Take Out Tuesday : 5.31.11

Today's Take Out Tuesday is all about making that stack of event photos you have hanging out on your table just a bit smaller.  This two page layout uses six photos and has plenty of room for journaling to insure you get your story told.

Ironically, my event photos are from last year's Bratfest - and I just attended this year's event yesterday.  Bratfest is a bit hard to explain because you think about it, it's a bit ridiculous.  Basically it's four days where people come to enjoy eating bratwurst, hear live music and perhaps enjoy a few carnival rides.  It's a spectacle, but it's for charity.  And my husband happens to think it's the greatest event ever.

LEFT PAGE | On this page, I used two tags simply as placeholders and design elements and used the third to actually contain information, in this case, the date.  I love how versatile these tags are and never take away from your personal style but instead always seem to add to it.

RIGHT PAGE | I've become a big fan of the Handmade Layers Large Journaling Tags.  After this page, my love for them has grown even larger.  I had this small Journaling Tag strip leftover from a previous project and it worked perfectly here to contain my title.  By cutting a notch from the right hand side of the strip, it looks more like an embellishment rather than an afterthought.

Elle’s Studio products used : Handmade Layers Large Journaling Tags, Handmade Layers 3" Circle Tags, Chic Date Tags and Handmade Layers Journaling Tags.

Other product used : Studio Calico's Metropolitan kit.

Click here to download this Take Out Tuesday PDF file, including a photo and step by step instructions of the project. Please click "Save" when prompted.

You must have Adobe Reader to open this file, if you do not have Adobe Reader, you can download it for free, here. If you are having problems downloading or opening, please make sure you have the latest updates for Adobe Reader.

Savoring Summer Cover Tutorial

Hello Everyone!

It's Jenni here to share step-by-step instructions for creating the cover of the Savoring Summer album. We are so excited to see many of you receiving your kits, and we want to help you get started!!

1. Cut a 5x7 piece from the Bridesmaids (Crate Paper) paper.
2. Cut a 4 x3 square from the top center of the Sassafras Head over Heals paper (include the scallop as seen on cover. Note: Do not cut the trim off the paper!!). Be sure not to cut the corner edges -- you will use the corner pieces later in the album.
3. Using the Sassafras Starters Intro paper, you will cut the text design in the top left corner of the paper. The dimensions are approximately 4"x"3.
4. Cut a 4.5" piece of the blue Crate Paper Neighborhood Trim, and a 3.5" piece of the yellow Crate Paper Neighborhood Trim.
5. To create the layered pieces: First place the blue trim on the paper (The top of the trim is 2 inches from the bottom of the paper). Center the Paper Crush (pink) paper over trim. Center the Sassafras Starters Intro paper over pink paper. Layer the "Savoring Summer" tag over the papers (I had the edge of my tag overlap ping the papers.). Layer the yellow trim underneath the Savoring Summer Tag. I allowed for half of the width of the trim to peek out from under the tag. Staple the corner if desired.
6. To create the pin-wheel: First, punch a circle punch from provided craft paper. Second, Cut a 3/4" x 12" piece from the center of the Sassafras Paper Crush paper (hand cut the bottom portion- you will want to leave the trim on the paper). Begin folding the paper according style, with the folds very small (about 1 centemeter folds). When you have completed folding, you will take your punched circle, and place a glue dot in the middle. Fan the paper out and apply adhesive to the two folded ends. Next you will bring the two ends together on top of the punched circle, placing the center of the pinwheel over the glue dot . You will need to adhere the ends together, and bring the center together. You may need to add a glue dot here or there underneath the edges of the pinwheel to secure it into place.
7. Choose two birds from the Studio Calico Barn Swallow Paper. I choose two pink birds from the right hand side of the paper (remember to choose a bird that's on the edge!). I cut one out that would be tucked under the title. The second bird (that appears on the the pinwheel), I cut around it (not too precisely) and adhered it to the kraft paper. Once adhered to the kraft paper, begin to cut the bird from the kraft. This will give the bird cutout more durability if it's backed on kraft paper.
8. Adhere the cover to the cardstock provided, and punch holes.
9. Congrats! You finished the cover!!

P.S. Guess what?! Waleska bought an extra kit to giveaway on her blog today! Head on over to her blog and leave a comment to be entered! How sweet of her was that?! Thanks so much, Waleska!

Project Kits are Sold Out!

{Bloggers not letting me post a pretty picture :( }

WOW! You guys are amazing - our very first project kit sold out yesterday, in only 4 days! That is incredible :) Thank you all so much for purchasing a kit. We are so excited about this new adventure and can't wait to see the mini albums you put together!

We are shipping them as fast as we can, we will be caught up by Monday for sure, so if you haven't received your shipping notice, you should soon! And, be on the look out for the instructions - those will also be emailed to you. If you haven't received them yet, please let us know!

Also, Jenni is already planning on posting the first post related to the project kit next week... and there might be a giveaway with it :) So if you missed out on purchasing a kit, make sure you stay tuned! Also, don't forget to check out Steph's blog and be on the look out all summer long. We had planned in advance to give away some kits, but now that this kit is sold out, it makes these giveaways extra special!

Thank you all for an amazing week - we are absolutely thrilled that you loved our first kit so much! We are already brainstorming for the next kit!

xo, Elle

Sketch Thursday : 5.26.11

Welcome to the second installment of our weekly Sketch Thursday series!  We loved seeing how last week's sketch inspired you to scrapbook and enjoyed looking at your layouts.  We hope you have the same success this week.

For this week’s sketch, I chose Melissa Mann’s “1 Fine Day” layout.  I loved the strong vertical lines that she used to divide her layout into two distinct halves, as well as the way she used four photos on a single page layout.

The sketch features one large photo and three smaller ones – this is a great opportunity to get numerous photos on a single page layout!  It also creates several areas to place embellishments.

I stuck pretty close to the original sketch.  Since I find my time is limited when scrapbooking, I typically don’t utilize atypical sized photos.  Instead of printing smaller photos for this layout, I was able to simply crop photos that had been printed in larger sizes.  This is where I’ll note that these aren’t the best photos ever but I wanted to get them on a layout.  My husband took the two smaller photo thus I was able to crop them easily as he most times he doesn’t really think about doing it in camera.  The only real change I made on my layout was moving my journaling under my title instead of the original journaling strips on the left side of the sketch.

Elle’s Studio products used : Handmade Layers Blank Pennants, Handmade Layers Date & Place Strips, Vintage Summer Flash Cards, Handmade Layers Circle Tags and Handmade Layers Large Journaling Tags.

Other product used : Studio Calico's Lawn Party kit.

Design team member Mandie Pierce used this week's sketch to create this layout.  I love that she rotated the original sketch so that the three strips became horizontal bands - I love the end result!  The absolute perfect birthday layout.  I think I'm going to have to give this sketch a whirl again with this orientation!

Design team member Rebecca Keppel also used this week's sketch to create an event layout.  She substituted a die cut for one of the three photos on the left side of the layout and included her journaling below it.  The three vertical strips were the perfect place to add a pop of color to this holiday layout.

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 ES gift certificate.  Link must be posted by 11:59p on Wednesday, June 1, 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.

Congratulations to last week's winner :

sophie said...

hey!! happy monday!! here is my take on the sketch!! I had such a blast using it ! I rotated it!! and used 3 of your amazing tags!

Sophie, please e-mail me the following information to : melanie [at] shopellesstudio [dot] com  by 5.31.11 :

Name :

Contest : 5.19.11 Sketch Thursday

Thank you! Plus, we have a winner for the Fujifilm Instax!

We want to thank you all for your enthusiasm over our new kit! We appreciate your orders, comments, emails, tweets, and facebook comments more than words could ever express! We love you all so much and are so excited about this new adventure!

We still have a couple of our limited edition Savoring Summer Project Kits left - but quantities are very, VERY low! This will be the only time this kit is available - so if you want it, please don't wait!

And, for some more exciting news... Everyone who purchased a kit yesterday was automatically entered to win a Fujifilm Instax Mini! The winner of the camera is: Cheryl Furey! Cheryl, we will be contacting you today!

This is going to be one amazing summer! We have a ton of fun things planned and cannot wait to see all of your Savoring Summer albums come together in our flickr group!

p.s. We are giving away one of these kits at Stephanie's blog today - make sure you leave a comment to be entered, even if you bought the kit! Because if you win and you already purchased the kit from us, we will reimburse you OR you can send it to a friend as a gift! How awesome is that?!

Elle's Studio Limited Edition Savoring Summer Project Kit is here!

Our very first exclusive and limited edition Project Kit is here! This kit has all the supplies you need to create a super cute mini album titled "Savoring Summer". So, get ready to slow down and savor your favorite summer memories! Catching fireflies, running through the sprinkler, sipping lemonade, traveling and more can be savored for years to come in this special kit.

This kit features papers, ribbons, tape, mist and more, from popular manufactures, along with 26 limited edition and exclusive Elle’s Studio tags that were made just for this kit.

The Elle's Studio Savoring Summer kit is $27.99 and is extremely limited - once they are sold out, they are gone forever! And, the exclusive Elle's Studio tags that are in the kit will not be sold anywhere else, or printed ever again! You'll only be able to get them in this kit, and once the kit is gone, so are the tags - so you won't want to miss out on these!

The kit also comes with full instructions on how to put the cover and base of the mini album together just like Jenni Hufford has her album - here's a tiny peek inside her 22 page album she made with our kit:

The instructions will also give you some inspiration and tips for how you can take your completed base of your mini album and add photos, journaling tags, ribbons and more to create fun pages all summer long!

We also some other fun things planned for this kit for during the summer- like a flickr group that you can upload and show off you mini album in! We will be highlighting and posting some of them from the flickr group, on the blog, all summer long! And, we will get to watch how Jenni's album grows throughout the summer, right here on our blog! So, if you ever get stuck or need a little extra inspiration, you'll know right were to find it!

TODAY ONLY: Because we are so, SO excited about our very first project kit release, we are also having a bonus giveaway! Everyone who purchases a kit, today only (Monday, May 23rd), will be entered to win a Fujifilm Instax Mini! These are so fun to play around with!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and joining us for launch of our new kit!

May's Inspiration Gallery is LIVE!

May's Inspiration Gallery is now live and the design team has done it again! This gallery is truly stunning! There is a ton of layouts and projects to see and get inspired by! After looking at this gallery I was running to my scrap room!

We want to give our design team a HUGE thank you for their amazing inspiration month after month! These ladies are awesome and we feel so blessed to have them making these great creations with our tags!

Second Project Kit Sneak Peek!

Our second Project Kit sneak peek is here! These sneaks show some of the exclusive Elle's Studio tags, along with a bunch of other stuff in the kit :) If you missed the first sneak peek, you can see it here.

And, today we want to give you a little clue about the theme of this kit... Get ready to document your summer!

We will be revealing everything in the kit with the big launch that will take place this Monday, May 23rd at 8:00 am PST! These kits are limited and the exclusive Elle's Studio tags will NOT be printed ever again or sold as digitals - this will be the only time they are available! And, make sure you are on our newsletter list - newsletter subscribers will get to have a 30 minute pre-sale!

Also, don't forget, because we are so excited about this launch, everyone who purchases a kit on May 23rd will be entered to win a Fujifilm Instax Mini! These little cameras are so fun to use and capture little moments!

We cannot wait for the reveal - this new adventure is so exciting! Hope everyone has a great weekend!
xo, Elle

Digital giveaway at DigiLovely!

Attention digi scrapbookers! We are thrilled to be featured today at the DigiLovely blog as their Friday Favorites! Head on over there and leave a comment, with what your favorite digital Elle's Studio product is, and you'll be entered to win it! Plus, you'll get to see some amazing inspiration by their design team!

They will be drawing 5 winners at both their blog and their facebook page - so make sure you stop by and enter at both places!

Sketch Thursday : 5.19.11

This week is truly an exciting one here at the ES blog!  Welcome to our second new blog feature, Sketch Thursday.  Each Thursday, we’ll be providing you with a scrapbook sketch to inspire you as you create your next layout.  Perfect timing for any time you might be able to create this weekend!

I fell in love with this layout by design team member Lory Bucaria.  The colors, the stitching, all of the little details – just love it all!  It was the perfect choice to use for this week’s sketch.

This sketch features a single photo with many places for embellishments and a large journaling block.  But don’t stop there!  Make our sketch your own by rotating it, flipping it – whatever!

I used this sketch as a jumping point for my layout.  I love that a sketch can be taken literally or simply act as inspiration.  I created a 12x12 layout and used three photos where Lory used only one.  Instead of the small embellishment in the top left corner of the sketch, I moved this to directly above my photos and used it to house my title.  I kept my journaling block in the same location but instead of blocks of embellishments I layered several circles to mimic the circles in the patterned paper I used.

Elle’s Studio products used : Handmade Layers Circle Tags, Handmade Layers 3” Circle Tags, Handmade Layers Date & Place Strips and Vintage Number Flashcards.

Other product used : Studio Calico's Lawn Party kit.

Fellow design team member, Mandie Pierce, followed this week’s sketch more closely.  Mandie kept the original 8.5x11 size from the sketch but used two photos instead of one.  She also positioned her title above her photos instead of across them.  Little changes that make the sketch all her own.  

Another member of our design team, Rebecca Keppel, also used this week's sketch to complete a layout.  Instead of the hard lined edges in the sketch, she chose to use circles - not only in her embellishment choices but also for her large photo mat.

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 ES gift certificate.  Link must be posted by 11:59p on Wednesday, May 25, 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.