We wish you a Happy New Year + some fun announcements for 2012!

We want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! Thank you all so much for your incredible support during 2011 - you made it the most amazing year ever and we cannot wait for you to see what we have in store for 2012. Your support means so much more than words could ever express! We can't wait to spend another creative and crafty year with you!


We are kicking the new year off with some very exciting things that actually start tomorrow! 

Our first BIG news is that we have added Waleska to our team - she will be taking care of the sketches and inspiring you with layouts made out of supplies for our new monthly specials! Monthly specials will be 3 to 4 products that we will have on sale, for that month only and the best part is, the first special is up tomorrow! We also have some other fun things up our sleeve with Waleska, so stay tuned for those!

Another fun thing for 2012 is that our past design team members are taking over our Make It Sundays! We've been wanting to find a way to incorporate them, since we've missed them so much, and this is the perfect fit! So, from now on each Sunday they will be bringing you a layout or fun project with step-by-step instructions. I'll be popping in on some Sunday's, too :)

We are also working behind-the-scenes on a new website - I can hardly wait, it should be a couple more months!!

And, we are also working hard on the new items for our next launch - here's a little sneak peek of what's to come this Wednesday, January 4th:

It's going to be an amazing year!

We have a winner!

We have a winner for Ali Edwards upcoming class, from this blog post!

Big congrats to:
Elisabeth Costa on December 29, 2011 7:21 PM

Please email us at info@shopellesstudio.com as soon as possible to claim your prize!

One Little Word 2012 Giveaway

Today we have a special giveaway from Big Picture Classes and Ali Edwards:

Ali says: “In 2006, I began a tradition of choosing one word for myself each January - a word that I can focus on, meditate on, and reflect upon as I go about my daily life. My words have included play, peace, vitality, nurture, light, and story. These words have each become a part of my life in one way or another. They've been imbedded into who I am, and into who I'm becoming. They've been what I've needed (and didn't know I needed). They've helped me to breathe deeper, to see clearer, and to grow.”

Each month you'll receive an email and an invitation to visit the One Little Word classroom. Inside the classroom, you'll find a gentle reminder message, encouragement to refocus, and a simple creative or writing project to complete, related to your word. At the end of the year you'll have an album that celebrates and honors your word - making it that much more concrete and visible in your life.

Read the rest of the description and listen to Ali’s audio file explaining the process of the class, here.

And, as a special surprise for our readers, we get to give away one spot in the class! Just leave a comment here telling us what you're word for 2012 is going to be and you'll be entered to win! We'll draw the lucky winner on Saturday, December 31st, 2011. One entry per person, please.

Say Hello to Our New Design Team!

Happy day after Christmas, everyone! We hope you all had a great day, surrounded by the ones you love!

We have a special announcement! We are announcing the members of the first six months of 2012's design team! But, before we do we want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to our past team - those ladies were so great to work with and we just loved everything they created for us. We feel so blessed by them and want to thank them for ALL they have done for us - they are truly an amazing group of women and we are going to miss them! The layouts, cards, projects, etc. that they created would always inspire me to get in that scraproom and create something - I am forever grateful for their unbelievable support.

As we say goodbye to our current team, we want to welcome the new incoming team - that is also full of amazing ladies! Please welcome these seven new ladies to our team:

Meghann Andrew

Steph Baxter

Rahel Menig

Valerie Mangan

Kim Jeffress

Kimberly Neddo

Ursula Schneider

And, we are excited to also announce that we are going to continue with the eighth member of our team being a different guest designer every month! That means lots of surprises are still in store :)

It's going to be an amazing and inspiration filled year!

Merry Christmas!

We want to wish you a wonderful Merry Christmas! We hope you all have an amazing and beautiful holiday season!

Project Life

Welcome to another week of Project Life here at Elle's Studio!  This weeks layout covers the week of December 5-11.  Another jammed pack week of school, Christmas activities, and everyday life.

Since I am also doing my December Daily, I find that I have less "found" objects from events due to some of it appearing in my December Daily, and also the fact that I may be focusing more on the stories through photography.  I think you will find there will be weeks like this from time to time (which is totally fine!). 

I did however include some packaging from a chapstick tube and some art work from my son's backpack.  This became quite a focus of my week, I wanted to highlight how much I love the types of Christmas crafts he has been bringing home.

I wanted to take a little time and address the 4x6 Journaling Spots in a Project Life spread.  There are eight 4x6 spots in a week's layout (in Becky Higgins' Design A photo pockets), so you are given plenty of opportunity to try many different ideas for these larger spots.  I often use one of these spots to include the week's calendar date and a brief summary of highlights.

 

I often include a few 4x6 photos for theses photo pockets.  Sometimes I leave just the photo (like in the Santa photo), and in others I might journal straight onto the photo in the "white space" (like the Christmas lights photo using a white uni-ball signo pen).  Or I might add something small to 4x6 the photo like Elle's Studio Layered Number Cut Outs (baking photo), or a Tiny Tag (classroom photo) to add a little space for journaling or the date.

Another idea for the 4x6 Photo Pockets is to use the Large Journaling Tags (which are 4x6 and come in a pack of 6) as the base for the photo pocket.  I love doing this because it provides plenty of room to add an instax/wallet photo, journaling, a title/date, and embellishments.  The 4x6 Journaling tags really makes these larger spaces easy to use. 

If I ever get stuck and feel like a spot needs a little "extra something"  I usually add an Elle's Studio Tidbits or Date Tags, washi tape, mist drops, a strip of pattern paper, or even a paperclip.

We have a winner from last week's giveaway!  Congrats to Nana R Nassar !!  Please contact us at info@shopellesstudio.com with the following information:

Name:

Address:

Contest: Project Life December 13th

Just a note to let you know we will be taking next week off from our Project Life Series in order to enjoy the holidays with our families.  I will be back on January 3 with more Project Life Inspiration as we head into a New Year!  Elle and I are so excited that many of you will be participating in Project Life in 2012 and we can't wait to provide inspiration and encouragement as you embarking on this wonderful system of documentation. 

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.

 

InLinkz.com

Tomorrow's the last day for shipping until January 2nd!

Whew! The time is just going too fast... I think I just got the last present wrapped and now I'm off to bake some goodies and make cards for Christmas :) I can hardly wait for the big day to arrive! We've got some fun surprises for my nephew and this year, he'll be able to open the presents, so that will be fun to watch!

We wanted to thank everyone for all the orders on our free shipping day - we worked all weekend so they would go out today and we just dropped the last ones off at the post office! We appreciate each order so much and we hope you enjoy your goodies!

Also, a reminder about our holiday schedule, tomorrow's the last day to order for it to ship this month:

No shipping on December 21st through January 1st
Orders placed on and between these dates will ship January 2nd

Thank you so much for your patience with us during our non-shipping dates! We treasure that extra time we get to spend with family and friends! 

December Guest Designer : Shimelle Laine

We are so thrilled to have Shimelle on board this month as our guest designer! I've been following her for quite some time now and she's been a huge inspiration for me. If you haven't seen what she did this month for our Inspiration Gallery, make sure you check it, it's definitely going to inspire you! And, make sure you check out her blog, too - she always has something amazing going on and lots of ways you can join in and participate! We love it :)

She took a moment to answer some questions, let's take a peek:
Name: Shimelle Laine
Location: London, England
Blog: www.shimelle.com
Twitter: @glittershim

BIO: 
London-based scrapbooker Shimelle Laine believes writing is the key to meaningful scrapbooks, but has to admit she loves photos and playing with pretty paper as well, so it's pretty good that scrapbooking combines all those things! She has been part of the scrapbook industry for over a decade, and has been teaching online scrapbooking classes since 2004.  She designs for Jenni Bowlin Studios, American Crafts and Two Peas in a Bucket. 

Every December, she leads the Journal your Christmas workshop, with journaling and photography prompts every day throughout the Christmas season and a variety of ways to scrapbook Christmas in a way that is enjoyable and practical for you. You can join this workshop at any time and it includes permanent membership, so there's no reason not to sign up now.  Elle's Studio elements make regular appearances on Shimelle's journal pages!

What are three products you can't live without?
Patterned paper, precision pens and the Martha Stewart classic butterfly punch.

Where do you scrapbook?
For the last several years, I've had a dedicated room for crafty work, but we have moved house over the past month and now my crafting space is in the living room.  It's not presentable enough yet to share pictures!  But I can say it is less 'I keep my crafting supplies in a cupboard in a corner of the living room' and more 'Oh there is a sofa in your craft room'.  The craziest thing is that it was my husband's idea! 

What do you listen to/watch while scrapbooking?
I have a set of movies I know by heart that I love to just listen to while I work.  I realise 'listening' to a film is not the general idea behind making a movie, but it works for me.  I can't really watch without getting distracted, which is why they have to be well-worn favourites.  The list includes Juno, 500 Days of Summer, The Devil wears Prada and all the Harry Potter films.  Other days I'm more music driven.  I have a few set playlists for when I am on a deadline but I usually like choosing one song that seems perfect at the moment then letting iTunes genius make a playlist automatically.  Sometimes it's awesome.  Other times I really wonder why it's called genius at all. 

What is your favorite color combination?
Just one? Really? It's hard to play favourites with colours! I love grey with turquoise or yellow, white with aqua and red, kraft with pretty much anything.  And yet my favourite colour is actually green.  Always has been.

Thanks so much for sharing with us today, Shimelle!

Free Shipping Day has Arrived!

Our free shipping day is here - we are participating in the nation-wide free shipping day and all orders, USA and international, ship for free, via First Class Mail only. All you have to do is use the coupon code FreeFriday at checkout in our shop! Although we cannot guarantee that orders will arrive by Christmas, we will guarantee that we will ship them by Monday, December 19th. This offer expires tonight at 11:59 pm EST.

Also, just for today, we have a special on a complete set of our Days of the Week Snippets:

Happy Shopping, everyone!

December's Inspiration Gallery is LIVE!

Surprise! The December Inspiration Gallery is live extra early this month! Our design team worked with both our kits: Tis the Season and Jack Frost! And, then, we also have a surprise Guest Designer this month, too!

We can't wait for you to see it all, make sure you check it all out and get inspired for the holiday season!

Project Life

Today's Project Life covers the week of November 28-December 4th-- and we are in FULL swing of the Christmas season!! 

Are you doing a December Daily/ Journal album?   I am, and I have to admit, I was a little concerned about doing both December Daily and Project Life.  However, I found that Project Life has made the December Daily album much easier to keep up with (and vice versa).   Because of Project Life, my camera is out more, I am looking for the little stories, and I have a place to record those day-to-day details that may be overlooked.

December is jam packed full of traditions, stories, events, programs, and celebrations.   In my December Daily album I focused on a high-light of the day-- some of the photos reappear in Project Life, but many do not.  Project Life allows me to go deeper into the everyday story.

I believe three of these photos also appear in my December Daily, and everything else is new or a story told in more detail.   I really enjoyed using the Elle's Studio Christmas tags-- particularly the Christmas Note Tags!  I used many pattern papers from Echo Park's Holly Jolly Line-- it goes really well with Elle's Studio tags!

Now that we are in the Holiday rush it's hard to think past December 25th, but I want to remind you that the New Year is right around the corner!  NOW is a perfect time to get stocked up on your Project Life Supplies!  (it's also a great Christmas Gift!)   Here are a few of my favorite Elle's Studio items for Project Life (psst.. don't forget to take advantage of our FREE SHIPPING day on December 16th):

InLinkz.com

Also, I LOVE the photo pockets made by Project Life founder, Becky Higgins.   It's called "Design A" and can be found here.  There are many different cool styles available, make sure to stock up!

We have a winner to announce from last week's Project Life giveaway!  Congrats to ConnieC!  Please contact us at info@shopellesstudio.com  with the following information:

Name:
Address:
Contest: December 6, 201

Today we have another giveaway!  To win a Project Life Prize Pack worth $25, leave a comment here and let us know your favorite Holiday Movie.  We will draw a winner next Tuesday, December 20th.

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.

InLinkz.com