner chooses to decline the prize, we'll pick another random winner to win the Cricut Expression. And we hope the winner will agree to create a project or two with the Cricut to be featured on our blog!

Hi Everyone!  For week 5 of our 6 week challenge, I did things a little differently.  I wasn’t lying when I said that I have been inspired by all of the participants in this six week sketch challenge!  I looked through the comments on last week’s blog post and saw this great idea from reader Christy (clcbug1):

"I love the sketches! Thank you for doing the challenge for us. I do love the challenge of putting lots of photos on a single 12 by 12 page. I am normally a double page scrapper. Having said that, how about a double page spread with multiple photos? If you do 7 of them, the 365 folks can jump on it as well."

So I took up Christy’s challenge and I created a two-page spread with 7 photos.  Now, I know you’ll just have to take my word for it, but this time around I also designed the 8.5x11 spread first and then adapted it to 12x12.  This was a definitely a change from how I normally work, but I’m hoping you like the results.  The 8.5x11 spread features three 4x6s, one 4x4 and three 3x4s.

For the 12x12 spread I enlarged the photo sizes of some of the photos so that the spread would be more balanced; it features one 5x7, two 4x6s, a 4x4 and three 3.5x5s.  Even though one page has three photos and the other page has 4 the margins on the side of the spread are the same.  Having the enlargement on the side with fewer photos also helps the spread to feel more balanced even if the overall design is asymmetric.

For my take on this sketch I decided to do only one side of the 12x12 spread.  I just took these photos of Nathan learning to use a fork on Sunday and as I was looking through them I realized they would be perfect for this sketch.  I did have a lot of shots but I didn’t really want to include 7 of them which is why I decided to go with one page instead of two.  I shifted the design upwards to make room for my border and I also trimmed my 3.5x5s to make room for journaling, but you’ll see that the basic arrangement of the photos and the title stayed the same.

I hope you’ll find this sketch a lot of fun.  I think it is really versatile since you can always do just one side of the spread like I did, you can do both pages, you can flip the pages, etc.  The possibilities really are endless.  I think it’s a sketch I will turn to again in the future and I can’t wait to see what you all do with it.  I have loved looking through the flickr gallery and visiting everyone’s blog these past weeks.  And thank you for all the comments and suggestions on last week’s post.

Post a link to your layout in the comments of this post by Thursday, February 18 to enter this week's contest! Three winners will each receive a free eBook. And everyone who participates this week will get another entry into our grand-prize drawing for a Cricut Expression (a $349 value)! Winners of week 4 sketches will be announced Sunday instead of Saturday.