Hello Everyone!  Donna here with you today, and I want to take a moment to interrupt your Christmas preparations to talk to you about a new product from digital designer Crystal Wilkerson that will help you to develop a habit of gratitude and will also help a family in need.

 

This time of year is very special, and for many different reasons.  For Americans, we’ve just celebrated Thanksgiving and now for a lot of us, we are looking forward to, and preparing for Christmas.  We will spend time with our families, and we will try to remember all those great big things in our lives that we are thankful for.  Feelings of gratitude come to us naturally at this time of year, but perhaps you’ve thought about trying to cultivate that same spirit of thanksgiving all year long?  Last month Crystal hosted a Thirty Day Gratitude Challenge and to go along with the challenge she designed 30 gratitude cards with journaling prompts.  Here is an example card and its corresponding journaling prompt:

The cards and prompts fit on an 11 x 8.5 sheet of paper, and can be printed, cut in half, and placed in a 5.5 x 8.5 binder

(you can find the binders and page protectors at office supply stores). 

 

What prompted Crystal to design this project was a desire to help a family whose father is currently battling brain cancer:

 

 

Scott Norton is 30 years old, married to Emily, and a father of two young boys.  In August of this year, the family discovered that Scott had a large cancerous brain tumor.  He has had two surgeries to remove sections the tumor and has undergone radiation therapy to remove the remaining tumor and to prevent the tumor from spreading.  You can read more about their story on Crystal's blog.

 

The thirty quotes for the gratitude journal that Crystal created come in two sets of 15.  Each set costs $2.50.  Which means that all 30 quotes with journaling prompts can be downloaded in a high-quality .JPG format for only $5.  In addition, the second set of quotes also includes a cover page for the inside of your notebook, a contract and bonus quote, insert for the spine and cover of your notebook, and printable notebook paper.  You can find the sets here:  Gratitude Quotes Set 1, Gratitude Quotes Set 2.

 

100% of the proceeds will go to help the Norton family

with their medical expenses.

 

Maybe you are thinking that you don’t have time right now to start a gratitude journal, or that a thirty day commitment would produce more thoughts of guilt than gratitude.  Not a problem!  Because the files are high-quality .JPGs they can be resized, or manipulated and used for more than one purpose.  For example, I printed the gratitude card from Day 15 as a 4 x 6 photo and used it as a title for this layout:

 

 

I also used the journaling prompt for that day to help me focus my thoughts about this photo and that day.  The cards and prompts can be used in any way that you’d like which makes this a truly versatile product.

 

I hope you will take a few moments from your busy schedule today to think about all the things in your life that you are grateful for.  Then, please consider helping this young family in need.  I know they will be thankful and appreciative of your support!

Hi everyone! I've got a great idea for quick and inexpensive Christmas gift albums that you can make for anyone on your list—scrapbooker or not.

Here are three little albums I made for three family members this year—all in one evening! I used $1 brag books I found at my local big box store (just cheap 4 x 6 plastic photo sleeve albums), plus supplies I had on hand and the List It! Christmas Edition (digi plus) png files. The cool thing about the List It! products is that you can download the product once and then print it as many times as you want to make as many gift albums as you want.

I used the included List It! title page on the one side, with a quick page on the left side, featuring a photo of me with three of my siblings and Santa, circa 1984. BUT because I used the .png version of the files, I could colorize them a nice holiday red. (The printable version comes in neutral color palette.)

And guess what? Colorizing and customizing .png files is really quite simple. I even recorded a quick screencast last night to show you how it's done.

 

See how simple?

 

The idea with these albums is that my family members can just choose 12 favorite pictures from Christmas to slip into the photo sleeves next to the 12 prompted journaling lists I printed and included in each book. There are a few fun quizzes included in List It! Christmas, so I used a few of those as well. (Click image for a larger view.)

 

I will also include with the gift an instruction card giving my family members permission to use horizontal OR vertical pictures, just choose their 12 favorite Christmas pictures without regard to whether they "match" the topic of the list on the facing page, and use their own handwriting (no matter how they feel about their handwriting) for a truly meaninful keepsake for their kids. I'll also remind them that this one snapshot of Christmas memories does not constitute a requirement to do this every year. But if it sparks that desire in them, all the better!

 

I created my three albums assembly-line style to save even more time. So the interior contents of all three are identical. But I couldn't resist customize the covers differently.

 

The List It! Christmas Edition comes with several types of blank lists (blank title area, lines only, and completely blank inside). I printed a handful of blanks to include in the back cover of each album, in case anyone's not inspired by the particular lists I chose and wants to make up their own.

 

 

And, if you're signed up for the Ella email list, you'll be getting a nice coupon today that you can use on any one item between now and December 31.

 

I plan to give my albms a bit early, so my family can take advantage of that pre-Christmas anticipation that can be a real fuel for creativity and journaling.

 

Enjoy!

The Tastes and Smells of Christmas

Nothing tastes like Christmas more than hot chocolate. We think this homemade version is fit for Jolly Old Saint Nick himself! But even if your holiday agenda doesn’t include flying in a reindeer-drawn sleigh or delivering presents around the world, you too will need a break from the hustle and bustle at some point. Relax and enjoy this recipe—a perfect pairing with some peppermint bark or a couple of warm sugar cookies.

Now that your lights are up and your tree is trimmed, make your house smell like Christmas, too. This delicious-smelling potpourri recipe is sure to do the trick. It’s so easy to make with items you probably already have in your cupboard.

Check out the One Charming Party website for more great ideas for holiday parties, birthday parties, and more!

Hi, I'm Lisa Ottosson, and I'm excited to guest blog about a fun project I'm working on for December.

 

I have done a December mini album for several years (Journal your Christmas, December Daily, you name it!), but only one has been all completed. Ack!

 

This year, I actually made a minibook quite early since I invested in a Bind-it-All. However, I really don´t need yet another half-done project, and for a while there I didn´t think I´d do a December mini at all.

 

 

But then I saw a newsletter in my inbox from Ella Publishing announcing their newest addition to the List It! products; the Christmas edition. A small spark was lit in my creative brain and I continued to ponder…then, one day (or actually it was a night and we were watching reruns of Grey's Anatomy on the couch!) it just hit me; I´ll just base my December mini on Ella's List it! Christmas Edition! I told my husband to pause the show and I went to buy it then and there!

 

 

Then I went ahead and chose 24 of the lists, one for each day in December up until the 24th (we celebrate on Christmas Day in Sweden) and printed them out on my printer. I set aside a Saturday where I made my foundation pages and I simply cut the lists by the edges and adhered them to my pages. As you can see, I have cheated and already begun filling out some of the lists! I just couldn´t help myself!

 

 

I will be adding in photos, journaling and more embellishments during December.

 

You are welcome to visit my blog where I have shared more pages and of course will have updates throughout the month.

 

There's no better time to start YOUR Daily December project than right now.

 

Happy Holidays!

Hope y'all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Did you hear the news about our Black Friday sale? Check our homepage or sign up for our email newsletter to make SURE you're in the know.

And in all your Thanksgiving/Black Friday shopping madness, did you by any chance buy anyone a book?

 

Well, here's a fun gift-giving idea that's perfect for the readers on your list! Personalize that book-related gift by including a handmade bookmark or two. We've got a bunch of easy and fun ideas in our latest episode of Books&Crafts.

Our book picks this week were:

 

And you can always find our book recommendations in our Books&Crafts Amazon store!

Happy shopping (and crafting)!

Angie

Did you see our brand new List It! product on sale this week? It's our Christmas List It!, which will help you capture all your favorite holiday memories using lists, quizzes, and shaped journaling cards (star, ornament, tree).
 

Ella Friend Valerie Mangan used a list to capture her must-see holiday movies on this festive layered layout.

And Ella deputy editor, Wendy Smedley, used one of the included quizzes to capture memories from a recent Christmas in mere minutes! There may have been no tiny tots with their eyes all aglow, and grandma stayed out of the way of the reindeer this year, but Wendy still had herself a merry little Christmas.

Me? I plan to use the Christmas List It! to create some little albums for my family members (shh! don't tell them!) so they can quickly fill-in-the-blanks, slip in some photos, and have a mini book of Christmas memories to look back on for years to come.
 

So, what are you waiting for?

Well, if you'd rather wait, you may be in luck. If you wait until Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, you could save up to 30%! We've got a new coupon code being offered each day from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. Make sure you're on our email list so you hear the news!
 

AND, all of our List It! Digi plus versions are on sale for $1 off through Monday. And yes you CAN use your Thanksgiving weekend coupons on sale items.

Get any of the following for just $8.99. (Regularly $9.99.) They include all the printable lists plus the PNG files too so you can colorize, resize, and generally do your digi thing with them.

List It! Christmas digi plus

List It! Everyday Life digi plus

List It! Childhood digi plus

List It! Holidays digi plus (includes a few Christmas lists but all those other holidays too!)

For me, when I'm low on journaling ideas, there is nothing like a written journaling prompt to inspire me to make a page!

One of my favorite sources for these prompts are Ella eBooks. It started for me when I downloaded the Quick & Creative Quizzes eBook by Angie Lucas and Wendy Smedley, circa. 2009. The idea of approaching the task of journaling in an organized list format, like answers to a quiz, seemed so much less daunting to me. As a bonus, the prompts in the quizzes led to other page ideas. Flash forward to 2011. When I heard Wendy & Angie were releasing the List It series, I knew I’d be set with journaling prompts and page ideas for a long time!



For this page I worked with the List It: Everyday Life Edition; a book that has spawned at least a dozen pages for me since it was first released. I chose the prompt “Evidence that ___ is an occupant of this house.” The great thing about a prompt like this is you could make a list, or focus on one item, or photo, or thought. There’s so much potential here.



Armed with my new Studio Calico kit and my List It prompt printed from my computer onto vellum, I got this page together in no time. (The List It prompts are conveniently formatted onto a nice roomy journaling block – if you get the Digi Plus version, you get the .png files, too!)

Instead of actually writing out the list I let my little wallet sized photos do the talking. Chipboard number stickers adhered right onto the photos drive home the list theme. For my next List It Everyday Edition project I’m planning to use the same journaling block I used here as pages in a mini book about the members of my family, with an image and journaling on each page. What will you be inspired to make?

Materials: patterned cardstock: MME, Basic Grey; vellum: craft supply; stamp, spray ink: Studio Calico; letters: Studio Calico; Pink Paislee; fabric trim: Pink Paislee; fabric circles: Basic Grey; house: Jillibean Soup

Way back when, before I had the honor of being an Ella Friend, I purchased the eBook 40 Top Tips for Better Photos by Rebecca Cooper. My goal was to use the tips and suggestions in this eBook so that I could better learn my fancy new camera.

 

What I didn't realize, was that I would be inspired to create a layout based on one of the five scrapbook layouts Rebecca shares with us. Rebecca's layout on the right titled, "this boy" was an ideal way for me to scrap several sports photos of my son. I didn't scrapbook when he was younger, so specific stories and detailed thoughts are lost.



As you can see, my layout is definitely inspired by Rebecca's, incorporating just a few changes and edits:  using only 3 photos allowed me to use larger photos and I used an embellishment as my title. The clean and simple design allowed me to highlight some of my son's athletic endeavors in his scrapbook album even though specific details are lacking.




 
 We hope that you are enjoying our series sharing how our Ella Friends have found inspiration from an eBook. And in celebration of inspiration, you'll want to take advantage of the Scrapbook Challenges Bundle, where you'll save $4.50 and be inspired by 88 pages of 104 amazing ideas!



Have Fun and Scrap On,

Monika
 

Hello, everyone! It's Jennifer Larson with some colorful ideas.

If you're like me, you have bunches of ink pads or mist bottles or paint jars, but you might not use them much. They look pretty, but the paints and inks and mists are just not making it onto your pages. Here's a few ideas to put that color to use!

1. Draw attention to the title. Here I lay a chipboard heart where I wanted the title and misted with a couple colors, green and blue, just lightly enough for the heart to show. I then outlined the heart to make it stand out more before I adhered anything to the page.



2. Draw attention to the embellishments. Ella Friend Keshet Starr  misted in pink more heavily to highlight the embellishment cluster.



3. Make the journaling stand out. Sometimes I want to journal on patterned paper, but the pattern makes the writing hard to read. Using a paint dauber in a color similar to the patterned paper color, I make a spot for the writing.


And here's a close-up:



I use paint daubers in a similar way with letter stickers I want to use as a title.

4. Make the photos stand out. Sometimes I use paint to make the photos stand out from the background paper if they are too close in hue to the background paper and accents. In the next layout, I painted with a deep teal to make the focal point photo stand out more.



5. Add interest to the background. I use my ink pads a lot for stamping and inking the edges of paper, but I rarely use it on the background of my layout. I should. On this next layout about my son's interesting dressing habits, I sanded the background (including the stitching) to rough it up, then added ink with a sponge to make the background look even more textured. The result looks a little like suede.



Thank you for reading a few of my color tips. Time to get out those bottles and ink pads and jars and get messy!

Inspiration is everywhere! We're all inspired by a variety of ideas, but for me, few compare to the Ella eBooks. Each book is so creatively designed with unique and thoughtfully written content, amazing colorful projects and inspiration that you can refer to again and again in multiple categories.



Scrapbooking the Everyday is one of my favorite Ella eBooks. As I flipped through the pages the first time, I was instantly inspired by this layout.

The block design is perfect for maximizing space on your layout and adding several photos. It's probably no surprise that I had a few hundred photos from our recent trip to Disney World and wanted to create a layout that would incorporate several at once. I incorporated the block design and love the result! I'm planning to create a full album, repeating this design on each page, so the album will flow easily with so many photos. If you haven't had a chance to browse Scrapbooking the Everyday, don't miss it! You're sure to be inspired! =) Mary Jo