JUST IN!

The new Winter 2008 Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine has arrived!!

Click here to purchase, or come on by the studio to get yours today!

Also just in...

Scor-Tape by Scor-Pal! This double sided tape is tacky and fabulous! With all sorts of uses, you'll just have to come by and pick yourself up some of this great tape! We have 1/2" & 1/4" width in stock!

Available as special order...

*NEW* Version 2.0 Bind-It-All
Now Available on Special Order!
Click here to order!

Just added...

Due to popular demand, we have just added one last Christmas Card Workshop to our December Events Calendar! Click here for more information.

Coming soon...

More sneak peeks of our fabulous December projects!!

ANATOMY OF A WORKSHOP

So as I previously mentioned, EllaBella has a wonderful, bright, spacious home studio in which every scrapbooking need can be met. Sometimes, however, I bring things to my house to work on (my kids tend to run amok in the studio - so many lovely new things to play with!). The other afternoon as it was a bright and sunny November (!) day, I thought it would be great to get to work on an upcoming December workshop. I got my 25 month old to have a nap and set my four year old up with yellow, blue and green finger paints all in separate little tubs along with a paintbrush to venture into her own artistic endeavours. Well.... I gathered my required supplies onto the kitchen table (the sunny spot) and got to work. I was using Fancy Pant's very cheerful holiday line of papers aptly named Happy Holidays. This is not your traditional paper with its bright, shocking pinks, blues and greens. This paper would lend itself perfectly for a destination Christmas album (think Mexico). Anyway, I was completely absorbed in my task at hand, creating the perfect little coaster album when my little son woke up and got immediately excited about the green paint everywhere! I didn't realize that Elizabeth had been using her hands to generously spread paint all over herself (the white princess dress was a bad choice for painting attire, I later thought), the floor, her colouring papers and everything else close at hand, now including her brother!

So, while working at home is sometimes the only option, it is so nice to have a clean, bright studio in which to to work and create.

CHALLENGE # 11

PAPER CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS!!!!

These little paper Christmas ornaments were both quick and fun to make. I used Basic Grey - Dasher scraps and some ribbon in my stash. All you need to do is cut some square or rectangle shapes and sew ribbon onto one side of the decorative paper. Then I sewed three sides together and used batting to stuff them. As you sew up the fourth side, or top, don't forget to include another length of ribbon in a loop so you can hang your pretty homemade ornaments to the Christmas tree. Sewing paper is one of my favourite things to do with scrapbooking. In fact my kids think one just sews paper and not fabric (will have to find time to make some toy bags and tutus - thanks to http://www.pipnmilly.com/ for that cool idea). So get out those sewing machines and put your scraps to good use. Look forward to seeing what you create...

FAVORITES

I have come to the realisation that Basic Grey is my absolute favourite paper line. A few years ago on that fateful day that Ann took me into a Scrapbook shop, I discovered the world of patterned papers. I bought what I liked and was completely unfamiliar with scrapbook companies and their brilliantly playful names: Fancy Pants, Cherry Arte, Rusty Pickle, Cosmo Cricket just to name a few. I discovered double sided papers in all sorts of coordinating colours and learnt that those companies release new design lines at least twice a year. Again and again I found myself drawn to the wonderfully artistic and diverse Basic Grey papers - I even love their unique names; Obscure, Periphery, Boxer, Dasher, Archaic and Sugared (there are dozens more of course).

The Christmas season is now upon us and we at EllaBella excitedly awaited the new Basic Grey Xmas line - Wassail. Although it wasn't love at first sight, we decided to order some paper into the studio and are so glad we did. They are earthy and subtle with an old-fashioned slant. Our final Christmas card workshop (being held this coming Saturday evening) features Wassail papers and were fun to create and I will enjoy sending them to friends and family later next month (of course, I always feel as keen sense of accomplishment and delight in making my own cards - step aside Hallmark!!).

What's your favourite paper line? We'd love to know....see you all on Saturday!

Upcoming Workshops & Sneak Peeks!

Click here for more information & to view our Event Calendar!

Nov. 13th - Christmas Cube OrnamentNov. 15th - EllyKids Christmas Card Keeper

Nov. 15th - Christmas Cards + Bonus Card Holder Nov. 17th - Christmas Flip Album

Nov. 22nd - OPEN STUDIO

Nov. 22nd - Christmas Advent Calendar - SOLD OUT!

Nov. 24th - Winter Wall Hanging
Nov. 27th-30th - Kris Kringle Christmas Craft Market

December workshops are up!! Samples coming soon!!

TIPS ON TUESDAYS!!!

It's that time again when we are very busy creating at EllaBella Designs. While a large portion of our "work" gets done at the studio, I also bring projects home to work on. While I have my own scrap space set up in our basement, it is not always convenient, therefore, I gather supplies I need for a particular project and keep them altogether on a large tray. This allows me to keep items organized and I can easily tidy up (and out of the hands of my curious 2 and 4 year old!). So the tip of the day is to get a large tray (mine is a nice wooden one from Ikea) to house supplies and keep things organized and maximize tidy up time.

CHALLENGE # 10

Today's challenge is to create a Rock Star layout!! This was really a fun layout to do and I have been waiting years to use this photo of Elizabeth posing with The Jaded Jina's. They were an all girl punk band visiting for the day to do a show in Nanaimo. For this layout I grunged up some white cardstock with ink and doodling then simply layered on DCWV's Rock Star paper. The addition of hot pink flowers and some pink and black cardstock makes it feminine yet all rock! I used some little black safety pins too which reminds me of how we used to attach band decals to our jean jackets as teens (might be dating myself here!). This challenge is intended for you to step outside your comfort zone and create a layout with black and doodles and to just have fun playing.