Project Life

Welcome to another week of Project Life Inspiration at Elle’s Studio!  This week I am sharing the week of February 27- March 4 of my Project Life album.

Every week when I start putting together my Project Life layout, I begin to think I little bit about my color scheme.   Really, anything goes in Project Life.  Your layout can be as coordinated (or mixed-match) as you prefer.   However, the scrapbooker in me can’t help but adding a little coordination when putting together my page.

I have found that it can be a bit of a challenge to identify a color scheme when there are so many photos and memorabilia represented in a week.  So what I do first I find a single color that seems to be reoccurring in my photos (or just one color I want to focus on) and highlight it with papers and embellishments.   For this week’s layout, I focused on green.

 Since it was the first week in March, green worked perfectly.   There isn’t a TON of green in my photos– really only in my sons shirt, a bit in the salad photo, and the background of chalkboard in the bottom left photo.  But by using embellishments like the green pennants in the New Bright and Vintage Pennants, I was able to highlight this color.

I also used a bit of red and orange in my color scheme.  Red and orange are hardly represented in my photos at all, only in my memorabilia and embellishments.   I used red tags and washi tape to highlight the Chick-fil-A packaging and the dentist bag.  You will also see touches of orange in a few journaling cards and brads sprinkled throughout the layout.  
I hope this gives you some ideas about adding color to your Project Life.  Thinking of your embellishments, tags, and journaling spots as a key element in pulling together a color scheme will help you worry less on choosing photos “that match” and focus more on the photos that tell your story.
We have a winner from last week’s giveaway!  Congrats to Anya!  Please send us an email at info@shopellesstudio.com with the following information:
Name:
Address:
Contest:  Project Life March 6
This week we have another giveaway!  For a chance to win a $15 Elle’s Studio Prize Pack, leave us a comment and tell us what you love most about spring!  We will announce a winner in next week’s Project Life post.
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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What’s on your desk?

This was my view all weekend and it’s carried over to today! Lots of fun layouts being made for some really cool upcoming projects and some just for fun, too. I’ve currently taken over one end of the table in the kitchen so I can be in the center of all the action and even catch up on some of my favorite tv shows. It’s been my favorite spot so far 🙂

What are you currently working on? If you need a little inspiration or incentive to get crafty, don’t forget to check out our Inspiration Gallery, Sketch Thursdays and our new monthly Challenges!

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Make It Sunday with Valerie Allen

Hi, I’m Valerie Allen and am happy to share a layout for Make It Sunday! I have been married ten years and we have a six year old son and three year old daughter. We live in  Phoenix, Arizona, and enjoy all kinds of outdoor activities. This year I have started using Project Life, and love to make cards and altered items. 

This layout was definitely inspired by leap day. I just had to record a day that comes but every four years…even though we didn’t do anything out of the ordinary.  Triangles/chevron pattern has been such a popular trend this spring. I saw on Pinterest an easy technique to apply them to scrapbooking.

Here’s how this layout came together:

1. For the base of this page I used Lily Bee’s Whiteboard Memorandum Paper and various scraps for the triangles. I took my EK Tools square punch and punched several types of patterned paper. I then cut those squares in half. I eyed where I wanted to place them, and adhered them one row at a time.

2. I used a Elle’s Studio Collected Large Journaling Tag to use as the base for my title. I applied some yellow paint before adhering the lettering.

3. I then added one of the  Elle’s Studio Lil’ Snippets: This Week – Yellow to the the top of the large journaling tag.

4. For the right corner, I trimmed down one of the Elle’s Studio 2012 4×3 Vintage Calendar Tags and circled leap day on the calender.

5. Three photos from the day were placed horizontally across the page. I then took the highlights tag from the Elle’s Studio Make A List 3 x 4 Tags and cut it into three sections. This is where I journaled about each one of the photographs. Underneath the third tag, I layered one of the Elle’s Studio Pennants – Bright and Vintage

6. Lastly, I scattered four buttons on the layout.

In the past, I had really focused on scrapbooking more of the “special” days and moments. I have to say, it can be just as fun to get a regular day recorded!

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Saturday Celebration: Challenge Time!

Happy Saturday, everyone! We have something really cool to share with you today – it’s our challenge at Two Peas!

Two Peas is hosting a great challenge with three chances to win a $50 Elle’s Studio prize pack! All you have to do to be entered to win is upload a layout that contains at least five of our tags (make sure you link up at least three of them) and don’t forget to check the “Elle’s Studio Project Challenge” box to be entered.

And, last but not least! We wanted to remind you that all orders placed at our shop during the entire month of March, will receive a free fine tip Elle’s Studio Sharpie pen! We are in love with these pens – they write so smooth and are perfect for journaling!

Stop by next Saturday as our birthday celebration continues – every Saturday this month will be something special!

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Sketch Thursday 03.08.12

Hello hello. Happy Sketch Thursday! I hope March is treating you well 🙂 Today’s sketch is inspired by Rahel‘s ‘practice’ layout from the February inspiration gallery.
Here’s a layout I created:
I followed the sketch pretty closely. I used twine to create the main circle then added paint splatters, circles, butterflies and stars for that random, messy look.

This is a simple but playful layout with plenty of room for creativity. Fun, right? I hope to see lots of you play along this week for a chance to win a $10 Elle’s Studio gift certificate. Link must be posted by 11:59pm on Wednesday, March 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 to all who created beautiful layouts with last week’s sketch! The randomly selected winner is… PATTY! Congratulations!!

Please email the following information to info@shopellesstudio.com.
Name:
Contest: 03.01.12 Sketch
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Project Life

Welcome to another week of Project Life at Elle’s Studio!  Today’s Project Life covers the week of February 20-26.

I had a lot of fun putting this week together.  I didn’t have ALOT of photos for this week.  Whenever that happens it’s fun to challenge yourself to think out of the box and add a few different items to the mix.  Sometimes there’s just not a photograph to document special moments in our lives, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be documented.

A few of those “out of the box” items I added: a play card at a local sports/arcade place we visited, and an “interview”with my son about what he loved about the arcade (using the new “Make a List” tags), a chores list, a letter from school, a brochure from a big event from my husband’s work, a game from a baby shower I attended, and a portion from our church bulletin.

On the first page I decided to print off a screen shot of my Pinterest boards.  Lately as I create my Project Life spreads I am trying to think beyond ONLY including “what we did” this week, but also including items that show who we are and what we like to do as individuals and as a family.

This particular week, my husband put together a big briefing at his work with many local and state government officials.   We obviously didn’t have a camera there to take pictures, but I asked him to bring home something to document this event.  He had some of the invitations left over, so I taped them together and included his work profile photo that was taken a few weeks ago.   Anything would have worked to document this event– even just a journaling card.  Including items from your professional life (or your spouses, sibling, child, parents– anyone) allows for more voices to tell the story of your life.

This particular week was also my daughter’s birthday. I wrote a little about what we did for her birthday but also included an enlargement of her “birthday photo”.  I love how the enlargement looks next to all the smaller pockets of the spread.  It is a great way to highlight an important event!

Because this is Elle’s Studio’s birthday month, Elle released five new items to the shop— have you seen them???  She designed a new cut out sheet that matches the Collected line, large circle journaling tags, 3×4 list it tags, pennants, and number tid-bits (i used one of the Cut out items and number tidbits on the enlarged photos).  These new items are all beautiful!!

An item I have been using quite a bit in my Project Life lately, are the Martha Stewart Home Office labels.  You can find these labels at Staples.   I even used the negative space of the label sheet in one of my 4×6 pockets below!

We have a winner from last weeks giveaway- congrats to Vicki!   Please email us at info@shopellesstudio with the following information:
Name:
Address:
Contest: PL Feb 28

We are having another giveaway this week!  Just leave us a comment here for a chance to win a $15 Elle’s Studio prize pack!

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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Make It Sunday with Ann-Marie!

Hi! I’m Ann-Marie Morris and I am a 25 year old graphic designer/crafter, currently in the process of moving back to my home state of California after living in Utah for almost two years. I worked for American Crafts since 2010 and had the privilege of working alongside some amazing designers. When I’m not designing or crafting, I love to decorate my apartment, take as many Zumba classes as possible, thrift for fun finds, and spend quality time with family and friends. Oh, and I might be a slightly obsessed with Pinterest and Instagram 🙂 You can find out more about me at my blog.

Here’s how this layout came together:
It’s always my goal to find new and innovative ways to use products, so when I saw the Layered Number Cut Outs, I knew I wanted to use the whole sheet as patterned paper.

First I cut off about 2″ from the top and then stapled two sheets of vellum atop the Layered Number Cut Outs sheet, to tone down the vibrant colors and patterns.

Once my base was complete, I started adding all my favorite Elle’s Studio products, including Lil’ Snippets “This Week;” Christmas Large Journaling Tags; One and Only Tidbits; and Handmade Layers Cut Outs, to name a few. I also included a variety of other manufacturers’ products, such as Pebbles’ Jewel Candy Dots, a wood veneer from Studio Calico, a striped paper clip from EK Success, and vellum from Paper Source.

Since the topic of my layout is all about the highlight of my week, I decided to include it in my Project Life album, sandwiched in the middle of the spread. All I had to do was punch two holes on the left-hand side of the layout and pop it in! Simple, easy, and an effective way to include a longer story in your Project Life. I am definitely going to try this again in future weeks! 🙂

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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Saturday Celebration: FREE SHIPPING!

Welcome to the first Saturday of the month – also the first Saturday of our birthday celebration! Since this is such a special celebration, we wanted to do a free shipping day! So, for 24 hours, any order at our site over $20 will ship for free – just use coupon code LETSCELEBRATE at checkout!

Our free shipping days usually only happen once a year, so now’s the time to stock up and save! Don’t forget to check out all our new tags, March’s special, our exclusive kit, new extra goods (including more punches from Jenni Bowlin, American Craft Thickers and Studio Calico Masks!), and 12 x 12 neutral cardstsocks!

And, don’t forget about that free pen with every order 🙂 We are in LOVE with these pens, they write so smooth and they are made by Sharpie, so the quality is top notch!

Make sure you check back next Saturday to see what the second Saturday brings and, we want to thank you again for all your support! Big hugs to each of you 🙂

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Sketch Thursday 03.01.12


Hello. Happy first day of the month and welcome to another Sketch Thurday!! We’re starting off March with a fabulous new sketch.
This one is inspired by Kim‘s ‘four’ layout from the February gallery.
I love how this layout is clean and simple yet there’s lots of little details to look at. So fun!
She made yet another fabulous layout with a slightly different approach:
Kim said: I loved my first layout that I created and I wanted to mix it up a bit this time and use a single photo instead. I have layered some paper and vellum under the photo for a fun look. I then used The lil snippets tag but kept it whole as it was the same size as my 4×6 photo. I kept with the grey theme by stapling a a notes from today tag above my photo.
I hope you like the sketch this week and join us for a chance to win a $10 Elle’s Studio gift certificate. Link must be posted by 11:59pm on Wednesday, March 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.

Last week’s randomly selected winner is Joanne! Congratulations!  Please email the following information to info@shopellesstudio.com.
Name:
Contest: 02.23.12 Sketch

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Celebrate with us all month long!

Time seriously does fly when you’re having fun! Are you ready to celebrate our fifth birthday with us all month long? We have some really, REALLY fun things in store for you – because we couldn’t have done this without you guys! We adore each one of you so much and cannot wait for the years to come!

To start off this month, we’ve got some awesome fine tip Sharpie’s just for you:

We are giving away one free with every order, in March! 

Also, every Saturday in March, we will have a little something extra special going on! Free shipping, gift certificate giveaways, contests, etc. you won’t want to miss it! The first Saturday in March will be FREE SHIPPING for all orders over $20! We’ll post on the blog the special coupon code and send out a newsletter, but mark your calendars so you don’t miss it! (Please keep in mind that due to the extra amount of orders that come in with this special, we may need extra time to process your orders)

And, that’s not all! We also couldn’t resist and decided to release 5 new tag designs! Well, technically six because one comes in both brights and vintage 😉

You can find them all, right now, in our shop, or at Two Peas(coming later today or tomorrow)! These are some of my favorite designs – they are so versatile! And, if you want to wait until our free shipping day, this Saturday, we totally understand 😉

Last but not least! Since today is March 1st, we have a new monthly special. This is our first monthly special to include something other than our tags – and we hope you adore these thickers as much as we do!

This month’s special includes: Dear Lizzy Thickers (while supplies last), Layered Number Cut Outs, Lil’ Snippet: This Week – Teal, and our Travel Flashcards.  

Waleska is inspiring us with another amazing layout using these four items! I love the strip of paper along the side and all the layered tags in the middle! Check it out:

She even recolored some of the Thickers used here, with some Jenni Bowlin Acrylic Paint – which I didn’t even realize you could do! So awesome!!

It’s a very exciting start to a very exciting month – thank you all for joining us and supporting us throughout all these incredible years. We feel so blessed when we think about all the people we’ve met and friendships we’ve built. We can’t thank you enough for your support!

Big hugs to you all!

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