Guest Designer Spotlight: Amy Tan

We are happy to introduce you to our February guest, Amy Tan!

Amy Tan, or Amy Tangerine, is well known for her fun, bright layouts, her popular scrapbook line with American Crafts, “Amy Tangerine”, and for being one of the sweetest people in the industry!  We love her and are thrilled to have her as our February guest designer at Elle’s Studio!  Make sure to check out her full gallery, and take some time to get to know her better.   Thanks for joining us Amy!

name: Amy Tan
location: Los Angeles, CA
blog:  http://www.amytangerine.com/blog
twitter: @amytangerine
favorite Elle’s Studio products: Good Times Stamp, Love You More bits and pieces, Love You More Journaling Tags

Why did you start scrapbooking and how did you get started?

After walking into a store called Sweetpeas and Snapshots and taking a mini book class from Emily Falconbridge, I fell in love with the products and the people.  I attending a CHA show in 2007 and haven’t been able to resist the hobby ever since!

What are the three products you can’t live without?

Thickers, patterned paper, and stamps!

Where do you scrapbook?

Whereever I can spread out, but right now in my studio that is almost unpacked.

What do you listen to/watch while scrapbooking?   

Nothing usually but occasionally Pandora or the Paperclipping Roundtable.

What is your favorite color combination?

Right now black and white with pops of color- yellow in particular.

What/who inspires you?

The world around me, travels, little things, and creative people who do what they love.

Do you record every moment or just special ones?

Well, if you asked JC, he would say I record every little thing.  But honestly, I think I just take a lot of photos and scrapbook all kinds of things that are special to me for one reason or another.

What is your favorite thing about scrapbooking?

I enjoy the creative process and the fact that it is in a way, reliving the memories.

Do you have a scrapbooking goal?

I hope to just keep being inspired to document my life for years to come.

What are three facts about your that others might not know.

Although I love traveling and going to new places, I am a homebody at heart and creature of habit.  I’m allergic to so many things- dust, grass, cats, and the list goes on, but thankfully nothing food related.  I eat a lot of food and would most of the time rather have an additional salty item as opposed to getting dessert.

Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win Amy’s favorite Elle’s Studio products! 


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Design Team Gallery Highlight | Mini Albums + Projects

It’s Friday AND Valentine’s Day!  And if you live in the US, it’s also likely a long weekend due to the President’s Day holiday on Monday, too.  Talk about a weekend trifecta!
I’m excited to share projects from our super talented design team today from their new projects that went live just four days ago.  Have you checked them out yet??  Today I’m focusing on the projects that are non-cards and non-layouts.  With it being Valentine’s Day, our designers got crafty!  Here are a few of my favorites :
Check out this super adorable mini album from Waisam.  She even created a one of a kind muslin bag to hold it!  *swoon*
Patricia used several products from our new Love You More collection to create these fantastic handcrafted valentines for her daughter’s classmates.  Pin these for next year!
Speaking of Pinning, I’m going to be stealing this idea from Lilin for this awesome embellished jar of coffee capsules.  This would delight any coffee lover, for sure!
Last but certainly not least, another adorable mini album.  Patricia makes this project look effortless.  I say it looks absolutely amazing.  Love all the bits and pieces she’s included!
We hope these highlights from our talented design team inspires you to pull out your favorite Elle’s Studio products!  Sending you much love on this Valentine’s Day from Elle’s Studio to you!

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sketch thursday


Welcome back to Sketch Thursday and happy Valentine’s day eve! Inspired by Juliana’s Love layout this heart background sketch is perfect for the occasion.


DT members Lilin and Patricia participated this week and created these fantastic layouts!



Since valentine’s day is around the corner, this sketch with the little hearts inspired me to create something sweet. I started this layout by painting the hearts with mist and had lots of fun embellishing each of them with bits and pieces from the new February kit and wood veneer add on. The journaling cards in the february kit are so pretty and are perfect for layering under my photo. Lilin

My layout is not exactly like the sketch, but was inspired by it.  I was inspired to mask and mist hearts on my background; then to go along with the hearts and the theme, I also used Photoshop Elements to make my photo into a heart. Patricia

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... Pamela (cosmicgirl)!!

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

Name/Address:
Contest: Sketch 02.06.14
Prize: $10 Elle’s Studio gift certificate

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Challenge | Create A Love Themed Layout

Hey, everyone!  We’re excited to be bringing you another challenge!  For February, we’ll be issuing a single challenge and then return to our regular schedule next month.
Here’s how it works: We will give you a layout example and a short description of what to do/use for the particular challenge. Complete the challenge and upload it to our member gallery to be entered  and then post a link to the specific challenge post as a comment for your chance to WIN! The winner will receive a $10 Elle’s Studio Gift Certificate to use in our shop (winners will be announced during next Challenge post). 


Challenge | Create a love themed layout.

Oh, that Jennifer Chapin.  She’s a talented one!  I love this love themed layout she created with our new Love You More collection.  So many bits and pieces that tie everything together.  Hello, eye candy!

Are you ready to play along?  Entries are due March 4, 2014 and the winner will be announced with our next challenge, March 5, 2014.  Here’s how to enter:


  • Complete a project based off our challenge
  • Upload your project to our member gallery
  • Tag all Elle’s Studio items used when uploading to our member gallery
  • Write in the description that this is for the February 12th Challenge (very important so we see it’s an entry)
  • Come back here and post a link to your project in this post.


Congrats to our winner of our last challenge killarney_rose! Please contact michelle@shopellesstudio.com with the following info:

  • Name:
  • Contest: January 15th Challenge
  • Prize: $10 gift certificate


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Project Life

This week’s Project Life covers the week of January 27 – February 2.
I had very few photos from this week, yet had a lot of fun creating this layout.   Sometimes less photos encourages me to step out of my comfort zone and use the things around me that are part of our everyday life.   

Since there were less items this week, I decided to use a regular Design A pocket page, and Design H pocket page— why not mix it up?

In addition to the Elle’s Studio February kit, I used items I found from a Boden catalogue (the gold leaf design), packaging from a snow boot purchase, and basketball tickets.

I hope this inspires you to mix things up a bit!  Changing up your pocket page size, or including items you don’t usual focus on, gives your album a fresh pick-me-up.

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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February’s kit is here along with exclusive wood veneer add-ons!

Our February kit is here and it is full of the perfect journaling and embellishment tags for all kinds of projects, with a bunch of love in the mix, too!

We also have a special exclusive set of wood veneers that coordinate with this kit! These are exclusive and available while supplies last! Here’s what comes in each set:

The biggest piece measures about 3 x 4 inches, so these pieces are sure to stand out on your projects and be noticed!

Here’s some close up’s of what is in our February kit – this month our exclusive and limited edition kit includes over 30 tags and a sheet of labels that can be cut apart!

You can find our exclusive kit for February in the shop, and you can find the wood veneers here! These kits are limited and once they sale out we will not be restocking! Look for a new kit each month on the 10th, and as a special bonus to celebrate launch day, kits will be on sale for $9.99 for today only, regular price after that will be $11.99. These kits can ship first class: shipping for USA residents will start around $2.00 and go up from there, depending on the weight of what is in your cart. For overseas, it will run about $6+ depending on your location.

And, of course we had to do more coordinating cut files for this month, too! These cut files are so much fun and I can hardly wait to play around with them. The file for the layered heart includes all the shapes, so you can cut them out separately and then glue or sew the three pieces together! Our cut files include .png and .svg files. Here’s a peek at the February cut files:
 

We also have our new collections, Love You More and Everyday Moments, in stock and have restocked the wood veneers from these collections! These new collections coordinate great with the February kit and expand each collection even more!

Are you ready for some AMAZING inspiration? Since today is the 10th, that means that we also have some new inspiration in our Inspiration Gallery, from our awesome and incredible Design Team and special Guest Designer this month, Amy Tan! Look for a special blog post all about Amy, coming soon!

See even more inspiration at each of our Contributing Team Member’s blogs, today too! Make sure you stop by the following: Angie Gutshall, Daniela Dobson, Jennifer Chapin, Kay Rogers, Meghann Andrew, and Melissa Mann!

Thanks for stopping by today and checking out all the new items and inspiration!

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Project Spotlight – February 9th

Congrats to this week’s Project Spotlight winner, Wendy! Check your email for your $10 Elle’s Studio gift certificate to use in our shop!  Her Happiness Found layout just melts my heart! We love how she used our Love You More & Everyday Moments collections on her amazing layout! 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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Here’s a sneak peek of our next exclusive kit!

Love is in the air with our February kit and special add-on! We cannot wait for you to see everything we have in store for you! This exclusive kit launches this Monday, February 10th at 8:00 am PST. Make sure you follow us on instagram for some more sneak peeks! We will also be restocking our wood veneers from our Love You More, Everyday Moments, and 2014 collections on the 10th.

So make sure you mark your calendars now for the 10th and are signed up for our newsletter to receive a reminder for when the kit is up for sale because quantities are limited!

We also want to thank you so much for the amazing response to our January kit – the kit and stamp add-on have both already sold out! You guys are awesome and we couldn’t do this without you, so thank you!!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

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Tag You’re It :: 02.08.14

Today were going to look at creating what I like to call a Male*ntine.
You know a Valentine for the male species.
Something that’s not so frilly and pink but still uses many of those same elements; just in a different way or by altering the color just a bit.
While my husband and I don’t exchange gifts on the national day of “Love”; he usually cooks me a nice supper and we get small gifts for the kids. This year I thought it would be fun to create something personal yet inexpensive for him. 
I call it the “After Work Snack”. 
This is something that could easily be set up for the kids too; with kid friendly munchies of course!
But first we need a cool tag to hold a special note.
Here’s a look into my process …
As  you can see, I used a variety of layers to create this months tag.
Bits and pieces from the “Love You More” collection, tags from the December Tag Kit, the new letter stickers, and a fun bunch of sneaks into the February Tag Kit! 
Which by the way goes on sale this coming Monday the 10th!
Once the tag is complete, just put together a bunch of yummy hubby style snacks to have on the kitchen table when he gets home & you’ll be sure to win his heart all over again.

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day everyone!
**A quick little survey. Would you prefer seeing the step by step process via a moving image as I did above or broke down like I did in last months post found : HERE : ? **
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Design Team Highlight: White Backgrounds

It’s Friday!  Time for another round-up of projects from our super talented design team!

Today, I thought I’d share a few projects that all utilized a white background as the starting point for their project.

Although this layout from Lilin is on a patterned paper with a grid design, it reads white as it’s the dominant part of the design.  I love the texture that she added to her project through the use of tissue paper.
Valerie created movement on her layout featuring a white background through the large circle of tags that surround her single photo.
Last but not least is this layout with an adorable subject from Waisam.  She highlighted her white background by using gelatines before adding her photos and embellishments.
We hope these highlights from our talented design team inspires you to pull out your favorite Elle’s Studio products and put them to work on a white background!


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