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!

As you know, UR2 Cre8ive: 68 ways to unleash your creativity went on sale yesterday! But perhaps you didn't know that this eBook is based on the very first class Stacy Julian ever taught at bigpicturescrapbooking.com! And the messages inside are even more relevant today than they ever were.

Well, we'd like to reveal a few MORE fun facts that you may not have known before, so we interrogated....er, interviewed...Stacy herself to find out a bit more about this incredibly creative soul. And since the title of this eBook contains numbers in a very "cre8ive" way, today's "getting to know you" questionnaire is all about NUMBERS!

1. How old were you when you first started scrapbooking?
Well, I started my first scrapbook the summer I was 14. I had a really easy babysitting job, so my mom bought me a scrapbook at our local Hallmark store and handed me a box of childhood photos. More recently, I started when I was expecting Chase. I was 29.

2. How old were you when you finally felt like a "grown-up"?
I don't feel like a grown up.  I hope I never do. I mean this most sincerely.

3. How many times a day do you feel overwhelmed?
I'm overwhelmed at the thought of counting how many times a day I feel overwhelmed. Can I skip this question?

4. How many times a day do you stop, look around you, and realize how lucky/blessed you are?
Ok, now there's a question I want to answer. At least 53 times a day!

You don't have to be a kid to paint your toenails lots of fun colors! Visit Stacy's blog to read about the "oddly creative things" she does to brighten her day.

5. With five adorable kids at home now, how many grandchildren do you hope to have one day?
SO many!

6. How many gallons of milk does your family of seven go through in a week?
Six. I've got teenage boys and we ALL love cold cereal.

7. How many hours of sleep do you need per night (on average) to feel restful and energized?
I need more sleep the older I get. I would say 8, and I make this happen several times a week.

8. As an avid runner, what's the farthest distance you've run in a single day?
Too funny. I recently recalled this CRAZY experiment that I conducted when I was 15, where I ran one mile, at the top of the hour for 7 hours straight! Who does stuff like that? The longest I've run since then (other than the day I ran my marathon) is 18!

9. How many different brownie recipes do you have in your baking rotation (estimate)?
Oh goodness. I have LOTS. My friend Terri Musser in OK organized a brownie scrapbook for me with at least 30 recipes in it. I'm always cutting out recipes to try and the vast majority of the time I either use the Ghirardelli mix from Costco or my trusty low-fat recipe that I got back in 1997.

10. How many books have you written?
Five, if you count the special issue I wrote for Creating Keepsakes magazine before they really recognized authors.

11. How many classes have you personally taught at Big Picture Scrapbooking?
I think about 11 or 12.

12. How many different countries have you visited in order to teach scrapbooking classes?
Seriously, how many things are you going to make me count today? I'm going to guess seven.

13. What are the top 5 obstacles that women tell you get in the way of their creativity?
No time. No money. No where to start. No end in sight. No fun anymore. Please note: I do not except any of these as valid excuses.

14. How many of those 5 obstacles are addressed in UR2 Cre8ive?
In an effort to sell this book, let's say ALL of them! No really, you don't need to address obstacles. You need to teach yourself to see opportunities instead of obstacles. This is possible.

15. If there's another "UR2" message you'd want to tell women everywhere, besides "UR2 Cre8ive," what would it be?
UR2 Hard On Yourself. Seriously, stop and think about everything you do to contribute goodness to this world. Women are amazing.

Thank you for spending this time with us, Stacy! Thanks especially for encouraging us to see "opportunities" instead of "obstacles." Truly inspiring words. And thanks to those of you who shared your creative moments with us yesterday! The random winner of UR2 Cre8ive is commenter #16: tape.

Let's have another contest, shall we? To enter today's drawing for a free copy of UR2 Cre8ive, leave a comment answering question #15 for yourself. If there was a "UR2" message YOU'D like to impart to women everywhere, what would it be???

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.

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.

Donna Jannuzzi's fantastic eBook, Stretch Your Sketches, is now on sale!



To tell you the truth, we had never heard of Donna Jannuzzi until she sent in a fabulous, very well-thought out eBook idea to submissions@ellapublishing.com. She was a regular Ella reader who had a great idea. And after we saw her fantastic layout designs, we couldn't resist sharing her talents with all of you. To help you get to know this "fresh face" a little bit better, here's a quick Q&A between Ella & Donna.

3 scrapbooky questions
What are your favorite subjects to scrapbook?
Definitely my children. Children do and say funny things. They do cute things. They look at the world with fresh eyes – it makes everything new and fresh to you too. I love recording our everyday moments as a family. The little moments that make our family unique. It’s those little things that I know I’ll want to remember later.
 
Why do you scrapbook?
Because I don’t want to forget anything about these precious years. Time really does go by so quickly. It’s such a cliché. But I can’t believe that my oldest son will turn four this year! Also, my parents have years and years of photographs put into albums, but nothing recorded. I want to record things for my family.
 
What are some of your favorite products?
My favorite product is patterned paper. I love patterned paper and I can’t make a page without it (I tried; it gave me a newfound respect for you cardstock-only girls!). As for embellishments, I like buttons and brads. And label stickers.
 

3 personality questions
What is your idea of a dream job?
Whenever I used to have a bad day in the lab I would always joke that what I really wanted to be was a pastry chef. I do really love the challenge of baking and I love to learn new cooking techniques. Most baking recipes require precision either in measurement or in technique, but then there is a very great opportunity when baking for creativity. I think being a pastry chef would satisfy both aspects of my personality. The side that loves to play with numbers and measurements, but also the side that hungers for some kind of creative outlet. To be perfectly honest though, I think I am living my dream job right now. I always knew I wanted to be a mom. I’m trying to enjoy these years when my children are young as best I can. I know they go by quickly. I know I am blessed.
 
Besides scrapbooking, what do you do in your free time?
I read. A lot. And as I mentioned above I love to cook. I like to try out new recipes and master new skills. I like to read about my faith and theology. I just love learning in general. If I have a question about something I seek out an answer.
 
If you could vacation anywhere in the world where would it be and why?
I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to travel to quite a few places in my life. There are several places I’d like to go back to though and learn a little more about them, become better acquainted with them. I would love to take my family on a pilgrimage to Rome. When the boys are older we definitely plan on doing that.

We decided to go with six questions for this author, in the spirit of the 6 Weeks of Sketches challenge you'll find here on the blog every Friday. Come back soon!

Stacy Julian, who is authoring an eBook on creativity for February (hurray!) mailed me this fun magazine clipping when she sent in her projects to be photographed:

I just had to share! How cool are those paperclips?

And shortly after we finalized our brand colors and logo, I spotted this beauty at IKEA, which now holds a place of honor in my office:

Three cheers for elephants!

On another note, I hope my fellow Americans are having a fantastic Martin Luther King, Jr., Day! In parting, I'd like to share two of my favorite quotes from Dr. King:

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."

Our new author's name is

DONNA JANNUZZI

and she is an ENGINEER

Winners of the word scramble contest and winners of the digi classes will be announced tomorrow, Friday.
(the digi class contest runs until end of day)

Join us tomorrow as we introduce you to our new author, Donna, and as she hosts the first ever Ella challenge.
How fun does that sound?

See you tomorrow.

We are going to have some fun today. As we at Ella are getting ready to release our eighth e-book (I know so exciting!) we thought it would be fun to see if anyone could guess some information about this first time author. She is relatively unknown in the industry and we are thrilled to be the first to have discovered her many talents as a scrapbooker.

(by the way, one of the goals of Ella Pub was to discover brand new talent and share with the scrapbooking world)

Two questions for you today

1. What is the author's profession?

2. What is the author's last name?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The letters to our eighth author's last name are pictured below.

Good luck and have fun.

Oh and of course you will have a chance to win a goody. Post your guess in the comments by midnight (MST) Wednesday, January 13 to be entered to win a free ebook of your choosing.

Happy Monday!

Wendy and Angie are having a grand old time in our first big brainstoming session of the year. To kick things off, we decided to do a li'l video for ya'll to introduce Wendy to the Ella parade officially. Yay Wendy!

Let us be the first to apologize that this video is 10 minutes long, but there ARE cute shots of Angie's new puppy in the video, so for that reason only, it's worth watching!

AND, if you persevere through the entire video (honor system) and leave us a comment, we will pick TWO lucky winners who will receive either a copy of Quick & Creative Quizzes, by Wendy Smedley and Angie Lucas, or Quiz Printables by Cathy Zielske. Worth it? We think so.

Also, Wendy and Angie will be teaching a class based on this best-selling eBook at CHA in Anaheim! To register, click here and scroll down to Quick & Easy Quizzes (W0707). The class is Friday, January 22, at 5:00 p.m. Hope to see you there.

A warm welcome to Wendy!
**eBook drawing closed 1/13/10**

Angie Lucas is thrilled to announce that she has assumed the position of President and CEO of Ella Publishing Co.

In the last 9 months, while Ella was in various stages of gestation, Angie has worn a lot of different hats in her role as President and co-founder. She’s excited to discover that her head is big enough (in circumference, but NOT in ego) to add another hat or two to the pile. And she’ll continue to rely on her team of experts (Cathy the Zielske, Rachel the Copy Editor, Trav the Web Genius, Brad & Maeve the Photographers, Joe the Programmer, Liz the Submissions Gal, the Talented Ella Friends, etc.) in bringing you the finest assortment of scrapbooking eBooks on the planet.


Angie Lucas wearing hats, some of which are more attractive than others.


Wendy Smedley, who was Angie’s partner in crime for 5 years at Simple Scrapbooks magazine, has joined the Ella Publishing Co. creative team, bringing with her literally hundreds of ideas (233 to be exact) for how she can help Ella Publishing Co. continue to thrive and grow. Wendy was creative editor at Simple Scrapbooks magazine for 8 years, and she’s the author of three books (her most recent is to be published in fall 2010) and the co-author of one eBook. Wendy is a 10-year veteran of the scrapbooking industry, having been involved in everything from retail sales to teaching to magazine publishing to product development.


Angie and Wendy teaching at a scrapbook retreat in 2006 and filming DVDs in 2008.


Lain Ehmann, co-founder and former CEO of Ella Publishing Co., has transitioned to the role of an Ella Friend, and she’ll continue working alongside nine fellow scrapbookers that she hand-selected to spread the good news of Ella far and wide. We’re happy we can continue to partake of Lain’s talents, and Lain’s happy to be participating on a smaller scale, with a time commitment that’s more suited to her family’s current needs.


Angie and Lain one year ago, while in the early planning stages of Ella Publishing Co. (Photo by Tina Cockburn)

Please join us in wishing everyone great success in their new roles!

~Ella

p.s. Although the company name was formed by spelling the founders’ initials backwards (Ehmann Lain Lucas Angie = ELLA), there are no plans to rename our mascot “LA” or “AL,” neither of which are good names for an adorable female elephant.