Yeah, January is half over, but that doesn't mean there isn't still time to get organized with an AWESOME 2012 customizable photo planner! 

 

 

You can win one of FOUR planners I'm giving away on my personal blog, angielucas.com.

 

Here's my customized cover for 2012:

 

 

And there are lots more pics where that came from. Click here to enter to win!

 

We got the chance to share a fabulous giveaway and jumped on it. Big Picture Classes is celebrating their fourth year of the 4 experts classes and kicking it off is Stacy Julian. She has prepared an amazing experinece that will focus on storytelling, creative process, colors, products, just about everything relevant to scrapbooking. We have ONE spot to giveaway.

Learn more HERE and Stacy has posted a Q&A on her blog.

Leave a comment sharing one of your 2012 goals to be entered to win. Giveaway closes at midnight today Jan 4 at PST. Winner will be announced tomorrow morning and contacted asap.

Randomly selected winner is

Rosann Santos-Elliott

thanks everyone! happy new year

The Ella Friends have put together an exciting blog hop TODAY featuring handmade cards inspired by our eBook, 31 Thank You Cards: Express yourself beautifull with 138 tips, tricks, and tutorials.

 

Visit each of the blogs below, where you'll find a coupon code that will save you $2 off your purchase of 31 Thank You Cards, and find several chances to win a FREE copy of this fabulous eBook for yourself. Visit one and all for more chances to win!

It's our annual Ella Friends call! See if you'd like to be a part of our 2012 team. (And meet our amazing 2011 team here.)

What We're Looking For
Passionate scrapbookers who are active online, whether via blogs, online scrapbooking galleries, Facebook, Twitter, manufacturer design teams, and more.

NOTE: Previous design-team experience not expected or required! We're looking to work with current influencers AND fresh new faces in the industry. This is not a popularity contest! And while we had nine Ella Friends last year, we are not limited to any specific number. We may choose eight, we may choose a dozen!

What You'll Do
Be Ella's online ambassadors, helping us spread the Ella news via blogs, Facebook, Twitter, scrapbooking forums and galleries, and more!

What You'll Get

How to Enter
Send an email to submissions@ellapublishing.com with "Ella Friend Call" in the subject line by Wednesday, November 30. In that email, attach pictures of four layouts or projects that you feel illustrate your scrapbooking or paper-crafting style. And in the body of the email, please answer the following nine questions:

1. Why do you want to be an Ella Friend?
2. Why do you scrapbook and/or what are your scrapbooking goals?
3. What are your top three sources of scrapbooking inspiration? (Apart from Ella, of course!)
4. Where and how are you active online?
5. How many people are you able to reach with your online efforts? (Share number of Facebook or Twitter followers and/or blog traffic numbers.)
6. What design teams are you on now or in the past?
7. How would you describe your scrapbooking style or philosophy?
8. Where are you from?
9. Give Ella one sincere compliment (insincere compliments are also welcome):

 

The new team will be announced on or around January 1, 2012.

Hello, this is Danielle Flanders here with my second guest blog post! I’m so excited to be a part of Card Month here at Ella Publishing, as card making is one of my favorite hobbies. Today I am sharing the second part of my “top 10 favorite stamping techniques."  (see the first five here)

6. Stamp a background.

It’s quick and easy to create a simple card by repeating a sentiment or another shape in the background.

 

7. Stamp a quick border.

I’ve used a leaf stamp here to create a neat border on the bottom of my card.

 

8. Stamp and then dry emboss over the top.

Such depth is created when stamping and then running it through an embossing machine with an embossing folder, such as the swirls on this card.

 

9. Mist over punched shapes, then add stamping over the top.

On this card, I punched some hearts out, placed them on my card, then misted over them with Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels. I removed the hearts and let the card dry. Then I added a sentiment over the top.

10. Use stamps in a unique way, other than what they were intended for.

Here I’ve used a border stamp as journaling lines.

Such depth is created when stamping and then running it through an embossing machine with an embossing folder, such as the swirls on this card.

I hope you enjoyed these card ideas! For more card ideas please visit my blog: Homespun With Heart.

 

 

GIVEAWAY:

My favorite stamp company, Papertrey Ink, has offered to give away one of my favorite stamp sets and coordinating dies, the Tiny Tags. Please leave a message on the first blog post here to be entered to win!

Hi Ella friends!!

My name is Lisa J. and I help host the Facebook page and blog for MyMemories Suite digital scrapbooking software! I am *SUPER* excited to have been invited to introduce our software to you AND share a GREAT giveaway with you during Ella's *Digital Scrapbooking Month*! If you have been even thinking of diving into the digital pool - this is the post for you!

I know many of you are traditional paper scrappers, but I want you to know that digital scrapbooking software can give you great flexibility and offer you some fabulous new ways to share your hard work and beautiful pages with more friends and family than ever before! If you've thought about adding a digital program to your scrapping toolbox but were afraid to take the plunge, because you thought it would be too hard to learn, to expensive to do or to steep a learning curve to master - then I have GREAT news for you!

With MyMemories Suite digital scrapbooking software, you get a great software program that is EASY to use and FUN to learn! If you can:

• upload a photo from your camera
• scan an old photo to your computer
• and send an email

- you WILL be able to do this! You can take your old (and new) photos from "shoebox to showcase" in no time flat! Because MyMemories Suite is available in a downloadable version you can get started right away! And at MMS, we have a super busy (and FUN) Facebook page and great MyMemories.com blog and forum if you ever get stuck along the way! There is literally almost always someone there that is happy to help - or point you to one of the many video and PDF tutorials that we have online to help you along the way!

And to get ONE LUCKY WINNER started, we are giving away a free copy of MyMemories Suite V2!The software is downloadable and your purchase (or prize) will stay active in your account at MMS in case you ever need to download to a new computer (or redownload in case of computer problems). Your software comes with over 1300 included digital papers and 1500 digital embellishments and a wonderful collection of Designer Templates that you can use to tell YOUR family's story YOUR way! Digital Scrapping has never been easier! Use "drag and drop" technology to easily add photos and elements to your pages, or use the FAST FILL feature to add all your photos at once! You can also shop in the MyMemories.com Design Shop to add tons of great Designer Template pages or new digital kits and papers to your software as you need them. You can also use ANY other digital content you already own in your MMS software for unlimited creativity in your projects!



So, just post a comment and tell me WHY you want to "GO DIGITAL" and one lucky winner will be selected to win! For additional chances to win, visit our MMS Facebook page, and LIKE us, Tweet about this post, (here's a shortened link to copy and paste to your Twitter page:  http://bit.ly/npAInw) and leave an additional comment for each!

If you are NOT selected as a winner this time, but still want to give MyMemories Suite a try - here's a great deal for you! Use the code below in the PROMO code box at check out to save $10.00 on the already low price of the software AND get a $10.00 coupon to pick up some extra digital goodies in the MyMemories.com Design Shop! 

You can also check out a fun little collection of FREEBIES in the MyMemories.com Design Shop - they are a nice addition to your digital collection!

PROMO CODE: STMMMS38029

So, check it out! If you have any questions or need more information, feel free to zip me an email at LisaJ@mymemories.com!
... and don't forget to make a memory today!


Click here to see a list of all the digi deals, articles, and more happening this month!

Dear Ella Family,

Wendy and I have been keeping a little secret under wraps for the last few months, and believe us, it has NOT been easy! (We both loooove to talk.) We've almost spilled the beans several times, but we've managed to keep this news under our hats. And now we are finally at liberty to speak. Let the floodgates open! (Did I include enough metaphors for you there?)

Wendy and I been invited to be a part of MyCraftChannel.com, which means we get to have our very own crafty tv show! This first-of-its-kind website launches in this fall, with 20 exciting hosts (from Stacy Julian to Heidi Swapp to Theresa Collins to so many more!) who will each release a new webisode each week. Here's how MyCraftChannel describes their vision, in a nutshell:

"Top experts, bloggers and craft celebrities in various niches from sewing, painting, scrapbooking, DIY projects, photography, mixed media and more have joined together to bring entertaining education to the web with TV-formatted shows."

And this isn't the two of us sitting in front of a webcam (as you may be used to seeing). We have our own custom-built set, a producer, a real-live camera man, the works! If only we had our own makeup artists and personal assistants, then we'd really be in business.

Our show is called Books & Crafts with Ella Publishing Co., and our first several episodes are already filmed and in production now.



Here's the official description:

Are you a reader who loves to craft? Or a crafter who loves to read? Either or, one or both, you'll have a home at the Books & Crafts show with Wendy Smedley and Angie Lucas. Join us for weekly creative projects and book reviews that revolve around the written word. You'll love the crafts we make for, because of, inspired by, or literally out of actual books. And listen in as we share the books that inspire us to create and live, live and create. We'll discuss books and eBooks that are related to creativity, writing, scrapbooking, crafting, photography, design, style, diy, decor, and more. Even fiction may find its way into our show, if it inspires us to make something pretty. 

We are thrilled to be a part of this new venture and to be in the company of so many extremely talented and innovative women. If you haven't been following along, we invite you to visit the MyCraftChannel blog, where a new host is being announced (and a new Cricut machine is given away) each day.



Today they're giving away the last E2 machine in the bunch today. Just hop over to the MyCraftChannel blog to find out how to win! (We'd LOVE to hear from you below, but you also need to comment on the post at mycraftchannelblog.blogspot.com to be eligible for the giveaway.)

We're beyond excited for this new adventure. And if you'll just keep checking here at The Daily Trumpet and visiting the Ella Publishing Facebook page, we'll keep you updated as the launch draws nearer. And we'll make sure to post each new video here as well as on our Facebook page for a fun new dose of weekly inspiration.

Thanks for reading! Now go win a Cricut...

  

Our amazing talented friend Elizabeth Dillow is teaching a four week workshop at Big Picture Classes called Design Challenges and we our giving away TWO SPOTS in her class. She is so talented, inspiring, and just plain fun to hang out with.



Read more about the class below.
Fitting scrapbooking into a busy schedule can be tricky; even more so if you’re feeling a little stale, bored, or generally uninspired! Scrapbooking is about the photos and the words that make up your memories, of course, but if you lose sight of the value of the process, our beloved hobby can feel a little like a chore—and scrapbooking should never feel like a chore. If your creative process is feeling a little anemic or you simply want the accountability of a challenge to reset your creative focus, you need Design Challenges!

This is a perfect class for summer and remember you have FOREVER access to the class archives.

GIVEAWAY:
Enter the giveaway by leaving a comment below sharing your number one design challenge. Winners will be randomly selected and posted in 24 hours 9:00 pm MST July 7.
Thanks for playing along!!

***Winners below***
justasiam
christa_allgood

Hooray for a 4th of July weekend giveaway! Leave a comment on this post by Tuesday, July 5th for a chance to win a seat in Scraphic Design with the fabulous instructor Tiffany Tillman! (Thanks Renee for the giveaway...)


*UPDATE*
And the winner is...
nej26

The winner of the handmade list journal is...

commenter #29: beida-fish

For the rest of you, who may be sad about not winning, here are three more chances for you to win!

Leave any list-related comment you want, and we'll pick three winners who can each choose one of the three new products released so far in June! (Click each cover to see a sneak peek.)







Comments close Friday. Go!