Project Life Member Gallery Spotlight

Our Member Gallery is full of inspiration right now!  We wanted to feature a few Project Life spreads that caught our eye!
I love this pink theme with this layout by list girl!  The black contrast makes it pop– I also love how she stitched around the speech bubble!
sarahboirin created this layou– check out her stitched pockets!  I love how she added bits and pieces in the pockets!

photochick17 created this layout.  I love how she added so many photos yet lots of journaling!  It’s perfect!

Wonderful job ladies! Please contact michelle@shopellesstudio.com with the following information:

Name/Address:

Contest: Project Life Member Gallery Spotlight
Prize: $5 GC

We would love to feature YOU on our blog!  Just upload your Project Life Spread in ourMember Gallery and you may be featured! 



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Project Life

For today’s Project Life, I am giving you a peek inside the childhood albums I am creating for my kids. Here are a few pages from my daughter Jordan’s album. 

I shared the first pages of these albums in this post.  I decided to put these childhood albums together after the school year began in order to document the year, and so they had an album of their own.   I view our weekly Project Life albums as a family album, while this is especially for them!

These albums are a great place to include art, school work, stories and photos that were not included in our weekly Project Life.   I put the spread together without worrying too much about exact chronological order of events, however I did organize the spreads by month.   The first two spreads are August and September.   I used the dividers by Becky Higgins to separate the months.

For the artwork, I included some actual art pieces from school, but I also scanned and printed many papers and drawings as well.   I view this album as where I will store and highlight all artwork I want to keep!

I love that I was able to use a wide combination of different Elle’s Studio products!  I used pieces from Everyday Moments, Saltwater, Penelope, Serendipity, and a variety of monthly kits as well! 

We want to feature your Project Life album!  During the last week of each month we will be featuring a couple Project Life spreads that caught our eye in the Member Gallery.  We will be posting Project Life spreads on our blog tomorrow!   If your spread is featured we will be sending you a $5 gift card to use in our store.   Good Luck!

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Capture Life : 2.24.14

Capture Life : Finding the Light
Have you found that one spot in your home where the natural lighting is just perfect?
Let’s talk about looking for it today.
Mine is in my kitchen. We have a large East facing window that allows ample amounts of natural light to stream in; even on the grayest of days. (The window is behind me in this situation.)
This is where I do most of my photography when I’m forced to stay indoors. 
On this particular gloomy December day Ella had just woke up, put on her favorite old tutu and was dancing away with her stuffed penguin. By simply convincing her to come into the kitchen to show me how she could twirl; she stepped into a much better lighting situation. 
While I may have asked her to move to a different spot from where she was originally playing I was still able to capture an everyday moment without creating the look of a “set up” photo session. 
You’ll notice from my settings I played a bit with the ISO levels but always kept my shutter speed at 1/200 in order to pause her movements.
Remember to get down low, zoom in, and change up your point of view to tell the story in a whole new way!
Canon 24-70 f2.8 1/200 ISO 800

 Canon 24-70 f3.5 1/200 ISO 2500

 Canon 24-70 f3.5 1/200 ISO 2500

Canon 24-70 f2.8 1/200 ISO 1600
Now, let’s get those photos on a page and record those memories!
I used the beautiful colors of the Penelope collection to highlight my little twirly girly. 

After positioning the four photos, I created a scattering of tags and filled in the remaining areas with my title and journaling using the new Letter Stickers as well as a variety of Stamps.

I encourage you to find that magic lighting spot in your home and begin shooting away!
~Megan
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Project Spotlight – February 23rd

 Congrats to this week’s Project Spotlight winner, Krissy! Check your email for your $10 Elle’s Studio gift certificate to use in our shop! Krissy’s Here Comes Trouble layout beautifully displays our Everyday Moments Collection! The black & white photo of her daughter looks awesome around all the pops of color! Head on over to her gallery to check it out and you can even add it to your favorites by logging into your account and clicking on the “I (heart) this!” button. 

You never know when your project will be chosen to be spotlighted! Each week we pick a new project out of our member gallery to spotlight. For your chance to be spotlighted and to win a $10 Elle’s Studio gift certificate, just upload your project to our member gallery and tag the Elle’s Studio item(s) used!

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Design Team Gallery Highlight | February 2013 Elle’s Studio Kit

As we featured our amazing contributing team yesterday and their work with our February kit, we thought it only right that we give a shout out to our awesome design team and the projects they created with it!
Yuki created a quick card that looks anything but thrown together!  Who wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of this paper crafted goodness?
One of my favorite parts about each kit is that you’re able to make them work for any project you have in mind.  I love how Jenny pulled out the blue colored items within the kit to create this non-traditionally colored love themed layout.
Valerie used tags within the February kit to create a love themed border around the photo of her new pup on this layout.  We also love the watercolored hearts she included on the background!
And, of course, our monthly kits are perfect for those of you creating Project Life style albums!  Waisam included many of the February tags on this weekly layout.
Juliana created a great visual triangle with the tags within the kit on this layout to draw your eye right to the adorable photo of her niece.  Perfect!
Becki also created a visual triangle on this layout.  We love the twine, glittered heart and arrow paper clip she added as fun extras!
We hope these highlights from our talented design team inspires you to pull out your February kit and get to work!  In the meantime, we hope you’ll Pin your favorites for future inspiration!

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Contributing Team Highlight: Limited Edition ES February 2014 Kit

So excited to share projects from our super talented team of contributors today using our limited edition February 2014 kit.  Have you purchased yours?

The background of this layout by contributor Melissa Mann is absolutely amazing!  She used our February cut files to create the amazing watercolored background.  Stunning!

Contributing team member Jennifer Chapin used this month’s kit to create a layout for her Project Life album.  We do all the work to make sure that kit contents coordinate, you get the fun part of putting your project together any way you’d like!

Using horizontal bands of patterned paper to ground her photo, contributor Kay Rogers also uses several tags from our February kit to embellish the larger, center band.
A white background not only lets contributing team member Angie Gutshall‘s photo take center stage, but also the embellishments she selected as well.
Contributing team member Meghann Andrew also used a white background to highlight her photo and embellishments.
A photo with an uncluttered background is the perfect choice for numerous embellishments on this layout by contributor Daniela Dobson.
We hope our Contributing Team members have inspired you to reach for your February Kit.  We can’t wait to see what you create!

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sketch thursday


Happy Thursday everyone! Today’s sketch is based on jennygevans’ <3 this layout from the DT gallery. I kept the sketch clean but feel free to use jenny’s layout as inspiration, where she made clusters in each circle. 

For my layout, I used rosettes for a simple, dimensional look. 


I embellished with different tags from the February kit and created a heart banner with this month’s exclusive wood veneers.




For a chance to win a $10 gift certificate to the Shop create a project inspired by this sketch, upload it to our Member Gallery and post a link here. A random winner will be selected and announced with next week’s sketch.

Thank you all who participated last week! Our randomly selected winner is... katierose!

Congratulations!! Please email michelle@shopellesstudio.com the following info:

Name/Address:
Contest: Sketch 02.13.14
Prize: $10 Elle’s Studio gift certificate

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Project Life

This week’s Project Life covers the week of February 3-9.

Last week I switched things up a bit in my pocket page design selection, which allowed me to once again experiment with a different page design since I was working with the back side of the page.

It was the Olympic opening ceremonies last week so I included a photo of the Olympic rings (with a minor error:) in the “Design H” page.

The right side of the page documented the rest of our week which consisted of (more) snow, Olympic excitement, and exciting gift of Duck Dynasty beards, and a Christian conference for Fraternity and Sorority students where my husband has served every year for the past 14 years!

I am enjoying watching this album take shape during the winter months.  After 3+ years of Project Life, I still get excited and enjoy finding new ways to put together an album documenting our everyday. 

We want to feature your Project Life album!  During the last week of each month we will be featuring a couple Project Life spreads that caught our eye in the Member Gallery.  We will be posting Project Life spreads on our blog tomorrow!   If your spread is featured we will be sending you a $5 gift card to use in our store.   Good Luck!

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Product Spotlight : 3×4 Journaling Cards

Let’s talk 3×4 Journaling Cards!
Here at Elle’s Studio we offer a large variety to choose from. They not only come in our collections, but also in our exclusive monthly kits.
Typically when one thinks of the purpose behind a 3×4 card we think of Project Life or Pocket Scrapbooking. Today we are going to cover not only that option but share how to use them on a 12×12 scrapbook page as well as on a card.
First, using them in pocket style scrapbooking…
I find myself taking less and less photos during these long winter months. So, I find it important to choose at least one day out of the month to document the everyday little things that are happening. 
When I do this not only are the photos important but so is allowing for lots and lots of journaling. I fill those 3×4 journaling cards with photos, date stamps, and of course our story from the day.

Below you will see that I used the number journaling card to play into documenting my boys’ bus time. (Which I spelled out using Elle’s new LETTER STICKERS.)

Here I used that same number tag which can be found in the Everday Moments Journaling pack and layered it with a Silhouette cut I created to document lunch time.

Don’t be afraid to use the 3×4 journaling tags in the 4×6 inserts. They work great layered with smaller photos.

Next up, a beautiful layout by the talented contributing team member : Jen Chapin.
Jen used the 3×4 journaling cards to create a fun and unique background on her layout. It provides not only a great design but also ample room for layering photos, wood veneers, and her journaling.

Last but not least I put together a simple Thank You card made easy by using a 3×4 journaling card from February’s exclusive monthly kit!

See that cute little arrows and hearts stamp along the bottom? Get it HERE!

Don’t forget to snag up one of the tag kits before they are sold out!

Happy journaling!
~Megan

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Project Spotlight – February 16th

Congrats to this week’s Project Spotlight winner, Katie! Check your email for your $10 Elle’s Studio gift certificate to use in our shop! Hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine’s day! This XOXO layout Katie made is full of our Love You More Collection. She layered the papers and embellishments so beautifully with her precious photos! Head on over to her gallery to check it out and you can even add it to your favorites by logging into your account and clicking on the “I (heart) this!” button. 
You never know when your project will be chosen to be spotlighted! Each week we pick a new project out of our member gallery to spotlight. For your chance to be spotlighted and to win a $10 Elle’s Studio gift certificate, just upload your project to our member gallery and tag the Elle’s Studio item(s) used!
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