Make It Sunday with Mandie Pierce – 01.01.2012

 Hi there!  My name is Mandie Pierce.  I was on the Elle’s Studio design team from January-June 2011.  I enjoyed my time on the team very much.  When Elle asked if I would participate in Make It Sunday, I was thrilled to say, “Yes!”  I am a stay at home mom of 3 and wife to an Air Force Major.  We currently call Northern California home, and it looks like it will stay that way a little longer than we had anticipated.  I am currently on the design team for Pebbles Inc and a local scrapbook crop called Scrap Again. You can see more of my work on my blog Like a Lemon to a Lime.

This is a just-for-fun layout. The Layer Number Cutouts made me think of the Beatles’ song “Eight Days a Week” for some reason. So, I decided to use them for a layout titled that! (& I’ve been singing the song every since!) The hearts on the journaling tag were cut out of another tag from the same set.

Here’s how this layout was made:
1. Gather your journaling cards and cut out the numbered tags.

2. Decide how you want to arrange all of the tags.  I took an iPhone pic to help me remember how I had everything.

3. Cut out a 12×1 (ish) piece of pattern paper and a couple of strips of pattern paper (I used the Crate Paper Heart 6×6 pad for the smaller pieces).  I used the smaller pieces to fill in in-between the tags.  So, the size of these will vary depending on how you place your tags. 

4. Ink the edges of your cardstock & tags, if desired.

5. While the ink is drying, use a white gel pen to trace the pattern on the background pattern paper (Crate Valentine).  I flipped the pieces of paper on it’s side because I liked the way the design looked going up and down the sides rather than the top and bottom.

6. Start adhering and sewing down tags and patterned paper, layer by layer (this is where that phone pic comes in handy!)

7. Add the stamp on the top tag (stamp is from the Studio Calico Brooklyn Flea Kit).

8. Add your title & photo

9. Embellish to your heart’s content with the Crate Paper Heart Chipboard Accents! 

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

Layered Number Cutouts, Everyday Tiny Tags, PLUS, two sets of tags that aren’t even for sale yet in the shop – they are coming out this Wednesday! Can you spot them?

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:
eknowles, please email us the info below to claim your prize to info@shopellesstudio.com

Name:
Address:
Prize: December 11th

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January’s Special – 20% off these items, this month only!

Welcome to our very first monthly special for 2012! Every month we will be putting a couple items on sale for 20% off – then Waleska will be inspiring you with a layout or two from those items that are on sale!

Let’s take a peek at what she made with this month’s special:

Loving how she mixed the Winter Pennants with the Monthly Pennants here!

And, here’s a peek at the first items that are on sale:

Our 2012 Ledger Calendars, 2012 Monthly Pennants, and Winter Pennants! Since 2012 is just starting, this is a great time to pick up those calendars and the winter pennants are perfect timing for the season that is upon us.

And, don’t forget to look for a new special, posted on the first of every month for the entire year of 2012!

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We wish you a Happy New Year + some fun announcements for 2012!

We want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! Thank you all so much for your incredible support during 2011 – you made it the most amazing year ever and we cannot wait for you to see what we have in store for 2012. Your support means so much more than words could ever express! We can’t wait to spend another creative and crafty year with you!


We are kicking the new year off with some very exciting things that actually start tomorrow! 

Our first BIG news is that we have added Waleska to our team – she will be taking care of the sketches and inspiring you with layouts made out of supplies for our new monthly specials! Monthly specials will be 3 to 4 products that we will have on sale, for that month only and the best part is, the first special is up tomorrow! We also have some other fun things up our sleeve with Waleska, so stay tuned for those!

Another fun thing for 2012 is that our past design team members are taking over our Make It Sundays! We’ve been wanting to find a way to incorporate them, since we’ve missed them so much, and this is the perfect fit! So, from now on each Sunday they will be bringing you a layout or fun project with step-by-step instructions. I’ll be popping in on some Sunday’s, too 🙂

We are also working behind-the-scenes on a new website – I can hardly wait, it should be a couple more months!!

And, we are also working hard on the new items for our next launch – here’s a little sneak peek of what’s to come this Wednesday, January 4th:

It’s going to be an amazing year!

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One Little Word 2012 Giveaway

Today we have a special giveaway from Big Picture Classes and Ali Edwards:
Ali says: “In 2006, I began a tradition of choosing one word for myself each January – a word that I can focus on, meditate on, and reflect upon as I go about my daily life. My words have included play, peace, vitality, nurture, light, and story. These words have each become a part of my life in one way or another. They’ve been imbedded into who I am, and into who I’m becoming. They’ve been what I’ve needed (and didn’t know I needed). They’ve helped me to breathe deeper, to see clearer, and to grow.”

Each month you’ll receive an email and an invitation to visit the One Little Word classroom. Inside the classroom, you’ll find a gentle reminder message, encouragement to refocus, and a simple creative or writing project to complete, related to your word. At the end of the year you’ll have an album that celebrates and honors your word – making it that much more concrete and visible in your life.

Read the rest of the description and listen to Ali’s audio file explaining the process of the class, here.

And, as a special surprise for our readers, we get to give away one spot in the class! Just leave a comment here telling us what you’re word for 2012 is going to be and you’ll be entered to win! We’ll draw the lucky winner on Saturday, December 31st, 2011. One entry per person, please.
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Say Hello to Our New Design Team!

Happy day after Christmas, everyone! We hope you all had a great day, surrounded by the ones you love!
We have a special announcement! We are announcing the members of the first six months of 2012’s design team! But, before we do we want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to our past team – those ladies were so great to work with and we just loved everything they created for us. We feel so blessed by them and want to thank them for ALL they have done for us – they are truly an amazing group of women and we are going to miss them! The layouts, cards, projects, etc. that they created would always inspire me to get in that scraproom and create something – I am forever grateful for their unbelievable support.

As we say goodbye to our current team, we want to welcome the new incoming team – that is also full of amazing ladies! Please welcome these seven new ladies to our team:

And, we are excited to also announce that we are going to continue with the eighth member of our team being a different guest designer every month! That means lots of surprises are still in store 🙂

It’s going to be an amazing and inspiration filled year!

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Merry Christmas!

We want to wish you a wonderful Merry Christmas! We hope you all have an amazing and beautiful holiday season!
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Project Life

Welcome to another week of Project Life here at Elle’s Studio!  This weeks layout covers the week of December 5-11.  Another jammed pack week of school, Christmas activities, and everyday life.

Since I am also doing my December Daily, I find that I have less “found” objects from events due to some of it appearing in my December Daily, and also the fact that I may be focusing more on the stories through photography.  I think you will find there will be weeks like this from time to time (which is totally fine!). 

I did however include some packaging from a chapstick tube and some art work from my son’s backpack.  This became quite a focus of my week, I wanted to highlight how much I love the types of Christmas crafts he has been bringing home.
I wanted to take a little time and address the 4×6 Journaling Spots in a Project Life spread.  There are eight 4×6 spots in a week’s layout (in Becky Higgins’ Design A photo pockets), so you are given plenty of opportunity to try many different ideas for these larger spots.  I often use one of these spots to include the week’s calendar date and a brief summary of highlights.
 

I often include a few 4×6 photos for theses photo pockets.  Sometimes I leave just the photo (like in the Santa photo), and in others I might journal straight onto the photo in the “white space” (like the Christmas lights photo using a white uni-ball signo pen).  Or I might add something small to 4×6 the photo like Elle’s Studio Layered Number Cut Outs (baking photo), or a Tiny Tag (classroom photo) to add a little space for journaling or the date.

Another idea for the 4×6 Photo Pockets is to use the Large Journaling Tags (which are 4×6 and come in a pack of 6) as the base for the photo pocket.  I love doing this because it provides plenty of room to add an instax/wallet photo, journaling, a title/date, and embellishments.  The 4×6 Journaling tags really makes these larger spaces easy to use. 

If I ever get stuck and feel like a spot needs a little “extra something”  I usually add an Elle’s Studio Tidbits or Date Tags, washi tape, mist drops, a strip of pattern paper, or even a paperclip.
We have a winner from last week’s giveaway!  Congrats to Nana R Nassar !!  Please contact us at info@shopellesstudio.com with the following information:
Name:
Address:
Contest: Project Life December 13th
Just a note to let you know we will be taking next week off from our Project Life Series in order to enjoy the holidays with our families.  I will be back on January 3 with more Project Life Inspiration as we head into a New Year!  Elle and I are so excited that many of you will be participating in Project Life in 2012 and we can’t wait to provide inspiration and encouragement as you embarking on this wonderful system of documentation. 

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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Tomorrow’s the last day for shipping until January 2nd!

Whew! The time is just going too fast… I think I just got the last present wrapped and now I’m off to bake some goodies and make cards for Christmas 🙂 I can hardly wait for the big day to arrive! We’ve got some fun surprises for my nephew and this year, he’ll be able to open the presents, so that will be fun to watch!

We wanted to thank everyone for all the orders on our free shipping day – we worked all weekend so they would go out today and we just dropped the last ones off at the post office! We appreciate each order so much and we hope you enjoy your goodies!

Also, a reminder about our holiday schedule, tomorrow’s the last day to order for it to ship this month:

No shipping on December 21st through January 1st
Orders placed on and between these dates will ship January 2nd
Thank you so much for your patience with us during our non-shipping dates! We treasure that extra time we get to spend with family and friends! 
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December Guest Designer : Shimelle Laine

We are so thrilled to have Shimelle on board this month as our guest designer! I’ve been following her for quite some time now and she’s been a huge inspiration for me. If you haven’t seen what she did this month for our Inspiration Gallery, make sure you check it, it’s definitely going to inspire you! And, make sure you check out her blog, too – she always has something amazing going on and lots of ways you can join in and participate! We love it 🙂

She took a moment to answer some questions, let’s take a peek:
Name: Shimelle Laine
Location: London, England
Blog: www.shimelle.com
Twitter: @glittershim

BIO: 
London-based scrapbooker Shimelle Laine believes writing is the key to meaningful scrapbooks, but has to admit she loves photos and playing with pretty paper as well, so it’s pretty good that scrapbooking combines all those things! She has been part of the scrapbook industry for over a decade, and has been teaching online scrapbooking classes since 2004.  She designs for Jenni Bowlin Studios, American Crafts and Two Peas in a Bucket. 

Every December, she leads the Journal your Christmas workshop, with journaling and photography prompts every day throughout the Christmas season and a variety of ways to scrapbook Christmas in a way that is enjoyable and practical for you. You can join this workshop at any time and it includes permanent membership, so there’s no reason not to sign up now.  Elle’s Studio elements make regular appearances on Shimelle’s journal pages!

What are three products you can’t live without?
Patterned paper, precision pens and the Martha Stewart classic butterfly punch.

Where do you scrapbook?
For the last several years, I’ve had a dedicated room for crafty work, but we have moved house over the past month and now my crafting space is in the living room.  It’s not presentable enough yet to share pictures!  But I can say it is less ‘I keep my crafting supplies in a cupboard in a corner of the living room’ and more ‘Oh there is a sofa in your craft room’.  The craziest thing is that it was my husband’s idea! 

What do you listen to/watch while scrapbooking?
I have a set of movies I know by heart that I love to just listen to while I work.  I realise ‘listening’ to a film is not the general idea behind making a movie, but it works for me.  I can’t really watch without getting distracted, which is why they have to be well-worn favourites.  The list includes Juno, 500 Days of Summer, The Devil wears Prada and all the Harry Potter films.  Other days I’m more music driven.  I have a few set playlists for when I am on a deadline but I usually like choosing one song that seems perfect at the moment then letting iTunes genius make a playlist automatically.  Sometimes it’s awesome.  Other times I really wonder why it’s called genius at all. 

What is your favorite color combination?
Just one? Really? It’s hard to play favourites with colours! I love grey with turquoise or yellow, white with aqua and red, kraft with pretty much anything.  And yet my favourite colour is actually green.  Always has been.

Thanks so much for sharing with us today, Shimelle!

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