Sketch Thursday 01.26.12

Hello and happy Sketch Thursday! This is the last sketch of the month and it’s a fun one full of layers and texture… This one is based on Leslie’s S&S layout from the December inspiration gallery.
Once again two of our very talented designers created layouts using the sketch and this is what they came up with:
Kim said: The 3 photo blocks on the sketch were perfect for the 3 photos I  had taken recently of my son playing lego, they were the perfect orientation. I wanted to create a bright layout with primary colours which matched the lego pieces so  I chose some bright tags including the Today will be foreveer treasured tag. I replaced the circle element with a lil snippets days of the week tag to house my typed journalling and then created a blocked feel with the remaining tags!

Megahann said: When I saw the sketch, the two things that really drew me to it were the grouping of photos and embellishments, which I do quite regularly, as well as the strong vertical axis along the side. I used these two aspects of the sketch to create my layout, The Rock. 
And we have a bonus for you this week 🙂 I also played along with the sketch and created this layout using January’s kit: A Love Story. I turned the sketch sideways and was inspired by the multiple scallops and tilted photos.
ES products used: A Love Story kit
I hope you are are ready to play along with this week’s sketch. As you can see, you can interpret it in many different ways. So go play with some paper and glue and come back here to share what you made for a chance to win a $10 Elle’s Studio gift certificate. Link must be posted by 11:59pm on Wednesday, February 2, 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 playing along last week. The randomly selected winner is… Cheryl!  Congratulations!  Please email the following information to info@shopellesstudio.com.
Name:
Contest: 01.19.12 Sketch
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A Love Story Inspiration

We are having an exciting week ahead here at Elle’s Studio!!

On Monday we introduced you to our latest kit, A Love Story.  This kit is jammed packed with gorgeous papers from Crate Paper, Lily Bee Design, Studio Calico, and My Minds Eye.  It also includes exclusive Elle’s Studio tags, beautiful embellishments, an amazing stamp, and exclusive handmade fabric flowers made by Tara Anderson of Citron Faire.   Truly, it’s a gorgeous kit– and it was SO fun to put together!!!

We have a full week ahead packed with inspiration from our talented Design Team.  Oh my goodness, I am so excited to share all of their layouts with you– they all made awesome layouts with this kit!

First, a layout by DT member, Ursula Schneider:

I just love the film strip she created out of the card stock, and the way she used the numbered Elle’s Studio tags.  So much color and contrast in her sweet layout.

Next is this gorgeous layout by Rahel Menig:

Rahel has an amazing ability to create a lot of white space but also add splashes of color.  So gorgeous and clean.  And how about that photo?

Thanks so much Ursula and Rahel!!

Make sure to stop by again tomorrow for more fresh inspiration using our exclusive “A Love Story Kit” which is still available in our shop.   Additionally make sure to check out the shop for extra goodies such as punches, mists, and inks.

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Project Life

Welcome to another week of Project Life at Elle’s Studio.  This week’s Project Life covers the week of January 9- 15th.

To be honest, I didn’t take a lot of photos this week.  Or should I say, I didn’t take many stellar photos this week.  I was kind of kicking myself when I was putting together this week’s Project Life spread.  But then I realized, a story doesn’t always need a (perfect) photo.  Sometimes a story is best told in words.

I embraced this idea and took what little photos I had, and matched it with written stories (or stories that didn’t even have a photo).

I think sometimes we expect too much of ourselves when putting together Project Life or even scrapbooking.  We expect ourselves to ALWAYS have a camera with us, ALWAYS capture that moment, ALWAYS keep up with journaling during the week, ALWAYS have documentation in the forefront of our minds.

Let’s be honest, Life happens.

We get busy and the days fly by.  The camera may collect dust for a few days. We get discouraged and begin to think this is “too big” of a project.  Then you start to fall behind.   Sound familiar?

I just want to share that I have had weeks like this.  Weeks that were jammed packed and I didn’t think much about the camera.  As you can see, I have seven photos in my Project Life this week.   Three were simple photos of my kids, two were taken by my iPhone, one was taken by someone else (the black and white photo of my husband and I at dinner), and one is of cereal boxes– that’s it!  And that’s enough.

Even though I lacked many photos, I still had a multitude stories and memories to share.  So I wrote them down.   There is something incredibly fun about writing a story down on a journaling card, embellishing it, and being done.   No photo needed.

I used various Elle’s Studio journaling cards : the Daily 3×4 cards and This Week Lil’ Snippet  to write my stories and added simple embellishments like punched hearts, handcut banners, or a stamp.  I also kept my eyes out for “found items” this week, like a Apple product sticker, ticket stub, and even the candle from my birthday dessert (my husband’s face was priceless when I blew out the candle, and then put it in my purse).

My advice is to enjoy the process.  Allow your Project Life to be a true representation of  your week.  Don’t force yourself to make it look like something it wasn’t.  Don’t be discouraged if a Project Life spread doesn’t always meet your expectations of what you “think it should be”.   That’s the beauty of Project Life, every week is different.

Congrats to Shauna, the winner of last weeks giveaway!  Please send an email to info@shopellesstudio.com with the following information.
Name:
Address:
Contest:  January 17 Project Life


We have another giveaway this week! Leave us a comment here for a chance to win a $15 prize pack from Elle’s Studio.  We will announce the winner next Tuesday on our 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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Our Next Exclusive Kit Has Arrived! Introducing: A Love Story

We are so excited to introduce to you today our new kit: A Love Story! This kit is perfect for your layouts and the ones and memories you love, along with your everyday layouts. It includes beautiful papers and alphabets from popular scrapbooking manufacturers, along with exclusive and limited edition tags and stamps from us! These tags are exclusive to this kit and will not be printed or sold again! Also, we have some exclusive flowers made by Tara Anderson of Citron Faire! The flowers are handmade from 14 different fabrics and are beautiful!

Here’s a closer look at this kit:

The doily on the stamp is another one from my Grandma’s collection!

And, as requested by you guys 🙂 Along with being able to get more cardstock, you can now get extra patterned paper!

We also have stocked some coordinating mist and stickers! But, just like our kit, these quantities are limited, so we don’t expect them to last long!


Jenni made some layouts with the kit and today we get to take a peek at them!

And, remember that sneak peek we showed you on Saturday? Here’s the full layout!

Aren’t the beautiful?! Jenni did a great job putting these layouts and kit together. I have to admit… this one is my favorite kit so far! I’m already planning layouts about my nephew and my baby dog!

But wait! We have one more BIG surprise for you! This time around our design team is also working with this kit and will be inspiring you with their layouts starting on Wednesday! We’ll be posting them right here on our blog, so stay tuned!

And, if you haven’t left to peek at the kit in our shop – make sure you do! These kits are limited and even though we’ve added more to this launch, we still don’t expect them to last long!

Thanks for stopping by today!

A quick note for our OVERSEAS orders: Looks like our overseas shipping is only quoting Priority Mail, instead of First Class. If you purchase the kit and want it to ship first class, please write FIRST CLASS in the notes and we will refund the difference! Shipping overseas should be around $10-$18. So sorry about this! Our web guy is on it, but it may not be fixed for a couple days.

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January’s Inspiration Gallery is LIVE!

It’s time to get inspired! January’s Inspiration Gallery is now live and it’s our first one with our new design team! If you don’t see the new team, you may have to clear your computers cache. This gallery is packed full of amazing things and they even got to work with our newest tags! It’s one you can’t miss!

Also, wait until you see who our guest designer is this month! Look for her spotlight post later this week 🙂

We feel so blessed to have such a creative team and guest design on board! We hope you get tons of inspiration from their projects!

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Make It Sunday with Rebbeca Keppel – 01.22.12

My name is Rebecca Keppel and in the beginning of 2005 I was a corporate attorney in San Francisco, but then my daughter was born and I became a stay at home mom. I started scrapbooking around that time and found the creative outlet, a sanity saver to say the least! We moved to Arizona and my son was born in 2007. They are the main stars of my scrapbooking show. I love practicing new photography skills on them and then creating layouts with those pictures. I also enjoy card making and creating mini albums and gifts for friends and family. Two of my favorite additions to paper projects are machine sewing and typewritten journaling. Journaling, whether by hand, typewriter or computer is very important to me and that is why I thoroughly enjoyed my time as an Elle’s Studio Design Team Member last year! A huge thanks to Elle’s Studio for letting me stop by and share my love for Elle’s Studio tags, cards and pennants!

I have not committed to a photo a day or Project Life, but I do love to take pictures of the everyday moments. And then I like to scrap those everyday moments. I love using Elle’s Studio products because many of the tags and journaling cards have prompts for this everyday type of scrapbooking. So I pulled together some photos of totally random things I was thankful for one morning and got to work!

Here’s how this layout came together:
1. I started with a very simple gray background that happened to feature an image of a doily and added some white mist splatters.

2. When making my photo collage, I left some dead space in order to fit 3 photos next to 2 larger ones. An Elle’s Studio One and Only Strip fit perfectly and covered up the bare spot in my collage.

3. Next I started working on my title. Originally I tried fitting the entire Today tag into my design, but I just couldn’t make it work, so I cut the “Today” part off and included it in my title. The best part is, I save d the bottom half of the tag and now I have some journaling lines to include on another project (or layered on top of another tag that doesn’t have journaling lines!).

4. I really liked the simplicity of the background paper, so rather than include more patterned papers and deal with issues of matching colors, I simply fussy cut out some doilies from the Collected Large Journaling Tags and ran them down the left side.

5. I added a pennant and two One and Only Tidbits under the right side of my title to fill an empty spot, and then I made my own banner using One and Only Strips. I simply folded them over some twine and stapled with my tiny attacher.

6. Finally, I used one more Collected Large Journaling tag to type up my journaling and lined it up right under my photo collage. And to bring in a third pop of yellow to the layout to go along with the title and the number “2” in the Large Journaling Tag, I slipped one more Daily 3×4 Tag under the right side of my photo collage, to draw attention to my favorite photo.

It’s time for a giveaway! We are giving away the Elle’s Studio products Rebecca used on this layout:

Collected Large Journaling Tags, Daily 3 x 4 tags, and One and Only Stripes, Tidbits and Pennants!

Just leave a comment to be entered to win – one comment per person, please! Then, check back next Sunday to see if you have won!

Congrats to last Sunday’s winner:
ShellyJ, please email us the info below to claim your prize to info@shopellesstudio.com

Name:
Address:
Prize: January 15th

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We’ve got another sneak peek of our upcoming exclusive kit:

We’ve got a special surprise for you guys today! Here is a sneak peek of a layout that Jenni has created using our next exclusive kit, that is going to be available this Monday!
We can hardly wait for you to see this entire kit, but if you look closely at these peeks, you’ll see some of the kit contents!
Get ready and mark your calendars, this kit will be up for sale this Monday, January 23rd at 8:00 am PST. And, even though we’ve added more kits to our release, we don’t expect it to last long! If you’re not on our newsletter list, you can sign up here. And, if you are having problems receiving our newsletter, please email us directly!

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A special giveaway today with guest blogger May Flaum!

When I want the perfect banner, journaling card, or paper product that will spice up my project and add detail and just the right amount of fun, I turn to Elle’s Studio. I love all the stitched details, the little bits and pieces, and of course how the journaling cards help me tell my stories.

Today I’m taking a time out from creating new material for my upcoming class at Big Picture Classes to share a new project, and to give away a spot in my class! First, here’s the layout:

The “sand between our toes” journaling card was the perfect inspiration for my first Maui vacation page! I used several Elle’s Studio banners to accent this page as well – some under a die cut heart as ribbon-like accents and others at the top of my page for journaling space.

I love that I can use these smaller designs for things like date, place, names, and brief notes. Just a bit of distress stickles to accent (and add a sandy look) and this page came together quickly! It’s the perfect opening page to what will soon be an album filled with our adventures and memories of this vacation.

Lately the pennants and Lil’ Snippets have been my favorites because they’re such a great deal – and I can use them in so many ways! From vacations to the everyday I’ve always got a healthy stash queued up and ready to scrapbook with.

Before I go, I have a give-away promised! My new class is twelve weeks long, and packed with ideas, inspiration, layouts, videos, step-by-step instruction, and so much more. If you’d like to find out more about The Curious Scrapbooker’s Field Guide, you can find the information here at Big Picture. For more information about me, or if you’d just like to check out my blog I invite you to visit me at www.mayflaum.com

The winner for class will be drawn on Wednesday, January 25th – just leave a comment here to be entered to win. Good luck! And as always – I wish you very happy crafting.

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Sketch Thursday 01.19.12

Hello and welcome back to Sketch Thursday! Today’s sketch is inspired by Stephanie Klauck’s Snow Day  from our December Inspiration Gallery ((we had lots of snow last month :)).
Take a look at what our talented design team did with it:
Ursula said: I really liked the 3 blocks across the page.  I knew right away that I wanted to use only one as photo and use the rest as journaling and a place to use patterned paper and embellishments.  I flipped the location of the title, but still borrowed the pennant underneath it.  As to the random embellishments throughout the page, I’m never good at that so I drew them in toward the body of the page and still included them but in a bit more corralled manner.  The misting helps to give it a bit more freedom.

Steph said: As soon as I saw this sketch, I knew I wanted to use the new tags from the Collected and One and Only lines…they were so perfect for this sketch! I adapted the sketch slightly for an 8.5×11 page, but kept everything else mainly the same. I added doilies to the tags to add to the handmade look.
Now for the fun part… post a link to your layout created using this sketch for your chance to win a $10 Elle’s Studio gift certificate. Link must be posted by 11:59pm on Wednesday, January 25, 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 playing along last week. The randomly selected winner is…. Ellie!  Congratulations!  Please email the following information to info@shopellesstudio.com.
Name:
Contest: 01.12.12 Sketch 
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Introducing our next exclusive kit: A Love Story

We are so excited to share a tiny sneak peek today of our next exclusive kit: A Love Story! This kit is full of beautiful papers, exclusive Elle’s Studio tags and stamps, and even some exclusive embellishments!

It’s perfect for your layouts about your loved ones and more!

So get ready and mark your calendars, this kit will be up for sale this Monday, January 23rd at 8:00 am PST. And, even though we’ve added more kits to our release, we don’t expect it to last long! If you’re not on our newsletter list, you can sign up here. And, if you are having problems receiving our newsletter, please email us directly!

Stay tuned for another sneak peek this Saturday, too!

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