Many of us scrapbookers like to listen to music or watch TV while we scrapbook. I enjoy listening to scrapbook chatter while I am scrapbooking and wanted to share with you awesome Ella blog readers what I recommend and please share what you listen to or watch.

* Paperclipping Roundtable

This show is a casual discussion between 3-6 scrapbookers who work in the industry (plus Izzy) and they cover topics from product trends to the latest news to IKEA. You can listen either in itunes or on via their webpage. However if you subscribe in itunes you are helping support them. (and it is still free)

* Listen to Stacy Julian talk about scrapbooking by color and other topics

* Former counselor turned paper crafter/scrapbooker Amy Coon hosts interviews with industry influencers and discusses  the most interesting topics

* and of course the Diva Craft Lounge is another favorite

*Creating Keepsakes magazine has started an informative and focused series, check it out

What else is out there that you listen to or watch?

Share!

At my house, it is my youngest son's birthday. He is turning 10 on the tenth in 2010. Pretty cool! As we have been getting ready, it reminded me that everyone celebrates birthdays differently. I think it would be fun to know what you do at your house. At the Smedley house, the birthday child:

And that is what we do. It gets exhausting to do this over and over again (five times a year!), but hey, kids need to feel special.

Share what it is your family does.

How do you make birthdays special?

What do you do that no one else does?

It was been a busy month for Ella with all the blog tours, giveaways, and exciting MISA announcements. Expecting us to take a break? No sir, no way, we have awesome stuff planned for the blog this August. What is it you ask?

1. New challenge series starting on Friday based on Design Workshop.
2. Awesome guest bloggers that will share their card making secrets with us.
3. A few CHA-Summer giveaways
4. Behind the scenes look at the August eBook and August eZine
5. A product showcase

It will be exciting and educational. So while you are running around getting ready for back to school or enjoying the rest of the summer take a few minutes to visit us this month because we are jam packed with good stuff for our Ella blog readers.

In the meantime check out just a few of Ella's favorite CHA-Summer 2010 products

Hambly is a trend setter and this pen and ink transperency is sure to be used over and over again with all those vintage inspired pages.

American Crafts did not disappoint with their releases. Looking forward to their Valentine line, Love.

As a fan of Halloween, I think the Toil and Trouble line by Girls Paperie is going to be fun.

For great home decor projects 7Gypsies did not disappoint and Tim Holtz introduced a cool shadow box. These would make such great gifts.

And there is so much more to look forward to!

We hope you read yesterday's post for a few geographic hints about our nine Most Influential Scrapbookers! Now it's time for a few more helpful facts...

Today's Hints
One nominee has no children and one nominee has 5 children.
The nine nominees have 25 children among them (6 of whom are all grown up).
Five of the nominees have brown or black hair.
Two nominees are blond.
Two nominees have beautiful reddish hair (whether it's natural or colored, we can't say).

Go ahead and guess! The FIRST THREE comments today that contain at least one correct guess (and NO incorrect guesses) will each be awarded a $10 gift certificate to ellapublishing.com. Yes, you can guess people who were guessed yesterday. It's the first three guesses each day that win. (Note: we won't be announcing this week's blog winenrs until after Thursday, when the full list of Most Influential Scrapbookers has been posted.)

One more bonus hint: We set up this award not to recognize "lifetime achievement," but to reward very recent effort and achievement (e.g. from 2009 and 2010), out-of-the-box thinking and innovation, partnering and pioneering into new frontiers, and reaching out to support and lift others within the industry. Our hope, in part, is to introduce you to (or remind you of) people who are influential in their own spheres, making a daily difference to their audiences and to their industry peers. We want to help our nine nominees widen their influence even further, because we think they’re doing great things.


p.s. Make sure you mark your calendar for our Most Influential Scrapbookers Blog Tour, coming up July 19 through 23, 2010. There will be 100 total prizes given away from Ella and the nine nominees!

Welcome to week three of our challenge series.  Time to stretch your supplies, in particular your punches!

Join us for the last week of stretching as we get creative with our punches.
view week one here
view week two here

THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE:
Do something with the negative space!


Can you find the negative space? I punched each photo with a heart shape and backed it with patterned paper. Next I added a number sticker that referred to the reference journaling on the left.

To participate, upload a layout that fits this week's challenge anywhere online (to your blog, to an online gallery, or to our BRAND NEW Flickr gallery). Then leave a comment on this post containing a link to your layout by Thursday, July 15 at midnight MST. One random participant each week will win a free copy of Eight is Enough!


AND, at the end of the three weeks, we'll pick two random participants from the entire challenge series who will each win an assortment of punches from EK Tools and Martha Stewart Crafts! Every layout you enter counts as one entry into the giveaway, so yes you can submit several different layouts in the same week, and the more times you enter, the greater the odds that you'll win!

EK Success Brands is giving away:

Dotted Circle Medium Punch 

Zig Zag Chain Edger Punch

For Sale Sign Large Punch

Bubbles Edger Punch

Martha Stewart Crafts is giving away:

Leaf Stamp and Punch

Medium Birthday Candles Punch

Garden Trellis Deep Edge Punch

Deco Fans Punch Around the Page Set

The Random Winner from Week 2 Was:

Commenter #11, teapot2angel, who added Shimmerz Spritz and a colored brad on her layered punched butterfly. Adorable!

Welcome to week two of our challenge series.  Time to stretch your supplies, in particular your punches!

In the last two years the type, quality, and styles of punches have grown drastically. It is a tool that can be used in so many different ways. We, at Ella, were inspired by the inventive ways Nicole Harper, Stephanie Howell, and Kelly Noel  used punches on their layouts in Eight is Enough: Easy ways to stretch supplies and use leftovers, so we wanted to extend the inspiration to you!

Join us for three weeks of stretching as we get creative with our punches.

THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE:
Add color and embellishments to your punched shapes



As you can see I used a butterfly punch and added bling and polka dots with a Sakura gel pen.



To participate, upload a layout that fits this week's challenge anywhere online (to your blog, to an online gallery, or to our BRAND NEW Flickr gallery). Then leave a comment on this post containing a link to your layout by Thursday, July 8 at midnight MST. One random participant each week will win a free copy of Eight is Enough!


AND, at the end of the three weeks, we'll pick two random participants from the entire challenge series who will each win an assortment of punches from EK Tools and Martha Stewart Crafts! Every layout you enter counts as one entry into the giveaway, so yes you can submit several different layouts in the same week, and the more times you enter, the greater the odds that you'll win! 

EK Success is giving away:

Dotted Circle Medium Punch

Zig Zag Chain Edger Punch

For Sale Sign Large Punch

Bubbles Edger Punch

Martha Stewart Crafts is giving away:

Leaf Stamp and Punch

Medium Birthday Candles Punch

Garden Trellis Deep Edge Punch

Deco Fans Punch Around the Page Set

Week one's randomly chosen winner is... skling!

Great use of color- and what chipper photos of that little boy

Remember our "six weeks of sketches" blog challenges, based on our popular Stretch Your Sketches eBook?

Well, we're starting a NEW series of challenges, beginning today, that will go for the next three weeks. And we're going to ask you to stretch again, except this time you're stretching a product from your stash, in particular your punches!

In the last two years the type, quality, and styles of punches have grown drastically. It is a tool that can be used in so many different ways. We, at Ella, were inspired by the inventive ways Nicole Harper, Stephanie Howell, and Kelly Noel  used punches on their layouts in Eight is Enough: Easy ways to stretch supplies and use leftovers, so we wanted to extend the inspiration to you!

Join us for three weeks of stretching as we get creative with our punches.

THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE:
Make a background using paper scraps and a punch!


I created this layout with a Martha Stewart button punch that embosses AND punches at the same time. The lively colors and playful heart made from buttons really suit these photos of my cute niece.



To participate, upload a layout that fits this week's challenge anywhere online (to your blog, to an online gallery, or to our BRAND NEW Flickr gallery). Then leave a comment on this post containing a link to your layout by Thursday, July 1 at midnight MST. One random participant each week will win a free copy of Eight is Enough!



AND, at the end of the three weeks, we'll pick two random participants from the entire challenge series who will each win an assortment of punches from EK Tools and Martha Stewart Crafts! Every layout you enter counts as one entry into the giveaway, so yes you can submit several different layouts in the same week, and the more times you enter, the greater the odds that you'll win! 

EK Success is giving away:

Dotted Circle Medium Punch  

Zig Zag Chain Edger Punch 

For Sale Sign Large Punch 

Bubbles Edger Punch

Martha Stewart Crafts is giving away:

Leaf Stamp and Punch

Medium Birthday Candles Punch 

Garden Trellis Deep Edge Punch 

Deco Fans Punch Around the Page Set

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

Layers are a key element in many types of design.

Professional decorator and TV host Christopher Lowell has authored  a handful of books and done numerous episodes espousing the concept of using layers to decorate your home.


Fashionistas layer clothes in ways never imagined and receive acclaim for their style.


In the world of professional cake decorators, building and decorating the cake in layers allows them to execute the most mind blowing designs.

What about layers and scrapbooking? eBook author Lisa Dickinson is the queen of using layers effectively in her scrapbooking projects. She makes mixing colors, textures, lines, photos, words, and accents look effortless. She shares her secrets behind her design in her eBook, Design Workshop, and on her blog. While all of these help me incorporate her secrets into my scrapbooking I like to think of other tricks to help me remember her secrets. One of those tricks is to think of a layout like a banana split. No really.


They both have lots of color, different textures, and flavors which work together to deliver an appealing image. 

First you start with a foundation, your banana
background

Then you add color and textures with three different flavors of ice cream
patterns and photos

Next you add a a little rich hot fudge sauce
shape and color

Then you cover with the delicious foamy whip cream
words in your title and journaling

Last you sprinkle with nuts and add the cherry
embellishments

There's no one better than Lisa Dickinson to show us how layers can work together to tell an oh-so-sweet story. Here are two of her lovely, layered creations:




Ahh perfection.
Now go scoop the ice cream and get scrapbooking!

(Oh yeah, and buy Lisa's eBook, too. It's 100 percent calorie free!)

Summertime is here at my house. All my kids are out of school and they are ready to hurry up and relax. Ever feel like that? You need to hurry up and make a memory or do something significant? As scrapbookers we pay attention to those big expected moments like graduations, birthdays, recitals, and holidays; how good are we at paying attention to the little things? I would say pretty good. As a reminder to all of us, take photos of those little things, take time to make homemade lemonade, sit outside with the kids and play games or read. Make time for the little things in life.

A memorable tradition at our house is making summer food. Each child picks something they want to make and then we get the ingredients and have at it. A few of the favorites over the years are blueberry smoothies, ice cream in a bag, lemonade, breakfast muffins, and blond brownies. Funny thing about this tradition... I have never scrapbooked or even photographed it. That will change this year! Make a commitment with me to photograph your family's little things this summer.