Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

It's this the cutest party ever?! I had to share these photos that Jennifer sent over from her Halloween Party last night - looks like they had a blast!! She used our Halloween goodie bags and filled them with her Halloween Chex Mix which looks delicious! Thanks for sharing these with us, Jennifer :)

We hope everyone has a safe and wonderfully Happy Halloween!
xo, Elle

Trick or Treat Banner!

We are getting so excited because Halloween is just around the corner! I wanted to show you guys Michelle's creation with our Trick or Treat digital download. It turned out super cute - we love the way she embellished it and hung it on her fireplace! So fun!!

We are still busy in the studio getting ready for CKC. We also started on our Christmas crafts and will be showing them on the blog very soon, can't wait!

If you are participating in our card contest make sure your cards are postmarked by November 1st! Thanks so much to everyone who does! It means a lot to us and them :)

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!!
Trick or treat!
xo, Elle

Lots of fun going on!

Check out these cuties Martha made! She used our Halloween Goodie Bag digital download and what a cute set up she has going - love that Pyrex bowl! Thanks, Martha!!

Time is just going so fast! I know I saw that every month now... but it is! :) We probably won't be posting much in the next week as we prep for CKC Seattle. We are so excited and can't wait to meet some of you, make sure you say "Hi"!

While we're away, we wanted to highlight a couple of things and blog posts. Make sure you check out the following:
Design Team Search - can't wait to go through all the apps!
Cards For Heroes - deadline extended to November 1st
Halloween Mini Books - great for capturing your Halloween night!
Halloween Witch Hat Treats - great for handing out, even to adults
Limited Quantity Items - we've added more items to this section, get them while they last!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
xo, Elle

A Haunting Good Time!

Update: All our digital downloads have been moved to www.jessicasprague.com - please head over to their site if you are interested in downloading any of our Halloween items. Thank you!
We held our annual Halloween Movie night this year at our house and I decided to go all out with the goodies! I found these super cute little monster soda pops at Target and just couldn't pass them up! I cut little strips from our Halloween papers and wrapped them around the straws to make little flags, and even used a couple of our Halloween Circle tags, too!
The popcorn bags were made from our digital download found here. You can use them for candy, too! So much fun - they held the perfect amount! The bags were a huge hit!
Everyone was so excited to see all the treats and decorations, it was so much fun to see my nieces and nephews reactions to everything! We all ate way too much candy and stayed up way past bedtime, but it was worth it :) Halloween movie night is one of our favorite traditions. I can't wait to see them all on Halloween night dressed up in their costumes!!

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We've received a few questions about our Digital Halloween Banners - available in "Trick Or Treat" and "Happy Halloween". Here is a small sample of what the printable pages look like:
The letters come on the shapes already so all you have to do is print them out and cut around the shape! Then, if you want, you can back each letter with one of the five different patterned papers! And, each of the sayings come in orange and black so you can mix and match and create your own unique banner!

The banners and bags come as pdf files, which are really easy to use. Just unzip the files and open, then print!

Happy Halloween, everyone!
xo, Elle
P.S. We just restocked all our candy!! Don't forget: Trick or treat?! All October orders ship with something good to eat :)

Design Team Search!

We are so excited to announce that for 2010 we are putting together a design team! We are on the hunt for 6 people that love to scrapbook and that would like to work with our items for the first six months of 2010 (from January through June)!

You will be responsible for:

- 2 layouts and one card or tag per month for our inspiration gallery

- Sending photos of your layouts, cards and tag to us by a certain date

- Participating in two of our new monthly blog challenges during your term

- Each designer will be spotlighted during their own special month! During your month we’ll need you to answer a short interview questionnaire and create a fun blog project to go along with your spotlight

- Checking in and keeping up to date with our Google calendar

- Posting your creations on your blog and in other galleries around the web

You will receive:
- All your layouts, cards, tags and projects posted on our site and blog

- Tons of Elle’s Studio products to work with!

- A link on our blog to yours

- Ability to request items for projects you have in mind

- Special compensation if any of your layouts or projects gets published!

To apply:

We have set up a special email account for collecting applications only. Please send the following to us in one email, to ellesstudio@gmail.com . Applications are due by November 10th:

- Three images of three different layouts, cards or project(s) that best represent you and your style. Images must be no larger than 600 x 600 px.

- A short 300 word bio about you!

- Link to your blog

- Link to any gallery you are currently posting to

- Include any current or past design team or publications

We will be announcing the Design Team members in late November! This team will be designing from January – June and then we’ll be putting another team together to finish off the year!

There's a lot of fun in store for the new year, we can’t wait!!

EDIT: A lot of people have been asking if we are also looking for overseas and international designers, too - Yes! We are :) We'd love to have people from all over the world design for us!

How many cards are you sending in? Deadline extended!

Just wanted to remind everyone that our card contest is still going on and you still have a chance of winning one of the THREE gift certificates to our shop, valued at $75, $50 and $25!

Every card you make and send in to Operation Write Home postmarked by November 2nd, with our packing slip, will get you one entry into our drawing for the gift certificates! (Please note: Deadline has been extended!! This deadline still allows you to send in Christmas themed cards, too!)

We had a couple of questions come up so we thought we'd cover them all here! If you have any questions, please feel free to email us!

How do you enter?
For every card you make and send in to Operation Write Home with our packing slip, you'll receive one entry into our drawing for three different gift certificates. If you send in 5 cards, that will give you 5 chances to win!

Do I have to include an envelope?
They have A2 envelopes, already! So, if you make your card A2 size (4.25 x 5.5 inches) you don't have to worry about the envelope! But, if you make an odd size card, please make an envelope to match. You can also download some envelope templates here, check out the right hand column of our blog for the links.

What about a donation?
Although a donation is not required, it is greatly appreciated. Even if it's just a dollar, that dollar helps with shipping costs and purchasing more envelopes.

Cards are made! Now what do I do?
Print this packing slip and fill it out. This packing slip is very important in order for you to gain entries into the contest. Pack your cards and packing slip into an envelope or box, along with a dollar or two if you can, and ship them to Operation Write Home (shipping addresses are on the packing slip). MUST BE POSTMARKED BY NOVEMBER 2nd! Please note: A couple people have asked us to extend the deadline, so we did! The November 2nd deadline still allows us to send Christmas themed cards.

Operation Write Home will be keeping track of all our cards and entries and sending us the list to draw the names from.

What card themes are they looking for?
Operation Write Home's blog is a great place to find the most up-to-date information on what themes they are running low on. They also report every Thursday on the cards they have received, so you can look for your name and make sure they got your package!

Most important to remember! NO GLITTER!!! At all!! Double check your supplies before you start so you don't accidentally use some!

Alright, if you didn't see your question answered, please email us! I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who participates! We love Operation Write Home and what they do, plus we are so thankful for all the work that they put into it. And, we know the men and women overseas love them, too! Everyone knows how special it feels to get a card from a loved one, but imagine getting a card from a loved one who is so far away, maybe otherwise unreachable by phone or email?!?!

And, even if you can only make one card, that one card will touch someones life out there :) Every card counts!!

Thank you so much everyone!
xo, Elle

Little Witch Hat Treats!

These cute little witch hats were inspired by this flickr photo we saw a couple months ago. When I saw them I knew we had to try them out! Open the hat to find the surprise:
Yum! My favorite candy ... well, one of them anyways! LOL! :)
And, you can write a little note on the bottom to add a personal special touch, too!
Now, I do have to admit, they are a little harder to make then I imagined... but, they are worth it! We used our Halloween Papers for the cone part and our Bazzill Halloween paper pack for the brim.

First you'll want to roll the cone part big enough for a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup to fit inside. Trim off the extra paper to make the bottom of the cone even.
For the brim, I punched two 1.75 inch circles - one in purple and the other in yellow because I didn't have a white pen to write on the purple...
Glue the two circles together, glue the peanut butter cup onto the brim and then glue the cone onto the peanut butter cup!
Top them off with these super sparkly Doodlebug Halloween stickers and borders!!
Happy Halloween, everyone!!
xo, Elle

Spooky Spiderwebs!

Fall is here! Already?! And, this month is going so fast ... it's almost half way over?! I'm really loving Fall, I pulled out my winter sweaters and we had our first frost last night :) Cocoa and pumpkin patch time!

My dad found these spider webs outside, one morning, and misted them with red paint! I love the way these photos turned out - I would have never thought of this great idea, thanks Dad! (click on the photos to make them larger!)
It's been a little crazy around here with all the prep for CKC, but we do have some fun in store during the next couple of weeks for you :) We can't wait to share!!

Happy Creating!
xo, Elle
p.s. Have you sent your cards in yet to enter into our "Operation Write Home" contest?!

We love this little book!

We love this little book Stephanie Howell put together for her gallery! It's so cute and adorable and perfect for those little ones! We got to thinking about our other flashcards and how we could make other little books like this one with our other themes! How fun! We have to get started :)
If you're looking for other themes, you can check out all twelve of our vintage flashcards sets here!

Happy creating!
xo, Elle

p.s. Thanks again for making the blog party so much fun!! We'll be doing a wrap up post on it soon and highlighting the card contest again! Love you all!!

Blog Party - Last Contest!

What an amazing day! Thank you all for stopping by and joining in on all the fun - this was the biggest and best blog party to date and I'm so happy we got to share it with you! We have two more cards to inspire you for the night! They were also made by Kristin Hayne and she used our Special Delivery Gift Tags! I love this idea of using a gift tag on the card, such a fun and customized idea!

We also have SEVEN winners to announce from today! The number corresponds to the blog post you won and the winners are as follows:
#1: Melissa
#2: lovin2scrap
#3: Amber
#4: Holly Harris via email
#5: Peggy
#6: Grace Palazzolo via email
#7: Julie Campbell

Congrats everyone! Please email me your address, along with the number of post you won and we'll get your prizes out asap!
There is still another chance to win, though! We are very excited to announce our final contest of the night! We, with your help, would love to help out Operation Write Home (previously known as Cards for Heroes)!
They are an amazing organization that gathers cards and sends them to our troops so our troops can write home to their loved ones! Finding cards and even stationary is sometimes impossible for our deployed men and women, so these cards mean the world to them! With help from people like you, Operation Write Home has currently sent over 204,000 cards to our deployed heroes! That is truly amazing!!

You will receive one entry in our contest for every card you send in to "Operation Write Home", using our packing slip, by October 26th! For example, if you send in 5 cards, you'll get 5 entries into our drawing!

Very important, you have to send them in with our special our packing slip, NO GLITTER can be used on the card and they must be postmarked by October 26th! You can go to their website to learn what sizes of cards work best and other tips like what theme of cards they are looking for. And, if you can, it really helps to include a couple extra dollars in the package to help them pay for postage for shipping the cards overseas.

We will be drawing three winners from the entries in November and the amazing prizes are as follows:
$75 Gift Certificate to our store!
$50 Gift Certificate to our store!
$25 Gift Certificate to our store!

All winners will be notified by email in November! And, remember: EVERY CARD COUNTS! Even if you can only make one card, that card will touch at least two peoples lives, the sender and the receiver(s)!

Thanks so much for making today an amazing one!
xo, Elle

Blog Party - Card Challenge!

Alright, time to make some cards! We love this sketch from PageMaps.com by Becky Fleck! It is a pretty flexible design, take a look at what Kristin Hayne made off the sketch:
So cute! The sketch looked like so much fun, I had to try it! Here's what I made:
Sketches are a ton of fun! They really help if you're stuck in a creative rut or have run out of ideas. You can even try turning the sketch sideways or upside down for even more ideas!

Alright, another HUGE PRIZE PACK:
For this posts prize, we decided to do a card sketch challenge! Who and how can you enter to win this one?
1. Everyone can enter! Just leave a comment or email us (SUBJECT LINE: BLOG PARTY - GIVEAWAY 7) to be entered to win!
2. Gain a second entry by posting a link to a card you have made off the sketch! Post a photo of it online and leave a second comment here, with the link!

Happy creating, everyone! See you at 10:00 pm pacific time
xo, Elle
p.s. Our last contest/prize is the best one yet! Make sure you check back at 10:00 pm!

Blog Party - Card Kit Continued!

Wow - today has been amazing! We love you guys so, SO much!

We have some more card inspiration from cards made out of our Holiday Card Kit! And, some of these use our Cut Out: Holiday Greetings - which is a very inexpensive way to spice up a card and add a greeting to it!
Quick, easy and simple cards that will mean so much to the recipient!

Are you guys having fun today?! We hope so and we hope you're being inspired to create! We have another giveaway pictured here:
We'd love to see what inspires you! To enter this giveaway let us know one of your favorite blog, site, etc. that you love to visit that inspires you - let us know when you leave a comment or email us (SUBJECT LINE: BLOG PARTY - GIVEAWAY 6), we can't wait to check out all the links! All prize winners will be announced at 10:00 pm, tonight!

We'll see you again at 8:00 pm and then at 10:00 pm for our last blog party post - it'll be a BIG ONE!
xo, Elle

Blog Party - Card Kit!

These next two posts are dedicated to cards made from our Holiday Card Kit!
Our Holiday Card Kit includes enough items to make 20 cards with for $12.99! That means you can make holiday custom cards for 65 cents a piece! Our colors coordinate with lots of things, so you'll be able to add leftover buttons and ribbons from your stash!

Our next giveaway includes our card kit and lots, LOTS MORE!! Here's what's included:
Just leave a comment or email us (SUBJECT LINE: BLOG PARTY - GIVEAWAY 5) to be entered to win! All prize winners will be announced at 10:00 pm, tonight!

We hope to see you again at 6:00 pm (pacific time)
xo, Elle!

Blog Party - tiny cards!

How about tiny cards? These are tiny and great for if you are in a time crunch and need a card! By just writing on the back of one of our circle die cut tags you have an instant "Card Tag"!

Here are some cute ideas for how to dress up your candy for Halloween using some of our Halloween items! We couldn't resist making the little witch broom candy bags from Martha! And, don't forget about our printable candy bags!
I can't wait for the trick-or-treaters to show up and to make some goodies to hand out around work :) That will be a fun surprise for everyone!

We have another HUGE giveaway! One person will win the giveaway pictured below:
We'd love to hear if you're dressing up for Halloween! Leave a comment or email us (subject line: BLOG PARTY - GIVEAWAY 4) with your or your kids costume ideas and you'll be entered to win! We will be announcing all our winners at 10:00 pm (pacific time) tonight, so there is still time to enter the other giveaways below!!

Thanks so much for joining us today! Come back at 4:00 pm :)
xo, Elle