A big pile of the new releases from Elle's Studio landed on my desk last weekend, and, while I have several projects in mind for them over the coming weeks, I decided to start off with something simple. I had just about an hour to play in the scrap room last night, so I put together a quick layout using this week's sketch challenge on the Elle's Studio blog.

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

We're in the middle of a winter storm here- we had one round of snow last night and are in for even more tomorrow, and, while I love the snow, I've also been missing summer something fierce. Since those hot months are still a little ways off, I did the next best thing and scrapbooked a couple of photos from the local Farmer's Market using Elle's Everyday Moments collection (with just a branding strip from Love You More to add a touch of red striping).

This page turned out super simple- perhaps more simple than I was originally going for- but sometimes simple and quick is just good! I didn't layer on tons of accents and instead stuck to a few wood veneers (with "shadows" stamped behind them), a tag or two, and a little banner treatment at the top.

The little apple paper clip in the photo below is the only thing here that's not from Elle's collections. After placing my title (and dude, those little kraft alphas are definitely my new faves!), I thought that it needed a little something extra to help draw attention to it. I opened up my green embellishment drawer and quickly found the cute little clip (I have no idea who made it) and added it for a finishing touch.

I'm working on a Project Life layout with one of the new Elle's Studio lines right now, so you'll definitely be seeing more of these papers and embellishments in the coming weeks!

Project Life 2013 - Week 51 with Elle's Studio

On Christmas Eve I had the fun honor of being the final Celebrate December guest designer for Elle's Studio. I normally have a bit of a hard time with Christmas-themed Project Life layouts because of all the bold colors + patterns that may or may not match the equally busy photos, but this one really worked for me, I think due to all of the neutrals in Elle's exclusive December tag kit (seriously I ::heart:: those little monthly kits!).

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

See? Neutrals. White space (even if it is filled with text). Room to breathe. I absolutely loved the mix of tags in the December kit, and they worked so well with papers from the Noel collection- which, by the way, is on sale for 50% off (papers, tags, stamps- everything!) right now at Two Peas in a Bucket.

I don't normally print photos right away for my Project Life pages, but I needed something Christmas-y and photos from the week where we wrapped gifts while watching my favorite Christmas movie (Die Hard), went to an early "Christmas Eve" service at church, and spent a little time taking in the festive glow of Bridge Street turned out to be simply perfect. My brother's birthday was also this week, meaning I got to sneak in a photo of him and adorable little Finnegan, too!

Now that Christmas is over, I'm enjoying the calm days between Christmas and New Year's- the perfect time to relax and spend a few hours here and here at the computer getting my photos edited and ready to print for the last part of 2013's Project Life layouts, just in time to start out on my 6x8 adventure in 2014!

Layout - It Totally Runs in the Family (Elle's Studio)

The last of my guest design layouts for Elle's Studio last month has been waiting patiently for me to post it here, and it's rather timely since the photos are from last year's Tennessee State Fair, and we just finished off the 2013 fair here!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

If you ever wonder where I get my love of photographing everything in sight, including food, look no further than my Dad. He bought a new SLR camera when I was born and hasn't stopped taking photos since! He's now upgraded to a Canon 5D Mark iii- a bit more advanced than the old Minolta that he bought so many years ago and still owns- and the 2012 State Fair was really his first outing with it.

I used a mix of Elle's Studio's Cameron and Saltwater collections for this page. Both feature a lovely shade of blue that you don't find in many scrapping lines, and I've found that it's a great match for all kinds of crazy blues that turn up in my photos, from carpet in the gym's entry at home to signs in the background right outside the funnel cake vendor at the fair.

I'm so happy to have a pile of new Tennessee State Fair photos to play with now, and also happy to have started to get a handle on updating my personal blog like I want to. I should be getting the new fair photos up over there soon!

Layout - Baskin Robbins (Elle's Studio)

Oh, how I love ice cream! Especially yummy frozen treats on a summer evening. We don't go out for them very often, but sometimes I happen across a Groupon or a special and we'll make a trip out, and usually my iPhone comes out at some point to document the event. Such was the case with one of our trips to Baskin Robbins last year, and, when Elle's Studio sent along their delicious summery Saltwater collection for me to work with as part of my guest design spot with them last month, I decided to go ahead and get these photos scrapped.

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

My entire reason for choosing these photos was the bright pink spoon in my Reese's Peanut Butter Cup sundae. Everything else in the photos is fairly neutral and really makes that bright color pop, and the pink was a perfect match for these papers- especially that chevron print, which was probably my favorite in the whole collection.

I love how Elle's Studio designs their papers to match the current trendy colors in scrapbooking. I was able to pull in a few embellishments from other collections including Pink Paislee's Cottage Farms and Maggie Holmes' first collection with Crate Paper. Even little bits like the Candy Buttons (Basic Grey's version of enamel dots) and the mint green star paperclip from Two Peas in a Bucket were super easy to mix in.

Scrapping this page (and then blogging it!) have me craving ice cream again- I think that I might have to drag Darren out tonight for a little froyo! :)