November Guest Designer : Nichol Magouirk

We are so excited to have Nichol on board this month as our Guest Designer! We just love her style and the way she brings everything together in her layouts and cards. We’ve been a big fan of hers and blog reader for quite some time, so to see her work with our tags is just amazing! If you haven’t seen her work in our Inspiration Gallery, yet, make sure you head on over to check it out!

She took some time to answer some questions for us and share her scraproom! Let’s check it out:
Name: Nichol Magouirk
Location: Dodge City, Kansas
Blog: www.nicholmagouirk.typepad.com
Twitter: @nicholmagouirk

What are three products you can’t live without? 
Patterned paper, stamps and my Silhouette Die Cutting Machine 

Where do you scrapbook?
I scrap in my upstairs studio. Here is a link to my studio (and video walk-through) on my blog: http://nicholmagouirk.typepad.com/things_that_really_matter/2010/09/my-craft-studio-in-photos-and-video.html

What do you listen to/watch while scrapbooking? 
I listen to a lot of music while scrapping. Mostly alternative music however I have pretty eclectic tastes and like almost everything. No country music though.

What is your favorite color combination? 
Currently my favorite combo is Red/Turquoise/Yellow.

And, for a special giveaway today, we are giving away Nichol’s favorite Elle’s Studio items!

Nichol’s favorite items are our: Pennants – Red, Mix & Match Number Tags – Red, and Lil’ Snippets – Date.

Just leave a comment to be entered – we’ll draw two winners on Monday, November 28th. *One entry per person, please.

Thanks so much Nichol, for sharing with us this month!

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Project Life

Welcome to another week of Project Life here at Elle’s Studio!  This week’s Project Life focuses on the week of November 7-13th.

This was a big week in our household– my whole family (minus the kids) traveled to New Orleans for my cousins wedding. It was so much fun to spend time with the extended family and document some of our stories in Project Life. 

My challenge this week was to tell both the stories at home (where my kids were with their aunt) and in New Orleans (where my husband and I were with the family).

Fortunately, my sister in law took photos of the kids while she was babysitting, and also my friend took photos at our daughters ballet class.  They both were happy to email me the photos to include in my album.  Don’t be afraid to ask other people to send you photos– especially if they are photos that are important to you!   Other items I included to documents the kids part of the week at home was art work from school and a Snicker’s wrapper from the Halloween candy stash!   Halloween candy was a big part of the week (mostly me constantly telling them when it’s okay to eat it!)

I had plenty of photos and found items from our New Orleans road trip, that I decided to include an insert from We R Memory keepers to hold my iPhone/Postal Pics photos.  This particular page protector is a 9 4×4 inch photo sleeve protector that fits a 12×12 album.  I simply trimmed the page protector down to four 4×4 photos (fits 8 total) only because I like to see the whole week in one spread.

I used many Elle’s Studio Lil’Snippets throughout my layout for my journaling spots.  I also love the November 11/11 4×6 Journaling Card— it was perfect for this 11.11.11 week!

We have a winner from last weeks giveaway with our Project Life Special Guest Lisa Truesdell!!  Congrats to {s}crap happens! you won Lisa’s Favorite Items!  In order to claim your prize please email the following to info@shopellesstudio.com :

Name:
Address:
Prize: Lisa’s Favorite Items (Nov 15)

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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November Inspiration Gallery is LIVE!

November’s Inspiration Gallery is live and we are so thankful for such an amazing team that puts together such beautiful layouts, cards and even mini’s for us to be inspired by each month! Make sure you check out each one of their galleries, along with our special guest this month! It’s a surprise and we will be introducing her tomorrow, here on the blog, along with giving away her favorite Elle’s Studio items.

So, don’t wait any longer, hop on over to the gallery and check it out!

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Featuring Jack Frost

Happy Monday!  It’s hard to believe it’s Thanksgiving week!  The holidays are upon us, and we have the perfect kit to document those special Winter and Holiday moments- Jack Frost!   We have only a few kits left, so hurry and get yours today!

The colors in this kit are wonderful- pinks, blues, woodgrain… they are perfect for snow and winter photos!  I used two of the exclusive Elle’s Studio tags that were shaped in a square, and also punched square pieces out of other various Elle’s Studio tags in order to create a grid to go above my photo.

I layered the “Let it Snow” and “Wonderland” tags over the grid to create a second horizontal layer within my grid.

It’s hard to see in this photo, but I misted the Maya Road snowflakes with the Studio Calico Shine Mr. Huey included in the kit.  I also dripped the Shine mist in the white space of my layout– it adds the perfect touch!

We have very few Jack Frost kits available, and we will not be restocking once it’s sold out!  Get yours today for $24.99 here in our shop.  It comes with 21 beautiful exclusive Elle’s Studio tags–definitely my favorite part of the kit. 🙂

Stay tuned over the next few weeks for more Holiday and Winter Kit inspiration from myself and the Design Team!!

 

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Make It Sunday – 11.20.11

Happy Sunday, everyone! Hope every one’s week is off to a great start! We have another Christmas card to show you this week – I am loving how easy it is to use Crates Peppermint line with our tags. The cards come together so quick and easy, yet look amazing!

For this weeks card I added a hand cut snowflake and I’m loving how it turned out. I’ve decided that this year I’ll make cards for my immediate family members, and if I get those done with time to spare, I’ll make them for everyone! Do you make cards for the holidays? If so, do you make the same design for everyone or change it up a bit?

Here’s how this card came together:
1. I started with a piece of 8 x 4 inch cardstock, folded it in half so you end up with a card that measures 4 x 4 inches.

2. Then I took a piece of the red paper from Crate Papers Peppermint 6 x 6 pad and covered the front. All the papers I used on this card came from the same paper pad 😉

3. Next, use a piece of green paper from your 6 x 6 pad to cover the bottom, my piece measured 1.5 x 4 inches.

4. I then added a border sticker from the Crate Peppermint stickers, and cut to fit.

5. To finish it off I made a snowflake by following the folding instructions at this site, and then just freehanded it from there – you can cut it however you’d like and I love how each snowflake turns out different when you do!

6. Then, I added one of our Christmas Tiny tags (and cut out a triangle on one end to turn it into a pennant) then used the santa chipboard accent from Crates Peppermint line and layered them all together on the card!

We are giving away the Elle’s Studio product used in this week’s Make It Sunday! This week we are giving away the Christmas Tiny Tags!

Just leave a comment to be entered! We will draw the winner and post it with next weeks “Make It Sunday’ post. *Comments must entered by 11:59 pm on 11.26.11 to qualify for entry. One entry per person, please.

Congrats to last week’s winner:
Maria Therese, please email us the info below to claim your prize to info@shopellesstudio.com
Name:
Address:
Prize: November 6th

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Sketch Thursday – 11.17.11

This week’s sketch is based off of Allison’s Jack-O-Lantern layout from the October Inspiration Gallery! I love how she centered the photo, embellishment tag and title, and has the two tiny strips of paper at the top and bottom. Also, loving that little talking bubble over the one pumpking – how cute is that? And of course, the journaling and the date at the bottom add the perfect finishing touch!
This sketch has room for one photo, an embellishment tag, and more, but you can choose to change it up however you’d like! You can flip it, rotate it, whatever you want – make it your sketch!
Looking for an incentive to use our sketch this week? We can help with that! Post a link to your layout created using this Sketch Thursday sketch for your chance to win a $5 Elle’s Studio gift certificate. Link must be posted by 11:59p on Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011. 

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.
 
Congrats to last weeks randomly drawn winner:

Diana Waite, please email the following information to us at: info@shopellesstudio.com and we’ll get you your gift certificate!
Name:
Contest: 11.09.11 Sketch

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Kit update!

We want to thank you all so, SO much! We are completely sold out of our Christmas kit and have already started shipping! If you haven’t already received your shipping confirmation, you should today or tomorrow. We are planning to have everything shipped by Friday so you can get started on your kits! We’d love to see what you make with them, too! Please feel free to send us a link or drop us an email 🙂

We can’t thank you enough for your support – it means the world to us and we are so happy you like the kits! A lot of you have asked about setting up a subscription and right now don’t have that capability… but with our new web site we should! Stay tuned 🙂

We still have a couple of our Jack Frost winter kits available – but not very many! So if you were thinking about getting one, now is the time!

We also wanted to let you know that we have two digitals up for just $1 each, today! Our Vintage Typewriter Christmas Tags would be perfect for any holiday layout or your December Daily. And our other special today is for making holiday photo cards! These specials will only last until midnight, tonight!

Thank you so much, we love you all!

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Project Life

We are thrilled to introduce to you our first ever Project Life Special Guest– Lisa Truesdell!

Lisa was one of my inspirations to begin a Project Life album. She is truly a natural at creating meaningful Project Life pages and sharing the story of her family. She created a Project Life spread this week for us and answered a few questions. First, a little bit about Lisa:
Lisa Truesdell lives in Omaha, NE, in a midtown neighborhood filled with big trees and old houses. She’s been married to Matthew for 14 years and is a stay at home mom to their three boys – Alex, Ben, and Sam. When she’s not making pages or chasing her boys, she is slowly teaching herself to use her sewing machine on fabric. She also subscribes to too many magazines and is useless from the moment she starts a new book until she finishes it. Lisa designs for Studio Calico and is a Garden Girl at Two Peas in a Bucket.
1. When did you start Project Life?

I started Project Life at the beginning of 2011. My album didn’t come till the second week, so I started in there – I was actually just looking at photos from the first week of the year and starting to plan out filling in that missing week soon. 😉

2. What do you love most about Project Life?

I love that it tells a more complete story of our everyday. I love that it makes me slow down and appreciate our day to day routines. I love that there are five distinct voices heard in it.

3. Any tips for keeping up or catching up?

When I get behind, I start back up with the most current week. It takes the weight of being “x” many weeks behind off my shoulders – I can stay current, and back fill missing weeks when I get more time.

4. How do you get family members involved in contributing to your Project Life album?

It didn’t take long for my boys to learn the drill. They bring me cool stuff and ask if I want it for my book. They’re more reluctant about filling out journaling cards – but I just hand them to them and ask them to write about an event. There’s a little grumbling, but I love what they write. I also mix in a lot of photos from my husband’s phone and steal stories from his Facebook updates.

5. Anything else you would like to add?

Starting Project Life is a little scary. It’s something you really have to WANT to do, or you won’t make time for it. I fumbled a little the first few weeks, wondering if it was really for me. But as I watched the weeks fill in with all these awesome little stories, I knew I couldn’t stop.

Last week Lisa wrote an amazing comprehensive post about her process and approach to Project Life. It’s contains wonderful info and tips including storage, photography, products, note-taking, and time-savers. Lisa also posts her Project Life updates on her blog every Friday- so make sure to follow her blog for continued inspiration!

Are you ready for a giveaway? Win some of Lisa’s favorite Elle’s Studio products by leaving us a comment on this post!! We will announce the winner next Tuesday during our Project Life post!

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Our two new project kits are here!

We are excited to introduce to you our two newest project kits:

Jack Frost includes 21 exclusive Elle’s Studio journaling and embellishment tags, along with great products from other manufactures. This kit is perfect for those winter layouts – even if you don’t get any snow! You could use this kit for layouts, mini’s and more!

‘Tis the Season is a Christmas themed kit and has the beautiful traditional reds and greens. This kit includes our first limited edition Elle’s Studio stamp and has four different stamps on the sheet. Along with the 24 exclusive Elle’s Studio journaling and embellishment tags, it also includes numbers 1 – 31 just in case you want to do a December Daily album!

And, we have a special deal, when you purchase both kits, you get 10% off! Both kits are close to being sold out, so if you want one of these, please don’t delay! We will not be restocking once they are sold out and we will never be printing or releasing the Elle’s Studio tags that are found in these kits!

Also, don’t forget to check back during the rest of this month and December! Our Project Kit Coordinator, Jenni Hufford, will be working with both kits and inspiring us during the winter season!

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Sneak peek of our next two kits!

Happy Saturday, everyone! We have a special surprise to make this weekend extra fun… TWO sneak peeks of our kits that will be for sale this Monday!

Our next two project kits are going to be perfect for those holiday layouts – we’ve got something for everyone with either the winter themed kit, or the Christmas kit! Along with each kit including limited edition and exclusive Elle’s Studio tags that we will never be selling again, the Christmas kit also comes with a limited edition and exclusive Elle’s Studio stamp and numbers in case you’d like to supplement your December Daily album! And, as a bonus this time, if you purchase both the kits, you’ll receive a 10%  discount!

They both go up for sale, along with some other fun goodies, this Monday, November 14th at 6:00 am PST. Our newsletter subscribers will get the first chance to purchase one, so make sure you are on the mailing list and checking your email Monday morning, then they will go up for public sale at 7:30 am. (East Coast time would be 9:00 am presale and 10:30 am public sale).

We can’t stress enough how limited these kits are this time around – if you want one please make sure you are ready on Monday morning.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

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