Studio Calico + ME Taffy Card Kit Blog Hop and Giveaway

Hello! We've got a little treat for you today! Mama Elephant has partnered with our awesome friends at Studio Calico again this month. We designed the exclusive stamp set in the Taffy card add-on kit. Check out the fun and happy goodness!



I pulled together some quick CAS cards. It's no secret that I'm a balloon lover, but confetti-filled balloons is a new level of awesomeness. They are super fun to color!

Here I used the little girl from the stamp set in the Sugar Rush card kit. This time I used the solid confetti balloon! 

GIVEAWAY TIME! 

Ready to hop and win both the main Sugar Rush card kit and the Taffy kit?

You have two shots at winning!

1. Leave a comment here and along the hop

2. Like us on Facebook and be sure to hoot and holla there too!

We'll announce a winner next week!

Here's the full hop list for today!

Studio Calico blog

>> Mama Elephant blog <<

Jenn Biederman 

Elena Roussakis 

Laura Bassen 

JJ Bolton 

Nichol Magouirk

Online Card Class Winners Announced

Hey folks, class starts this Friday and the three luckies below have just won a spot!

Ange Kelly

Cornelia W

Carol Cel

Congrats, ladies! Please contact us and we'll get you hooked up for class! :)

Online Card Class GIVEAWAY

We are giving away THREE spots to the newest Online Card Class! Just comment below and you're entered! We'll draw a winner Monday. Ciao! :)

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Stencils are very popular in the crafting world right now and there are SO many fun ways to use them! Join us for a cardmaking class focused on using stencils creatively. Stenciled is overflowing with stencil-love inspiration and features some Mama Elephant products!

In Stenciled, an all-new, all-video, mini class from Online Card Classes, you’ll learn over sixteen exciting techniques for this inexpensive and popular tool, including embossing paste, layering, masking, embossing, and more! Class will cover a range of cardmaking styles from our all-star lineup of favorite Online Card Classes instructors - Kristina Werner, Jennifer McGuire, Laura Bassen, Shari Carrol, Julie Ebersole and Debby Hughes.

To discover for yourself all the creative possibilities in stencils, head over to Online Card Classes to sign up!

ME Challenge - January 2014

Hello everyone! Today we are bringing you our first challenge of the year! We hope to have these up on the months that we don't have a release scheduled. Today we are joined by our newest team member, Elena Roussakis! Not only that, we are also bringing back a couple of familiar faces and a fresh face to kick off our first challenge of 2014! These ladies will join us for all our challenges moving forward! Please give Alice Wertz, Lea Lawson, and Lorraine Marasigan a warm applause!

And now our first challenge of the year is this spectacular photo taken by Raymond Hom, who just so happens to be my brother in law. He's a professional photographer and has given us the green light to use his photos as our source of inspiration for future challenges. Awesome, right?!

Here are some basic details for playing along:

1. You must use a Mama Elephant stamp

2. Challenge ends 2/7/2025

3. One winner will be selected as a guest designer for an upcoming release! Woot!

4. No limit to how many entries, in other words, go buck wild!

5. Link up using the Inlinkz tool on the bottom

Ready for some inspiration? Let's see what ALL our designers did with this challenge! I'm sitting this one out, but we've got very own mama Angela to start us off! 

(Products used: Love Quotes, Love Quotes Creative Cuts, Water Blooms, Fair Feathers, Femme Frames)

(Products used: Bold Banner Creative Cuts, XOXO, Dainty Bow Creative Cuts, Water Blooms)

(Products used: Love Quotes, Water Blooms, Femme Frames)

(Products used: Love Quotes, Landscape Trio)

(Products used: Water Blooms)

(Products used: Water Blooms, Smitten)

(Products used: Hello, Today Was, Basic Borders)

(Products used: Love Quotes, Love Quotes Creative Cuts)

(Products used: Pandamonium, Femme Frames, Dainty Bow)

(Products used: XOXO, Up and Away)

Ready to play along? Link up here!

A Bittersweet Change...

Hey friends, we have a bittersweet announcement today. Our design team member Pearl Lui-Chan recently became a new mommy this past November to a gorgeous baby girl. Some of you may know that Pearl is not only our designer, but she's also one of my best friends in real life. She has supported Mama Elephant way before we were even Mama Elephant. She was the initial spark that ignited this hobby for me and have always, always, ALWAYS been one of my biggest supporters. Her friendship, enthusiasm, and talent just cannot be measured up in mere words. While I am sad to tell you that Pearl has decided to step down from the team, I am extremely happy for her and her new role as "mommy". So, please join me in congratulating my dear friend Pearl and wish her the very best!

To top off our bittersweet announcement, I'd like to introduce you to our newest member who will be filling Pearl's shoes. Please give a warm welcome to Elena Roussakis!

I asked Elena to whip up a quick bio so you can get to know her better!

I'm 30-something (but really 29 all the time), married to my kindergarten sweetheart for almost 11 years, and stay-at-home mom to 3 young kids. Before I knew anything about stamping, I had a monogram stamp made up so I could hand-stamp the fronts of 200 wedding programs.  I vowed I'd never do that again!  But some years later, a sweet friend introduced me to stamping and a few basic techniques during my eldest's daughter's naptimes. The love affair has grown since then.  Apart from making cards, my favorite thing to stamp and craft is party decor - any little touches to make those special days extra memorable.

We have been big fans of Elena's work since the very beginning! How shall we describe it? Fun, thoughtful, detailed, and a touch of whimsy? I especially love how she playfully stages all her finishing projects. I should take a lesson from her, she sure works the whole nine yards with everything she creates!

Here are some of my favorite ER + ME projects!

Awesome, right? I am so looking forward to what Elena will create for us on a regular basis... starting tomorrow! We don't have a release scheduled this month, but we will have a challenge up tomorrow. See you back here!

Designer Series: Perfect Patterns Calendars with Nichol

I'm so excited to share a new layout today featuring an incredible Perfect Patterns Calendar Set available from Mama Elephant!

These calendars can be used in so many ways: as a title card for each month in your Project Life album, on birthday cards (just circle the date and add some embellishments and a greeting!) and of course on scrapbook page layouts and so many other ways! I chose to use all but one of the calendars from the pack on this 2-page layout!

I wanted to create a "showcase" type of layout where I picked one favorite photo from each month in 2013 and compiled them on one scrapbook page spread. I love layouts like this that span a certain frame of time where you can look through one page and get a glimpse, in this case, of an entire year.

Now, each photo may not necessarily be the best photo taken each month but more like my favorite photos due to the memory behind the photo or what was happening at the time. (i.e. in May I was trying to get a photo of my two oldest dressed up for their band concert and a certain little brother photobombed them on his scooter!).

I used the ME Perfect Patterns Calendars as embellishments on my page, and layered on punched and die cut heart shapes, sequins, wood shapes, etc. The polaroid frame from We Click is the exact same size as the calendars and looked perfect placed side by side on the page! I stamped the frame multiple times on patterned papers, cut out the frames, added a photo and then layered each frame over another stamped and cut out frame to make each look like stacks of polaroid photos. Curling the edges gave a simple distressed look to the design.

For my title I die cut the ME Bold Banner from thin wood veneer paper and stamped the word, "photos" using the Midnight Letters Alphabet Stamp Set and the Hazel Ink Pad. I added the words "favorite" and "of 2013" using a roller stamp from my stash. I love how the Hazel Ink on the wood veneer paper looks almost like the calendars!

I added the stamped number border from Four Seasons along the right side of the page and the stamped phrase from We Click.

For additional distressing to my page, I used the ink splotches from Fair Feathers stamped with the Blush Ink. It's subtle but looks awesome in real life and compliments the wood calendars and punched hearts!

The Washi tape stamped image from We Click was the perfect embellishment for some of the stamped polaroid frames and since it's a stamp I was able to perfectly match the "washi tape" to my layout with the Winter Ink and Blush Ink!

Another look at the calendars at work on my page...

I hope this has inspired you to try the Perfect Patterns Calendar Set or the Fabulous Friends Calendar Set on your next creative project!

Thanks for stopping by!

Designer Series: Pandamonium with Emily Leiphart

It's Emily Leiphart here today and I'm sharing a card using the December stamp release Pandamonium. I made a Chinese New Year card for January 31st because there's nothing more perfect than pandas with red lanterns and a gold sentiment. ;)

Traditionally, there should be plenty of red and gold and I had a red card base at first but it seemed to take over the card so I went with a more golden background, cut from Femme Frames Creative Cuts, to let the pandas and lanterns shine. Plus the gold sentiment is more than enough to make up for the tiny bit of red.

I used my trusty design ruler to help line up the letters from Inline Letters Creative Cuts before gluing them down with glossy accents. I punched tiny 1/16" holes at the top of the lanterns before fussy cutting them. Then I used beading wire, wire cutters and pliers to create the sticks. My tweezers really came in handy for both the letters and placement of the wires.

I hope I've inspired you to play with your December Release goodies from Mama Elephant!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!