Inspiration + Update + Sneak Peek + Giveaway!!

Inspiration

First, since the new year is almost here, I wanted to share this awesome project for 2009 that Sylvia is working on, called: 2009 - a Year on the Balcony!

She is planning on taking a few pictures each month of their balcony, changing through the seasons. She'll also be tracking plants she planted and so on, kind of like a garden journal! How fun would this be to have to look back on? I love it how she used our calendar tags for the divider tabs, too! Great job!!

Website Update:
Well... I don't know if I should cry or puke right now... it appears our web site domain name didn't get renewed. Our website guys were supposed to be keeping track of it for us, but somehow it didn't happen. Now, I am in the process of fighting to get it back, not fun! Our physical website remains unharmed and untouched, just our domain name was taken :( I am so sad right now!! I'll know more by 3:00 pm today so please keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer!!

Sneak peek:
Our newsletter with the sneak peek went out on Saturday night - but then when our website went down the photos in the newsletter wouldn't load so everyone got a blank one :( I am so sorry about this!! We usually give our newsletter subscribers first peak at the new items, but since it looks like it could be a couple of days, I thought I'd post the sneak peek here :)

Here are some of the new items that will be launching soon:

And, something I'm really, REALLY excited to share with you...

We are going to be doing stamps for 2009!! WOOHOO!! This is something I've wanted to do for quite awhile, but trying to find an USA manufacturer was a bit harder than I thought it would be! So, in November we found one and sent our designs off and they are fabulous! I hope you enjoy them as much as we are :)

The other new product is called "Cut Outs" - these are journaling tags that you will be able to cut out of the paper. This cuts costs on our end and so we are passing the savings on to you!

I can't wait to share more photos with you! We were planning on launching all the new items on January 3rd, but that date is currently tentative since we are up in the air about the website. So, in the meantime we'll do a giveaway!! Just leave a comment below or email us to be entered! The giveaway will be a surprise, but definitely something from the new items :)

Love you all!
XO, Elle

Experiencing problems with our website :(

We are still experiencing problems with our website domain and hopefully our tech guys are on it - I am STILL waiting for a call back... I guess they don't work on Sundays?

Thanks for your patience! All orders are still going out as scheduled - If you need to email us for any reason, please email us here. Our etsy shop is still open, too!

Merry Christmas!

We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

During this week we will be taking a short break to spend time with our families. Any orders placed now will ship on Monday, December 29th. Thank you so much for making this a great year - we can't wait for 2009!

We love you all!
XO, Elle

How-to Create Gorgeous Christmas Balls!

This tutorial is brought to you by my Mom, who taught me all I know about crafty loveliness!

1. Pick up a set of blank Christmas balls. These can be found almost anywhere, she bought hers at Michael's. Martha Stewart has some fun colors available at Kmart and I have also seen sets of these at Walmart. As it gets closer to Christmas, they are all starting to go on sale, so you should be able to get a pretty good deal!

2. You'll also need to pick up some glitter, she choose Martha Stewart's silver glitter from Michael's (this glitter is fabulous and has the perfect texture!). Don't forget the glue, she highly recommends Scotch Quick-Dry Tacky Adhesive, the bottle has the perfect tip for drawing small shapes and the glue dries very quickly! And, lastly, if you want to add even more sparkles, pick up some rhinestones!

Here is a close up of the Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive - if you can't find this glue, try to find glue with a fine tip! The finer the tip, the better the end result will work!

3. Practice your design on paper. She choose to do a swirly pattern around the entire ball - but there are lots of different things you could do! Some examples would be: Names, monograms, year, hearts, stripes, snowflakes, etc.

Since she choose the swirly pattern she started with the base of the pattern and made a line that went around the entire ball with the glue. The line had a little wave, but stayed pretty centered on the ball.

4. Before the glue can dry, she sprinkled the glitter on the line. Let the line dry before continuing. This would be a good time to do the lines on all the balls while waiting. Setting up an assembly line will make the process go faster since you will be waiting awhile for the glue to dry in each step!

5. After the line is dry, it is time to add the swirls! Try to not worry to much about how smooth your lines are - the glitter hides all those imperfections!

6. Put glitter on the glue again and set aside to dry.

7. Repeat steps 3 - 6 around the ball again, so you will have a total of two lines that wrap completely around the ball - dividing the ball into quarters. This allows the perfect amount of swirls and allows the glitter to catch the light at any angle. It is such a beautiful sight!

TIPS!

Use a cupcake pan to hold the balls while they are drying!

If your balls are to small and the cupcake pan doesn't hold them up high enough, turn the cupcake pan upside down! This worked like a charm!

Put the balls back into the same packaging!

They look store bought!

Smaller balls work great and are just as cute! She made little snowflakes and used the rhinestones as there little centers!

Two more tips that I don't have photos for:
-Work on wax paper! This allows you to collect the glitter that doesn't stick to the glue on the balls and put it back into the jar!

-After the balls are completely dry (you can even wait until the next day to be completely sure) use a dry paint brush to brush off the excess glitter!

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If you have any questions, please post them and I can ask my Mom!

She was making these for my sister after they couldn't find ones like these at the store that they had bought from the year before. I think hers turned out even better than the ones bought at the store, plus they were made from the heart with lots of love :) I think anyone would enjoy opening a box to find these special ornaments and every year when they hang them on there tree they will think of you!

Something fun for 09!

Here is an awesome calendar that Vivi made using our 2009 Calendar Tags! I love how she layered our tags with the scalloped tags underneath and how the entire year is just a glance away! She's having some online challenges, too, so check her blog out!

And, remember this fun calendar booklet Kristin created using our Calendar Mini Album? If you need ideas, check out her gallery at our website!

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There will be a fun tutorial coming later tonight! If you are in need of a last minute, handmade and very cute Christmas present this tutorial will be perfect for you :)

More snow and a sneak peek!

It is still snowing! We haven't experienced weather like this since 1990 and it is beautiful! Not so fun to drive in... but we are managing! They are predicting that the snow will continue to fall until tomorrow at 3 pm, so we should have a huge pile by then! And, they are saying more snow is still on its way for Sunday and Monday, but we'll see - it's so hard to believe!

This is our baby's first year in the snow and she loves it! Well... I should say she loves when we bring a snowball inside and let her play with it - but it is way to cold for her to actually be out in it :)

I took some time today to finish up the last bit of wrapping I needed to get done and came up with a fun way to finish of the tissue paper inside the box! I used my Christmas Glittered Chipboard Shapes from My Mind's Eye and it turned out perfect! I love the way it looks :)

And, I thought today would be a great day to share a sneak peek of one of our new designs for Valentines Day! We are bringing back our little Love Birds since a couple of you were inquiring about them. January is going to be full of fun... new products launching, and a couple of other things that are tentatively planned just for you! I can't spill the beans on them yet BUT make sure you are signed up for our newsletter and you'll be the first to know! You can sign up here.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great day :)
XO, Elle

The snow has fallen!

We live in an area where getting a few inches of snow is something to celebrate... so when the flakes started to fall last night, we broke out the hot chocolate, marshmallows, and cookies and watched the flakes pile up on the Christmas lights! And then, this morning we woke up to the most prettiest site!

The Christmas season is officially here :) Merry Christmas to all!

XO, Elle

December's Guest Designer - Kara Haupt!

A new inspiration gallery is up at our website, featuring some fabulous creations from Kara Haupt! Check it all out here. There is also a short interview to read.

We are thrilled to have Kara on board this month, thank you so much for these artsy creations, Kara!

"The Best in Baby Scrapbooking" By Jessica Turner

Jessica Turner is doing a fun week of "The Best in Baby Scrapbooking" and has picked our "Month to Month" baby tags for day one!
And, she even made a fabulous mini book to go along with the post about the tags! She used the tags in this mini book exactly how I had envisioned them being used - I love it!Check out the rest of the mini book here, and make sure to leave a comment at that post to be entered into the giveaway! Every day there will be a new giveaway, so make sure you stop by and check it out!

Thank you so much, Jessica!!

Weekend already?

This week went so fast... yikes! And, there are less than 20 days left until Christmas! Tomorrow I'm planning on getting some Christmas gifts for my family, but I know I won't be able to get them all in one day... I'm stumped for what I should get my parents this year because both claim to not need anything... anyone have any good ideas? LOL!
You guys win the "Most Awesome" award for being so... well... awesome!! So far you have bought and fed 28 children with our "Giving Back" tag packs :) We are so excited and honored!! Our goal is 50 packs, so if any of you can spread the word we would really appreciate it! And, a huge thank you to everyone who as bought one!!

I love this time of year, have you noticed how much eye candy is around? It's amazing!! Ever year I wrap all the presents for under the tree in a special way and make everyone a special tag with their name on it... I haven't decided what to do this year, but when I do, I'll post pictures for you :) In the meantime you must check out Heather Bullard's post on wrapping presents, it's amazing!!

I hope you all have a great weekend! Wish me luck on shopping :)
XO, Elle

P.S. If you are going to Urban Craft Uprising this weekend in Seattle, send me an email! I might be there doing some shopping :)

More fun for Wednesday :)

The days go to fast around here! I was supposed to post about these two fun things yesterday, but didnt get a chance to :( Sorry about that!

First, our Christmas tags were featured at Everyday Beautiful - this is an awesome blog full of fun and crafty inspiration! Today they posted about a fun fabric paper chain, with a tutorial ... I might have to try making that, it is so cute! Thank you, Everyday Beautiful for the feature!

And, have you seen the Red Velet kit club this month? It's adorable and features some of our tags!! You can get yours here :)
I have to get back to work, but I promise more posts later in the week :)
XO, Elle
P.S. You must go check out the tutorial "Paper Scraps + Celery = Fabulous Gift Wrap" at Creature Comforts today! I think this might be how I'm wrapping my presents this year!!!

Some Monday fun!

There has been a lot going on lately! I'll split up the fun into two posts... We'll start off first with winners from the last post! The two winners are:
redmom and HoweverAlthough Congrats! Email me your addresses and I'll get your surprises out asap :)

Next, our tags were featured in an awesome downloadable magazine called LMNOP. They displayed and used our tags in some fun and festive ways, plus this magazine is packed with lots and lots of fun ideas and inspiration! And, it's free to download :) you can't get any better than that!

We also want to share with you this very cute and fun countdown that April of Jane Says made using our Crazy Number Tags!

I love that pom-pom garland she made! She said she strung the pom-poms on some string and used mini clothespins to add the numbers to them. Then, each day her little girl and her take a number down and see how many days are left until Christmas! What a great way to help little ones understand better, and you get a fun Christmas display at the same time! I love it!!

She also has an etsy shop that is full of adorable goodies. Below are just a few of the tons of things I love in her shop!

And, last but not least! We have our flickr contest winner from last month! Our winner is: artfulmemories

I love this little Christmas booklet! Great job :) Please email me your address and pick two items from our shop that you'd like! Our December contest starts now - all you have to do is upload a layout, card, mini book, etc. to our Flickr group that includes a least one of our tags!

Happy creating everyone... more tomorrow!
XO, Elle