Summer 2009 β€’ Documented Free download!

We just added the above page to our summer mini book and it is about how beautiful the roses were this year – they were absolutely, amazingly huge and gorgeous! We used the Granny’s Doily Journaling Tags and cut the edges off for a fun border, and then the circle tag if from our Digital Summer kit

And… it brings us to our second and last free download for this project! This fun circle tag can be used for so many things besides your summer mini book! We’ve even been using them to label drawers and containers around here! Click here to go to our Summer 2009 Documented download page and download yours today!

We hope you all enjoy it!
xo, Elle

Some Saturday Favs

I recently purchased the above necklace from Becoming on etsy and it is so, SO beautiful! They let you customize the initial and bead color and I’m in love with it! It is the perfect size and I love the handmade look of the stamped letter πŸ™‚ Great idea for a Christmas or Birthday gift!
I will always have a weak spot in my heart for things sculpted out of clay. When I was in sixth grade I discovered it and made things for years! These super cute monsters are available at JooJoo’s etsy shop and I’m thinking I have to have them πŸ™‚

And… these three pictures below have totally inspired me to bake something this weekend! These colored layers are just beautiful and would be a total surprise to the person cutting into them! Too much fun!!!
Photo by: chotda
Photo by: cup.cakers
Photo by: kristin_a

Happy weekend, everyone!
xo, Elle

Summer Documented – winners!

Microsoft Word – 0094445-0807927-pi.doc

Wow! We love, love, LOVE you guys! Thank you so much for all the wonderful and amazing comments you left!

We have two winners to announce! They are:

Nitasha said…YuMmY…these sweet treats are the sugar rush I need to get busy on my project 365! Thanks for the tip and chance to win! August 11, 2009 9:45 AM

mandydake said…I just love eveything you do! My favorite are the summer flashcards right now. Hugs, Mandy August 12, 2009 5:06 AM

Congrats! Please email us your addresses and we’ll get your packages out asap!

And… we’ll have a prize for everyone on Sunday! Our next free downloadable tag will be available, so make sure you check back and download yours then!

Then on Monday we’ll be featuring an amazing tutorial by Kristin that will have you saying β€œhey! Why didn’t I think of that?” well… it left me thinking that, LOL! And, even more fun will continue after that… But we can’t spill the beans yet πŸ™‚

Love you all and thank you so much for your support!

Xo, Elle

Summer 2009 β€’ Documented – No photos? No problem! +giveaway!

First, we wanted to say sorry for the delay on this project! We got a little busier than we expected … but to make up for our delay we’ll be having a giveaway at the end of this post πŸ™‚ Everyone is welcome to enter!!

Today we are going to show you how to use our 365 Stamp for when you don’t have any photos for a page. This is a great way to record any moment you want to remember!
Gather all types of different colored card stock (you can even use scrapbook papers that have light patterns on them), your 365 stamp, ink and your acrylic block.Quick stamping tip I learned from Jennifer McGuire! Lay your stamp piece down flat on the table, then push your acrylic block onto the stamp and pick the stamp piece and block up together. This helps the stamp layout correct and super straight!
After you’ve stamped and cut out your 365 tag, punch holes in it that line up with your mini book’s binding. I made a ton of these at the same time and keep them in a handy spot. When you come across a special or funny moment but have no camera available, pull one of these out and write down your memory as soon as possible so you don’t forget it!
Here’s the one I tucked in my mini book the other day!

Giveaway time! We are giving away a Summer Pack to two lucky winners! All you have to do is leave a comment here or email us (with the subject line: Summer 2009 giveaway) a comment and you’re entered πŸ™‚
Happy creating everyone!
xo, Elle
P.S: We’ll draw winners this Thursday!

Whale of a Time Stamp!

When we put the Whale of a Time on special, for the month of August, we realized we have never shown how many items you can create with it! Here’s a couple of things we made πŸ™‚ We stamped ours onto Bazzill paper, but you could stamp them on anything! As we were making these all I could think of is stamping them on Kraft paper, but I couldn’t find any in the studio! Journaling and embellishment tags, you could also use the circle tags for cupcake toppers!!
More journaling tags! Use the dotted line pattern to create your own journaling lines, or make them without! Cute birthday tags to add to presents! Little “To: and From:” tags to add to packages, or even bags of candy or lollipops!

And, all that came from one stamp set! The Whale of a Time stamp set is on special for 10% off, for August only!!

Thanks for stopping by!
xo, Elle

Guest Designer for August – Kristin Hayne!

Kristin Hayne is our guest designer for August! Her gallery is full of very inspiring layouts, cards and a super cute and clever recipe box! Learn more about Kristin, see her full gallery and read her fun interview here! There is so much to see, she really spoiled us this month! We love her use of bright colors and the extras embellishments she adds. So much fun πŸ™‚

Kristin also picked our Whale of a Time Stamp for the Guest Designer Special! For the entire month of August you can get 10% off it!

And, make sure you check back here on the 15th for Kristin’s very cool technique!

Thanks so much, Kristin, for the amazing and inspirational work!
xo, Elle

New holiday items?

Hey everyone!

We just wanted to write a quick note to give you a little update on our holiday items since we have received so many emails asking about them πŸ™‚ We’ve been busy working and proofing our new items and everything is coming together soooo nicely! I’m thinking this will be one of our best launches yet and I hope you’ll feel the same πŸ™‚

A lot of you have also been asking about our Vintage Flashcards and we are excited to say that: Yes! We will be extending our previous line, that we’ve been doing since the beginning of 2009, for the upcoming fall and winter seasons, and for Christmas, too! We’ll have numbers, new journaling tags, cutouts, lots of other fun things in store… can’t wait to start sharing sneak peeks soon πŸ™‚

Right now, we do not have a firm date set for the new launch, but we are shooting for as early as possible. We’ll send out a newsletter as soon as we set a date, so make sure you’re on the list! If you aren’t, please sign up here: www.shopEllesStudio.com

And, I just want to thank you so, SO much for all your amazing support! You guys are truly the best people ever and I feel so blessed and thankful to be able to create things you enjoy! Thank you so much for all your emails and comments,too, they make my day!

Love you all!!
xo, Elle

Summer 2009 β€’ Documented – page four + five

Time for another page! We were really inspired by the Kenner Road layouts and their use of mulitiple journaling tags and our cut outs, in the last post! For our next layout we decided to do another two page spread with multiple journaling tags, and use a large photo for the right page! Let’s get started :
Gather up your supplies. For this layout you’ll need a picture large enough to be an entire page.
The Cosmo Cricket paper we picked out for this layout has these super fun beach balls, so we wanted to make the beach ball that is going to be in the corner pop. We used pop dots to pop it!
Next, since this paper has a coordinating backside, we used the leftover scrap piece and cut a bunch of uneven strips. Put the strips to the side, we’ll need them in just a little bit πŸ™‚
Then, we picked out our journaling tags. For this layout, we wanted to use multiple journaling tags that coordinated well. We used one from our cut outs and the other from our digital download.
Once we got the basic layout figured out, we glued the picture and top journaling tag down. Then brought our strips outs. One of the strips we cut bubbles into.
Lay and glue your strips down. Make sure some show the backside of the paper. This will look like your using different coordinating papers, but really it’s just one sheet!
I wanted the second journaling tag to be on top of some strips and behind the final strip, so I waited to glue it on until I was ready.
For the right side, we are using a large photo for the entire page! This is fun and a great way to display a photo that you want to be really large. Use a page from the book to mark on the back of your photo where to cut and punch holes.After we cut off the side and punched our holes we added our title. I love putting titles on large pictures, it adds such a different look to your mini!After taking a final look at the two pages together… we still thought something was missing…
We figured what it was! It needs some butterflies πŸ™‚ Here’s what our pages ended up looking like:
And, some close ups. We added “stitching” with our black pen, too! πŸ™‚
Love our little deer πŸ™‚ Our summer mini is coming together nicely! How’s yours going? We want to see it! Please feel free to post a link in the comments or add it to our flickr group.

We’ve had some questions come up in the comment sections and through email so we thought we should answer them today!

How do you get your journaling to always fit on your journaling tags?

I always write out my journaling on a practice sheet and edit it so it will fit. It also helps to trace the journaling tag you are going to write on so you can get the sizing down before you start writing. Also, writing it very lightly in pencil first, on the journaling tag and then going back over it in pen is a good idea, too!

Do you worry about the pages sticking together?

Not really… I haven’t had many pages stick together in the past, but if this is something you are worried about you could put a piece of tissue paper or wax paper between the pages when storing your album.

How is the book if you are adding lots of embellishments? Is it bumpy?

This book is going to be pretty thick! I got super lucky that the mini book from Chatterbox came with huge binding rings! I’ll have to take a side shot when it’s finished so you can see it.

If you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments section or email us! And, don’t forget to link up your summer minis here or in our flickr group!

Happy creating!
xo, Elle

P.S. Still be thinking and recording those summer memories that you don’t have pictures for πŸ™‚ we’ll be working on that soon!

ckc Seattle – November 6th and 7th

We are so excited to announce that we will be at the vendor faire at CKC in Seattle! Registration for classes opens August 5th and I’ve heard there is going to be some awesome ones! If you purchase three or more classes you’ll get a free pass to the vendor faire!

We’re already getting ready for the show and will have our entire stock with us, plus all our new holiday items πŸ™‚ We can’t wait and hope to see some of you there! Make sure you stop by and introduce yourself!!

xo, Elle