Many of you may be like me, itching for some new scrapbooking products to get excited about. Many companies are now offering early summer releases and scrappers are thrilled. A few finds that I am eager to get my hands on are below.

Websters Pages


not sure what I would use these for, but they are lovely


and who doesn't want some new bloomers for summer?

Sassafras Lass shared a new summer line called Indie girl on their blog last week. Oh my

You may have seen Basic Grey's new summer releases. I must get these stitched brads.





Jenni Bowlin has released a new line called Playdate and a line of banner stickers, so fun




Our friends at Studio Calico are debuting these awesome doily rub-ons and a few more products.


Jillibean Soup has a new line called Summer Squash that uses happy colors


Little Yellow Bicycle has a few new lines, one of them is called Boardwalk. Ideal for those beachy photos and memories.

and Imaginisce has a summer line with cute happy creatures and ice cream flavor colors.

Enjoy these yummies

Yes you read correctly- we have even more visual goodies to share with you. And you have until midnight tonight (MST) to leave a comment on yesterday's post to win your box of Panorama goodies. Check out projects on the Making Memories blog.

First off a mini album Noel made using the Panorama product.










designer notes:

For the mini album I used the suitcase packaging that had a velcro closure already on it. I cut it in half and used my bind it all to make the album. Using coordinated product makes creating mini albums so fun and quick, everything matches and any embellishment I could dream of is part of this line. I loved the tabs and treasure box.

Read about Noel's husband recent homecoming on her blog and check out her recent blog posts about photography.
light
focus
perspective

Layout from Barb Wong


designer notes:

The Design Workshop eBook and the Making Memories Panorama line were both fabulous to work with. I loved the travel theme of the products, so I chose to tell the story of how my boys love to visit my hometown on the east coast of Canada.

The Panorama line is perfect for travel photos, but many of the designs are generic enough to use on projects of any theme, so I'll be able to create many more pages from my kit leftovers. On this page, I created a playful themed border by using the travel word stickers and a postage-stamp edge from a sheet of die cut paper. I inked the corrugated cardstock letter stickers with the same ink that I used on the edges of my paper and photos to help tie these elements together. The felt embellishment and buttons give this page a lot more texture and dimension than my pages normally have, and I must say I'm loving the look. Maybe it's time for me to consider a style makeover.

I used a  design tip from Design Workshop, Lisa Dickinson's eBook, incorporating a grid design.  I even managed to use a design I  read somewhere years ago... that photos should be placed so the subjects are looking toward the center of the page. See how my guys are facing the right edge? Overall looking at the page just makes me happy.

Hello and welcome to our newest blog swap! This is a chance for companies to work together by sharing products and talent. What you get is a plethora of  projects inspired by Ella eBooks that use Making Memories products to execute on that inspiration. Everyone used the new Panorama product line from Making Memories to make their projects.

Enjoy the results below and at the Making Memories blog. Be sure and enter the giveaways on both blogs. Thanks for stopping by!

PROJECTS FROM MAKING MEMORIES DESIGNERS:





Thanks Wendy and Wilna for playing along.

Wendy used the “Year in the Life” book to inspire her Family '09 layout and Wilna used the Text Tricks eBook as inspiration for her layout. Do you see anything familiar about the design?

from Wendy

from Wilna

PROJECTS FROM ELLA FRIENDS:


The Ella friends choose to pair the Panorama line of travel products with the Ella eBook by Lisa Dickinson, Design Workshop. The results are below.

from Linda Barber

from Moon Ko

from Katie Scott

from Noel Culbertson

Noel also made a mini album that is shown on the Making Memories blog.

GIVEAWAY:
Making Memories has generously offered to giveaway a goody box of products from the Panorama line to one lucky Ella reader. To enter leave a comment and share your travel plans with us. Giveaway ends Thursday, June 17 at midnight MST. Be sure and visit the Making Memories blog to enter to win an Ella giveaway.

This is the second part of our pairing up with  Design House Digital. They are a great resource for any range of experienced digital scrapbookers.

Design House Digital is a site dedicated to learning, creating, and sharing. This site is for all who want to preserve their memories and stories in meaningful ways. There are no pre-conceived notions of who you have to be or what your memories have to look like. Digital scrapbooking is more than just scrapbooking on a computer, it’s telling stories in any style you want those stories to be told. There are no boundaries here, only possibilities!

Ella friend, Jodie McNally made some projects using products from DHD. Hard to pick a favorite, I like them all.





credits: papers - textured cardstock by audrey neal at dhd; glitter alpha - glitz rainbow 2 by vicki stegall at oscraps.com; white alpha - signature alpha 2 by taylormade at oscraps.com; glitter - glitter drops by mary ann wise at dhd;font - pea heather's handwriting from kevinandamanda.com

Today we have paired up with a digital scrapbooking company, Design House Digital, to inform you and get you all excited about everything that digital has to offer.

Design House Digital is a site dedicated to learning, creating, and sharing. This site is for all who want to preserve their memories and stories in meaningful ways. There are no pre-conceived notions of who you have to be or what your memories have to look like. Digital scrapbooking is more than just scrapbooking on a computer, it’s telling stories in any style you want those stories to be told. There are no boundaries here, only possibilities!

Ella friend, Noel Culbertson created three projects. Aren't they adorable?!



This layout used the  Authentic Kit.


Noel couldn't resist the name and style of the Daisy Jane Kits, which have a fun retro flair.



And for her last layout, she used the Vanity Fair Kit, and she's thrilled with the results.


Noel's take on the site, "I found the selection of papers at Design House Digital to be fantastically varied, with loads that fit 'my style.' The site was easy to navigate, with a classy layout. I did wish that there were a few more embellishment options for each kit...hopefully there will be in the future! Additional options aside, I enjoyed playing with the wonderful designs from the seriously talented designers."

For some useful digital information worth your time check these out
digi terms
how to download a digital kit
creating a digi layout
freebies

Come back next Wednesday for more from Design House Digital!

Time for a blog swap! What's that, you ask? Since this is our first, let me explain. Two companies share products with each other, and then they swap projects to share with their readers. Oh, and there's a giveaway too! Check out the projects inspired from Ella eBooks that are made with the My Mind's Eye products.

Visit the My Mind's Eye for chances to win, and to see more projects.


Design team member Trisha Ladouceur



Trisha says: "This is a layout featuring me and my most handsome little nephew who surprised me with a visit this past weekend... well, he didn't but my sister did and she brought her munchkins ;) I was soooooo LUCKY to get to snuggle with this little man when we went out for dinner allowing my sister to eat without a babe in her arms (remember those days?!) So I guess she was lucky too;)

I was truly impressed with the sketch book and based my layout on the one in the top right corner on page 31. I changed the photo from being horizontal to vertical so my photo would work.

Usually it takes me a very long time to complete my projects but using this sketch took so much of the work out of it. I even allowed myself to keep it relatively simple and was impressed at just how fast I was able to complete it. Less than one hour from start to finish has got to be a record time for me!

Using the papers, die cuts and stickers from the My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary Collection and embellishing with the LUSH ribbons and self adhesive chipboard letters, gave this layout the texture and dimension needed to satisfy my need for lumps and bumps and the colours and patterns necessary to suit a young lad. It was the perfect combination and came together easily. I cannot wait to try my hand at some of the other sketches in this book!"


Design team member Amber Packer made this layout below featuring the My Mind's Eye Lush line.


Photo Credit: Haylee Bean photography

Amber says: "I want it all and I want it now!  That’s how I felt while looking through the fabulous idea books on the Ella Publishing website.  I decided on three books:  Stretch Your Sketches, Text Tricks and Quick & Creative Quizzes.

I altered the six photo sketch (pg. 19 in Stretch Your Sketches) by using one photo instead of six and kept the title and accent strip in the same spot.  I was inspired from Text Tricks to combine colors and fonts for my title (pg. 7) as well as to turn journaling into a frame (pg. 20).  For my journaling thoughts, I turned to the Quick & Creative Quizzes “Compliments” chapter (pg. 6 – 7). Up next: 40 Tips for Better Photos!"


Now for some projects from some of the Ella ladies!

First up is Tami Morrison:



Tami made a creativity checklist that she printed out from Stacy Julian's latest eBook, UR2Cre8ive. She printed it out, cut it into strips, and made it into a decorative reminder to keep in her studio. The MME Quite Contrary line was perfectly suited for her cheery project.

Here's a layout from Angie Lucas:




Angie says: "This layout uses the Quite Contrary line from My Mind's Eye, and I copied a sketch from the Ella Stretch your Sketches eBook written by Donna Jannuzzi. I didn't have a circle cutter large enough to really fit the sketch, so I traced a dinner plate on the back of the patterned paper and trimmed it out. This was probably one of the quickest layouts I've ever created, because I had plenty of coordinating products to choose from in the Quite Contrary line, and I didn't have to mess with my design.

Here's how it came together: I chose my topic, narrowed down my photos from a recent girls' weekend, and then I searched for a sketch from the Stretch Your Sketches eBook that fit the five photos I chose. Since I had four landscape photos and one portrait photo, it was easy to adapt the 3-photo sketch to make it work. (The reason it was so easy? Tami Morrison's layout in the eBook took this exact approach with one vertical photo four horizontal photos.)"

And finally, here are two projects from Katie Scott:
Katie says, "I LOVE how sticky-strong the flocked chipboard letters are. I am usually unhappy with chipboard letters because they don't stick very well. But these are like superglue - seriously strong stick!  Thumbs up! My layout is inspired from the latest eBook, U2R Cr8ive by Stacy Julian. She shares so much information about living creatively and she is such an inspiration, I always want to scrapbook my life after I read anything written by her."


Journaling reads: Mac & Charlie tore down the 10+ year old herb garden (Mac particularly enjoyed the destruction process) and rebuilt it for me; and at my son's last doctor's appointment I was shocked that he only has one foot to go to be as tall as me!


Katie used the My Mind's Eye Blog Sketch for inspiration and copied it almost exactly except it was pink and this is green.

Journaling reads: Green Happy Memories: St. Patrick's Day is almost here - so just in case you are wondering -
Yes! We are Irish and here's why we celebrate!
* Remember to Wear Green;
* My Grandma Grace Flavin was Irish!;
* I grew up on Kermit & the Muppets;
* We are growing vegetables;
* My dad was a farmer & composter & an environmentalist;
* I kissed the Blarney Stone in Ireland in 1992;
* Its what we call cash;
*Your eyes, like mine, are greenish brown.




Want to win a copy of the eBooks mentioned above? Stop by the My Mind's Eye blog to enter.
To win a complete set of the Quite Contrary line from MME leave a comment with a list of your top 3 scrapbooking related daily reads (online of course)

Hello everyone and thanks for stopping by. Today we have some cool digital layouts and a free digi kit for you to download!
Sweet Shoppe is celebrating a big anniversary, giving tons of goodies away, and introducing lots of new projects, so you may want to pop on over to their blog.

Now for some layouts from two talented Ella Friends:

From Noel
Scrapbooking is one of those fabulous hobbies that helps you celebrate the thousands of little blessings that fill your life. How could that possibly be a bad thing? Well, I suppose, if you asked my very neat husband, he may come up with some reason like the piles of housework I manage to put off while recording our blessings. So today, if you're looking for a good excuse to leave that load of laundry in the basket just one more day (or two), check out the digital the goodies over at Sweet Shoppe Designs. Since I'm always looking for an excuse to put off laundry, and household chores in general, I quite enjoyed spending the better portion of an afternoon perusing their shop. As an added bonus for a chore-avoiding girl like myself, they add new goodies every Saturday.

Enough about my not-so-domestic-goddess like self, lets get to the fun! Sweet Shoppe has a great variety of digital styles, from cute and sweet to classic to manly and everything in between. But one of the greatest offerings for scrappers with time restrictions, are the great template kits by Janet Phillips. She even has a whole line of templates for that person with "2 Many Photos"

As a girl with a camera that can snap 8 frames a second, I find this a VERY handy line! Even as a straight paper scrapper, digital templates can be used just like sketches for layout inspiration.



I worked with three of the wonderful kits from Sweet Shoppe:
Absolute Cherry Crush
U and I
Close to the Edge






With so much variety available at Sweet Shoppe, I foresee many more chore-avoiding days in my future!

From Jodie



credits: alpha (blackjack by fee jardine) + stitches (bad sewing machine by traci reed) + papers, buttons, ribbons, flowers (a love to last by julie billingsley) + font (djb how cute am i by darcy baldwin) + photos and layout by jodie mcnally (www.jodiemcnally.com)

Ready to get some treats? Well, they made a kit just for our readers, yeah!



A few layouts from the gallery that caught my eye.


The color scheme and scalloped border work so well together, from Marnel


Once again the colors caught my eye on this layout by Keely B and the vertical design.

I'm excited to share some creations I made using more of the KiKi Art goodies featured here on The Daily Trumpet last week! (And visit my blog for a fun giveaway.)

These pictures were the perfect match for this paper & Donna Jannuzzi's Sketch from the first week of Six Weeks of Sketches. I adapted Donna's Sketch from 12x12 to 8.5x11, rotated it & played with the placement of the title and journaling. Since I live in a house of boys it was so much to work with pictures of my best friend's daughter.

Supplies: Patterned Paper (KiKi Art) + Cardstock (American Crafts & Stampin' Up!) + Chipboard Letters (American Crafts) + Font (Traveling Typewriter)

With Valentines Day just around the corner, I was excited when I saw the red, green & white glitter paper. I've had this unfinished clothespin in my project stash for years & thought it would be perfect to hold love notes between my husband & me. I painted the clothespin, used ModPodge to adhere the paper & added a few embellishments. 

Supplies: Patterned Paper (KiKi Art) + Cardstock (American Crats) + Letters (K&Company & Making Memories) + Precision Pen .05 (American Crafts) + Embellishment (Anna Griffin) + Wooden Clothespin + White Paint + Mod Podge + Sanding Paper

I fell in love with this paper, which meant I had to finish a frame with the whole sheet.  I was inspired to add the flowers after I saw a tutorial on the Studio Calico Blog for paper roses.  Once it all came together, I knew the perfect picture would be one I've already scrapped but had a 5x7 copy I planned on sending to my best friend. Instead, I'll be sending the finished frame as a sweet Valentine's surprise. 

Supplies: Patterned Paper (KiKi Art) + Jewel Brads (American Crafts) + Wooden Frame + Brown Paint + Mod Podge + Sanding Paper

Please visit me on my blog, Without Filters, for the giveaway. Hurry, contest ends Friday, February 12th at midnight CST.

The company we are highlighting in this product showcase is called, KIKI Art. They are a new company based in Montreal (Canada), and are proudly influenced by the many cultures, languages and stories inhabiting the city.  One of their goals is to transfer the multicultural perspective they experience everyday into the creation of their products, so they can serve in the making of unique projects and layouts for people from around the world.


Two of our Ella Friends, Barb and Katie, played with their products and produced these cheery projects.

Barb created some cards and a layout:





Supplies: cardstock (Bazzill) + chipboard shape (KiKi Art) + chipboard letters (American Crafts) + brads (American Crafts) + decorative tape (KiKi Art) + photo corner punch (EK Success) + ink pad (Tsukineko) + pen (Signo Uniball)

I trimmed the chipboard shape, originally 12 inches wide, to fit on my 8.5x11 page, and I added the black brads under the swirl to accentuate the shape. I used the decorative tape with the zigzag stitching to pull the whole page together, by repeating of the colour black and anchoring the entire design to the bottom of the page.

Katie made a few layouts:

Supplies: October Afternoon; KiKi Art; Cosmo Cricket.

I made this by pairing colors that don't normally go together, and I love how it turned out


Supplies: KiKi ARt; Heidi Grace; October Afternoon; and Miss Elizabeth.

This layout uses one of the hot colors of 2009, orange. I used just a touch of orange product to work with my daughters photos.





Here my daughter is again, wearing orange. Notice I used just a little bit of orange to complement her photos. My new favorite color combination may just be, orange and purple, who knew?

To learn more about KIKI ART visit their website, sign up for their newsletter, or stop by their blog. Thanks KIKI for joining this awesome industry.

When we spotted these adorable Christmas layouts by Valerie Mangan (one of our favorite new discoveries through our submissions page!), we couldn't resist sharing them with you. The fresh color palettes, fun takes on the topics, cool product combinations, and great design approaches really put us in the Christmas spirit. And it proves that three layouts can do a fine job of capturing the highlights of an eventful December.

Here's what Valerie had to say:
"When scrapbooking holiday photos, I’ve always tended to do the big overview 2-page layouts. This year, I decided to focus on a few specific moments. I’m so glad I did because these three layouts truly reflect the spirit of the Christmas we had in 2008."



"I was actually inspired to make this layout when I saw the gold chipboard 'Believe.' I knew I had these great pictures from our annual Santa visit and the word 'believe' was what came to mind every time I looked at them. I couldn’t resist making a layout around this embellishment and telling the story behind of our visit with Santa last year. (Kind of long so it’s hidden on a tabbed card behind the photos). We are in the peak years of Santa-belief in our house. I know they are fleeting, and we might only have 2 or 3 left, if we’re lucky. This layout will always help us recall these special years, and 2008 in particular."



"My son’s reaction to the arrival of his new Curious George toy was so joyful that I knew I would need to document it in a significant way.  I knew the photo on the right would speak for itself so I kept the journaling to a single line. This layout will always remind me of my son being that age where Christmas is pure magic and it will remind all of us of the day Christopher and George became best friends."



"For me, seeing my kids happy and smiling during the holidays is the best part.  I really wanted to capture a collection of the ‘smiley’ photos together in simple, playful layout.  The candy colors of this Basic Grey collection (Eskimo Kisses) really helped me stick to the plan. These were happy times. This layout will always remind us of that."

To see more darling designs from this talented scrapbooker, check out her blog, Paper and Cookies. There are mouth-watering paper creations galore, but that's not all. We sure wouldn't mind partaking of her baking talents, if we were anywhere near her neighborhood! Baking cookies, making cards...that's what the holidays are all about, and you'll fiind plenty of both on Valerie's blog!

Merry Christmas everyone!