Do you ever get to the journaling on your scrapbook layout only to find that you don't have any journaling spots, label stickers, or tags that match your page? Pull out your favorite stamps and make your own!

I’m always looking for new ways to incorporate stamping ideas into my scrapbook layouts. Read on for a few of my favorite stamping tips and tricks, featured on 11 different custom journaling spots and labels. With cards this cute, your heartfelt journaling is sure to be noticed. Read more »

Here’s a simple scrapbooking idea that counts for November and December: a gratitude journal that doubles as a highlights-of-the-year scrapbook. Here are three time-saving tips to help you turn your ambition into a beautiful, meaningful mini-album that will fill you with holiday spirit.

How many of you start the holiday season feeling ambitious, as visions of scrapbooking dance in your head? And how many of you end the season with a shrug of defeat, comforting yourself with the words “there’s always next year?" Read more »

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Some of the hottest embellishments out there right now are small—small flowers, small die cuts, small letter stickers, and more. These undersized accents made me think small, design-wise, as well. How could I take some of the ordinary parts of a page and shrink them down? After all, almost everything is cuter in miniature size. But what would it do to the overall design if only some parts of my page were tiny? I wanted to find out, so I played around with Read more »

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Welcoming a child into the world is one of the greatest gifts life has to offer. Documenting this time is incredibly special and invaluable for both you and your child! However, if you are anything like me, finding time to scrapbook and document memories was not always in the forefront of my mind during the first few months of motherhood. Life suddenly becomes a blur Read more »

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Some of our devoted Ella fans out there may have noticed that this month’s eZine is a wee bit late. But we have an excuse—a 6 lb. 11 oz. excuse, to be precise. As the co-founder and primary editor at Ella Publishing Co., much of the wordsmithing and uploading falls to me. (And I wouldn’t have it any other way.) But the 11-days-early arrival of my new bundle of joy threw a little pink wrench into my plans. Read more »

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As a writing teacher, I tell my students that a blank sheet of paper can be the most terrifying thing in the world,and the most exciting. A blank page is full of possibilities for stories, thoughts, images, and emotions. But if you are experiencing a journaling writer's block, that blank page can be frightening!

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We’ve all heard the legendary tales of boys and their stinky socks, broken windows, snakes, and other outdoors-only wildlife loose in the house… And believe me, we mamas-of-just-girls know how good we have it. In our world, we have tea parties! Shopping partners! Pretty hair to fix! Read more »

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When you think of all the wonderful things your father has done for you over the years—or that your husband has done for your children—it can be difficult to know where to start when you’d like to pay tribute to him on a scrapbook page. And with Father’s Day on the way, it’s a perfect time Read more »

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I know when I first started hearing and seeing the term “hybrid,” I thought, “That sounds hard, I can't do that!” The word sounds so scientific or technical, not to mention somewhat botanical. But when it comes to scrapbooking, “hybrid” is much simpler than it sounds! It simply refers Read more »

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I don’t think of myself as a voyeur, per se, but I do find it fascinating to peek into other people’s lives. Don’t you? And I’m not talking about through-the-windows peeking, of course. I’m talking about how our deepest values and core individuality come through so clearly on our Read more »