Sketch Thursday 06.07.12

Hi everyone! Today’s sketch is (slightly) inspired by Meghann’s ‘Me at 29‘ layout from the DT gallery.
I love how she mixed the tags and frames and added little details to this beautiful layout.

For a chance to win a $10 Elle’s Studio gift certificate, please post a link to your layouts inspired by this sketch here. Link must be posted by 11:59pm on Wednesday, June 14, 2012.  Gift certificate can be used towards purchase of products only and can NOT be used for shipping charges. Gift certificate balance must be used in a single transaction.

Thank you so much for playing along last week. It was awesome seeing all the amazing layouts you all did! ðŸ™‚ The randomly selected winner is… 
Anabelle. Congratulations! Please email michelle@shopellesstudio.com the following info to claim your prize:

Name/Address:
Contest: Sketch Thursday 05.31.12
Prize: $10

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Elle’s Studio Design Team Call for July – December 2012!

It’s that time again!  We’re looking for some amazing crafters that love to scrapbook and work with our products, to be on our design team for the second half of 2012 (July-December).

Design Team Member Responsibilities:
– Creating 2 layouts + 1 additional item (card, tag, project, mini album, etc.) and uploading them to our site each month for our inspiration gallery.
– Meeting project and photo deadlines each month.
– Participating in blog tutorials, sketches, blog hops, etc. as scheduled.
– Maintaining communication with the rest of the design team and Elle’s Studio
– Posting your Elle’s Studio projects online on your personal blog and two scrapbook galleries online each month, including a link to the Elle’s Studio website (if allowed).

You will receive:
– All your layouts, cards, tags and projects posted on our site and blog
– Tons of Elle’s Studio products to work with!
– A link on our blog to yours
– Ability to request items for projects you have in mind

To apply:
We have set up a special email account for collecting applications only. Please send the following to us in one email, to ellesstudio@gmail.com Applications are due by June 15th:
– Two images of two different layouts, cards or project(s) that best represent you and your style. Images must be no larger than 600 x 600 px. Bonus points if they include ES tags!
– A short 300 word bio about you
– Link to your blog
– Link to any gallery you are currently posting to

We will be contacting potential design team members by June 18th and announcing the design team members, here at our blog, in early July!

Please note: Overseas and international designers are welcomed to apply, too – Yes! We’d love to have people from all over the world design for us!

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June’s Monthly Specials

Hi everyone! Time is zipping by and it’s already time for a new batch of monthly specials... and a special layout I made with them!

I started with the 4×6 tag and mimicked the placement of the letters to spell my title. Then, I cut out part of the tiny tag to turn it into a tab and used it to hide my journaling.
I finished by hand cutting the paper, adding pops of color + patterns and embellishing with diecuts, buttons and a bit of hand stitching.
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We have a winner!

We have a winner to announce from our guest designer, Lisa Day‘s q&a the other day!

Congrats to:
Debbie Pereirasaid…Love Lisa’s work! Posted at June 3, 2012 8:25 PM 

Please email us your postal address to claim your prize!

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Using Project Life for Travel

Welcome another week of Project Life at Elle’s Studio!

This past week I was away on vacation, so there is no new Project Life layout to share.  But, speaking of vacations, I want to offer an idea for documenting any upcoming summer travel plans.  And of course it has to do with Project Life!

I went on a fabulous scrapbooking trip to Greece with my mom almost two years ago.  There were SO many photos taken during the trip, it was completely overwhelming when I thought about how I would document this trip. 

Over the last year, Project Life has become a huge part of my scrapbooking routine and how I document our day to day.  It was a huge lightbulb moment when I realized I could merge the Project Life method with my travel photos and memories for this trip I took to Greece.

I kept a journal while in Greece, so I opened my journal and began writing bits and pieces of stories on Elle’s journaling cards and the Project Life Journaling Cards by Becky Higgins (I use the Clementine collection).  I then matched these stories with the photos.  It was so fun to mix up the photos and stories in the Project Life pages and also experiment with trimming large 12 x 12 photos in the photo pockets.

Maybe you are on the fence with starting Project Life?  This is something you could easily do if you are planning a summer vacation (or need to document past travels).  It would give you a feel for what it’s like to use the Project Life system without feeling like you are committing to something huge or overwhelming (and i promise Project Life isn’t either of these things:).

Simply pack a variety of Elle’s Studio tags / Project Life tags with your camera and jot down memories here and there during your travels (or keep a journal).  Your album is halfway done— all that’s needed are printed photos and a few embellishments.   I hope this gives you a few ideas when you think about documenting your summer travel plans!

I have a winner to announce from last week’s giveaway!  Congrats to Tanya!  Please email michelle@shopellesstudio.com the following info to claim your prize:
Name/Address:
Contest: PL May 29
Prize: $10


We are giving away another $10 Elle’s Studio Gift Certificate!  Leave a comment on this post for your chance to win– we will announce the winner next Tuesday



Project Life was created by Becky Higgins as a way to simplify how you document life and preserve memories. Photo pockets used in my Project Life album are created by Becky and can be found here.  You can read of all the Elle’s Studio Project Life posts here.

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Exclusive Digital Tags in the Summer Lovin’ Mini Album Workshop

Last week Elle released the beautiful Summer Lovin’ collection in the shop!  Have you seen it?  Isn’t it fabulous??

We are so thrilled to also introduce our first ever workshop at Elle’s Studio, the Summer Lovin’ Mini Album Workshop!

I had so much fun putting this mini album together, and look forward to documenting the summer with you in this workshop.   In addition to PDF instructions to make the album, and updates and tips throughout the summer, this workshop includes thirteen exclusive Elle’s Studio digital tags made specifically for your summer album!!

The great thing about these digital tags is you can print them and use them as many times as you want in your album!  They also coordinate well with the new Summer Lovin’ line which I also used in the mini album!

It’s the beginning of June–the perfect time to get started in documenting your summer!!  I hope you will join me in this fun workshop!!

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Make It Sunday with Amy Heller

Hi everyone! I’m Amy Heller and I’m thrilled to be joining you today on the Elle’s Studio blog for Make it Sunday!  I was a part of the Winter 2010 Design Team, and it’s just so fun to be back today!

A little about me….I’m a WAHMomma of two fun kiddos, ages 6 and 9, and a wife to my hubby/best friend for the past 12 years. I am a graphic designer by trade and a scrapbooker & card maker by passion. 🙂 I currently work for Two Peas in A Bucket, as a Garden Girl, and am super lucky to also work with American Crafts and October Afternoon on their Design Teams as well. I’ve been scrapping since 2004, but didn’t get really serious about it until about 2008, when both my kids had moved past the diaper age. 😀 Since being on the team here for Elle, my blog has moved to www.amyheller.typepad.com.

When Elle sent me the latest collection of tags for the summer, I was SO excited! The colors, textures, and new sizes and shapes are SO much fun, and I couldn’t wait to get started playing with them.

Here’s how this layout came together:

I started this layout with a photo that I was working on, and this beautiful red/orange paper for my background. I knew I wanted to use a LOT of tags on my page, so for now that’s all I pulled out.

I used two of the large journaling spots for my “background” paper and layered them in two different directions. Honestly, I’m never bothered by pieces like this (blue) that are set sideways or even upside-down. Especially if they aren’t the feature of the page. This was nice like this because the yellow tag at the bottom, actually pushes the eye upward to the the face in my picture which, is the focal point of the entire page.

Next up, I started pulling out like-colored pieces in various smaller shapes and sizes, and began filling in “holes”.

Things were beginning to come together here, so I added a couple more of the tiny tidbits on the right, then layered up a date tag with some cute banner pieces layered up on top to provide dimension.

Once my page was nearly complete, I adhered everything down, typed up my journaling, added some fun pieces of washi tape and began planning for my completed page.

Here’s where things didn’t turn out as I anticipated. At this point I took a dark ink and did some splattering up in the top right and lower left-hand corners – I detested it. LOL! So, I trimmed this piece out, and using the additional piece of this paper that I had, created a “new” background, sans ink splatters. Instead substituting the vacant spaces with tone on tone cut outs from my Cameo, then I covered up the overlap in paper with the ribbon. All part of being a scrapper, right!? I was just happy none of the ink got on my adorable tags!

And it all worked out in the end, and I’m so happy for that little mis-hap, because I love the end result! 😀 Thanks so much for joining me today! You can find all of the new Summer Tags here on the Elle’s Studio website!

Our Make It Sunday blog series has been taken over by past members of our design team! We are so excited to see their work featured again, here at our site! Look for a different past design team member each week.

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Our Guest Designer: Lisa Day!

We are so excited to have Lisa Day with us as our guest designer for our May gallery! Did you see her layouts and Project Life in the Design Team gallery? Her blog is so inspiring, and she’s even teaching a class at Big Picture Classes! She’s super creative and we are thrilled that she was able to join us for May!

name : Lisa Day
location : West Michigan
blog : http://www.lisaday.typepad.com
twitter : @lisamday

Why did you start scrapbooking and how did you get started? 
I started scrapbooking when I was pregnant with my son, like so many other scrapbookers 😉 I stuck with it and it became a passion when I watched my grandma suffer from dementia. I want to be able to record my memories now while I can remember them!!

What are three products you can’t live without?  
I couldn’t live without my vintage typewriter, journaling tags and patterned paper! Really as long as I have those 3 things I can get by! Oh…and if I can throw in one more thing it would be my date stamp!

What is your favorite color combination?
My current favorite color combination is grey and neon/bright orange. I also am loving grey, yellow and tourquoise. I am loving anything with a neutral grey and bright pop of color!

What is your favorite thing about scrapbooking?
My favorite thing about scrapbooking is that it gives me a way to get some of the things cluttering up my head down onto paper. I have so many things in my little brain that sometimes I feel overwhelmed. When I scrapbook and put my memories in writing, in a creative way, it makes me feel better knowing they are recorded and I don’t have to try to hold on to them so hard! It makes room for more in a way! Plus, playing with all the pretty things is just fun!


What are three facts about you that others might not now?
I work full time in marketing, I love baseball and I hate bubblegum!

Alright, now it’s time to give away Lisa’s favorite Elle’s Studio items!

Just leave a comment to be entered to win our: Collected Note Tags, Collected Tiny Tags, and Collected Large Journaling Tags! We’ll draw the winner this Wednesday, June 6th, 2012.

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Sketch Thursday 05.31.12

Welcome back to sketch Thursday! Today’s sketch is a simple but playful one inspired by Rahel’s Photography layout from the DT Gallery.
I love Rahel’s style so of course, I took this opportunity to be completely inspired by her 😉 I used some of the same elements she did, like the banners, doilies, twine and leaves…

For a chance to win a $10 Elle’s Studio gift certificate, please post a link to your layouts inspired by this sketch here. Link must be posted by 11:59pm on Wednesday, June 7, 2012.  Gift certificate can be used towards purchase of products only and can NOT be used for shipping charges. Gift certificate balance must be used in a single transaction.


Thank you all so much for participating last week! In case you missed it, the winners are posted here.

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Our new products are here: new tags, stamps + workshop!

We are so excited to announce that we have new tags in the shop! We’ve got an entire, brand new, summer line called Summer Lovin’! This has to be my favorite launch to date – the colors are so amazing, perfect for summer and more – the best part about this line is how versatile it is. Each tag set contains tags that not only work for all your summer projects, but for everyday projects, too!

But, it’s not just all Summer! We added some bonus tags in this launch -we have a fun 3 x 4 tag set called Quotables, some tiny tag labels, and more Lil’ Snippets!

There are also two stamps available! We had so many requests to make stamps, after we started making them for the project kits, so we are very excited to bring you these two you:

If you stamp with a lighter color (I used Prima Old Rose – today’s the LAST day for our 20% off Prima ink sale, too!) you can then go back and write over it! It gives it a really cool look! Here’s a look at the “Notes” stamp in action:


Also, TwoPeas will be carrying this entire launch and it should be in their shop very soon! So if you are looking to pick up some other scrapbooking products, along with our tags, this would be the perfect chance!

We hope you love these items as much as we do and look forward to seeing you post your creations with them at our new member gallery! 
 

But, that’s not all! Jenni has put together something extra special for you guys, so without further ado, here is a note from her:

I am so please and excited to announce Elle’s Studio’s first workshop– the Summer Lovin’ Mini Album Workshop!

Summer is finally upon us:  Relaxed schedules. Time to play. Time to explore. Time to enjoy a slower pace.  Summer is such a wonderful time of the year, and one that is meant to be documented.

Inspired by our first and very popular Savoring Summer Project Kit, Elle and I are thrilled to develop a workshop where we show you how to put together your own Summer Mini Album.

For the Summer Lovin’ mini album I used Elle’s new Summer Line, Summer Lovin’ with our two most recent Project Kits, Here & Now and Everyday Moments.  But, the best part of this workshop is you can use the items in your own stash.

With the purchase of the Summer Lovin’ Mini Album workshop, you will receive:

  • Step-by-step instructions on how to put together pages for an album and how to embellish each page. 
  • Three emailed updates throughout the summer showing the progression of my own album with any additional thoughts or techniques used.
  • Thirteen exclusive Elle’s Studio digital tags for your Summer Lovin’ mini album that you can print out at home

So are you ready to join me in our Summer Lovin’ mini album workshop??  I look forward to documenting the summer with you!

P.S. This week only, we have put all of our exclusive kits and papers on sale for 25% off! So, if you’re planning to do the Summer Lovin’ mini album workshop and have been eying these kits, this is the time to pick one, two, or three up! They are only available while supplies last and once they are sold out, we will not be restocking!

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