Welcome to the seventh day of Meylah’s Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway! On the seventh day of Christmas, Meylah is pleased to introduce Ellen Rowan of ZoomAlbum and ReCaptivation! Yep, in addition to being a busy businesswoman, Ellen is also a mother, community supporter, environmentalist and social media connector. Hanging out with her is just inspiring and energizing. We first met Ellen at the Fall City Stimulus Art Fair and instantly became big fans. After reading about her, we are sure you will be big fans as well.
Meylah: How would you describe yourself?
Ellen: I am a hippie mom, tech freak, photo obsessed, recycled bottle cap jewelry maker. In addition to seeking art therapy, I help companies build exposure through social media with the "today's mom" demographic. One of the main companies I work for is ZoomAlbum, who provide kits with the materials needed to create pocket-sized photo books using your computer and an inkjet printer. I have had the opportunity to demonstrate ZoomAlbum on TV (Martha Stewart, QVC, HSN and Scrapbook Memories) and at several trade shows and conferences over the past 4 years. I am passionate about the product and am addicted to making and sharing them. You can get more information on ZoomAlbum at our Blog or follow us on Twitter.
Meylah: What inspires you to create your products that impact the community in such a positive way?
Ellen: I am passionate about sharing memories and ZoomAlbum allows us to quickly and easily create a memory book that can be carried and shared. The emotional connection that these little books make is incredible and heartwarming. We've received stories of soldiers whose families have stayed connected by sending ZoomAlbums (they fit in the uniform shoulder pocket) and stories of parents with autistic children who use them as visual books. I made ZoomAlbums for my grandmother before she died to help her stay connected with all of her loved ones. My children carry them to school with them and share them with their friends. I've made mini portfolios of their artwork and poetry and have used them for school projects in the classrooms.
Meylah: What is ReCaptivation and how did you get started on this journey?
Ellen: ReCaptivation is focused on creating beautiful art out of recycled bottle caps. My business partner Annelise Ring, and I collect unused jewelry, beads, photos, scrap paper and other bling to create our pendants, ornaments, belts, hatbands and coasters. At the beginning we used metal bottle caps and have recently expanded to plastic caps that are unrecyclable and would otherwise be thrown away. We have been passionate about creating our art with reused or recycled materials since the beginning and were more determined to educate people on our plastic consumption after meeting Chris Jordan, a Seattle photographer who just returned from a trip to Midway Island where baby albatross are dying from being fed plastic bits floating in the ocean from our trash.
ReCaptivation is in the process of setting up our website where you'll be able to view and purchase our creations. In the meantime, you can email us or call me (Ellen) at 425-503-5458 for more information and to order. We love to share how we make our bottle cap bling and often invite friends to come and join us in creating art from recycled bottle caps. And, we love any donations of caps, beads or bling that would otherwise be thrown away.
Meylah: You have a great presence on Twitter and Facebook. What is the secret sauce to create a great following with social media?
Ellen: In terms of creating a following, my secret recipe is not so secret... be authentic, be yourself, share, listen and reciprocate.
Meylah: Today, you are giving away a ZoomAlbum Kit, a pendant (ornament) and a knitted hat (My Head Hugs). For the readers to win your giveaway, what feedback would you want from them?
Ellen: I would love readers to tell me the ways they'd like to use ZoomAlbum and insights on how we get ZoomAlbums in everyone’s hands.
Thank you Ellen for your generosity and kindness. Alright everyone, you heard her…leave a comment and be eligible to win this great package of gifts from Ellen!
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21 Comments
The ZoomaAbum seems like a great idea. My mom is a relatively recent grandmother, and myself a recent aunt. I love showing off pictures of my niece but currently have to resort to pictures on my phone. i would love to make a ZoomAlbum of pictures of my niece for my mom and i to take around with us all the time.
Marketing this as a great gift for grandparents and family you don’t get to see much is a great way, especially around the holidays, to get people to buy the kit and make ZoomAlbums as gifts for relatives.
Great stuff Ellen, good luck with everything! Love the ZoomAlbum and can’t wait to try it out.
Saw what a big hit the ZoomAlbums were at a local ski school. Seemed like everyone was making one. This year I think I’d like to make one for each of my students :)
Zoom Albums would be a fun project to do with your kid – even if the child is small, they could help pick out the pictures – then they would have even more fun with it when it’s done :)
I think that the ZoomAlbum kits would be a fantastic party favor for tweens. They could make albums of all of their friends and take them home.
I think ZoomAlbum would be the perfect buisness card for me. Since the work I do must be seen to be appreciated it would be a great way to get my info out there with visual content. As for getting them into everyones hands the only thing i can think of is make an Iphone app. Everyone seems to have one of those!
The ZoomAlbum was a big hit a our local ski school…I am thinking rather than pictures on CD’s for my students, this year we will try ZoomAlbums for the year end ski lesson pictures.
The Zoom Album looks like the perfect stocking stuffer! Plus it is just the right size to put in your purse. I think Zoom Album would be such a fun way to document a pregnancy & how a mom-to-be is changing month by month. What a neat gift to share with your child once they grow old enough to appreciate it. On the other hand, it would also be a great way to document a newborns’ growth month by month. Zoom Albums could be sold at hospital gift shops to all the families burning time in the waiting room. :)
Thanks so much for the great ideas and comments! :)
i love how compact they are!
I think the ZoomAlbums are great…I think that with people getting married these would be great thank you gifts…wouldnt that be great?? I would love to have one!!
Hi Ellen – The Zoom Album Kits could be used to create visual craft “how to” step-by-step books. To get people acquainted and hooked on using the albums, you could plan ZoomAlbum parties – one for taking pictures (with themes like city walk, neighborhood architecture, a day at the zoo) and one for assembling or displaying the books. I’m looking forward to checking out your ReCaptivation website!
Gasp! I may be in absolute lust with the peace sign! I also have bottle caps I’m saving! This is the greatest day ever! Was Martha Stewart awesome? (@mojowriting)
How completely unique!
Zoom Album is a fantastic product for carrying images with you wherever you go. I use Zoom Albums as my “pocket portfolios” and I have them at hand in my camera case so I can show samples of my photo imaging anytime and any place. Ellen is invigorating to be around and her excitement is contagious. Thanks for your energy and enthusiasm!
I like that zoomalbums are so small, cute, and portable. They’d make great stocking stuffers. I’d never heard of them unitl now though, so I think the advertising needs to kick it up a notch! Great giveaway!
This is a great idea!
Ellen, I love the zoom albums. I adored the concept when you were demonstrated me at the Starbucks when we met.
The way zoom album can help in the corporate world is for team leaders to create vision and value statements with their teams. This can help them inspire them to live upto their values. Building the teams is an art by itself. Combine them with vision and values they can take with them anywhere , anytime.
In my personal setting, a great gifts for family to come together and build their memories. Invites family or friends, ask to bring memories and create zoom album together. What a great party where you are talking about your memories :) Event that people cannot forget. It is milestone to achieve..
Thanks for sharing.
I am fortunate that Ellen and Annelise are friends as well as creative fellow artists!! And yet- I didn’t even KNOW about Zoom Albums yet! These are great! I think marketing them to teachers is a wonderful idea. They would be great projects for the kids, or for the teachers as year-end gifts.