Welcome to the Stampin' Addicts' Occasions Mini Blog Hop - Stop #9

Thank you for stopping by today for the Stampin' Addicts' Occasions Mini Blog Hop!  The Occasions Mini Catalog is the newest catalog from Stampin' Up!  Our blog hop is designed to show you many of the new products from this mini catalog, soon to be available (January 5, in fact).

You may have arrived here via Kim's site, Stitchin n Stampin' On Paper.  Weren't her projects using the Folk Flower Stencil great?  If you are just joining the hop starting with my blog, you can continue from here to visit all 23 of the blogs on this blog hop.  The hop continues through January 3, so be sure to make some time to sit back and enjoy all of the projects we're going to share with you!

My stop on the blog hop features the Well Scripted stamp set.  It is available as the traditional wood-mount stamps (117072) as well as clear-mount stamps (118601) - something new from SU!  I chose the clear-mount stamps for my projects, and I have to say, I really like them!

My first project is a scrapbook page.  It started out as a 12x12 page which not only uses the Well Scripted stamp set, but some new paper and embellishments from the new Occasions mini, as well as new punches (the Scallop Trim corner punch comes from the Occasions mini catalog and the coordinating Scallop Trim border punch comes from the upcoming Sale-A-Bration catalog).  I ended up participating in a scrapbooking swap over at Stampin' Addicts, so I scaled down the 12x12 to a 6x6 for the swap.  I love the combination of colors in this project - Chocolate Chip, Taken with Teal, Rose Red, Old Olive, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink and Sahara Sand.

 

With Mother's Day coming up before you know it, I thought I'd create a card for my mom.  This project features the beautiful Cottage Wall designer series paper (DSP) from the 2009-2010 Idea Book and Catalog and a Mojo Monday sketch gave me the inspiration I needed to make it.  The DSP features Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive and Orchid Opulence.  Once again I used the Scallop Trim corner and border punches.  Old Olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon with Rich Razzleberry polka-dot grosgrain ribbon on top adds some texture.  The butterfly comes from one of my favorite sets, Great Friend.  I used Ice Circle Brads to glitz up the butterflies.

I decided to pull out one of my favorite cards from earlier this year and rework it a little to use for my final project.  Masculine cards are always a challenge for me.  I didn't realize it until I was assembling the card that I had a deer on my 'Dear Father' card!  The new sentiment completes the card much better than the original, in my opinion.  This card uses the Nature Silhouettes stamp set and Sanded background stamp in addition to Well Scripted.  I used a brayer to create the gradient background in the central image.

Thanks for visiting my stop on our blog hop!  Next up is Heidi's site, RunningwScissorsStamper where she'll show you some cute projects featuring Something Sweet.  Don't forget, you can come back and visit anytime!

New Blog Background

I've wanted to make a background for my blog using My Digital Studio, and my new cyber stampin' friend, Melissa, helped me get it to work.  Patty Bennett was the first that I saw to give info on how to create a blog header using MDS, but it was Melissa who was instrumental in helping me to get my background from MDS to Blogger.  It's a bit of a tougher process than the header, but I got it to work, and I'm really pleased with it.  I wanted something with a black tie type of look and feel for New Year's, so I used the Night & Day specialty paper download, some ribbon and brads to create my background. 

A big thanks to Melissa for taking the time to type out some instructions for me over at Stampin' Addicts!  Melissa is also one of 23 SA stampers to feature projects using products from the upcoming Occasions Mini catalog from Stampin' Up!, so be sure to stop by over the New Years' weekend to see all of the great ideas for using the new goodies SU! has in the new mini catalog!  It all starts on Friday, January 1!  Geez, it's January again, already?!

Art Journals

I had planned to make these for my girls for Christmas, but it didn't happen until afterwards.  After showing them their albums, I asked if they wanted me to put their names on them.  To my surprise, they wanted their gaming character names - so glad I asked first!  Last night I added the personalization to them and gave the albums to the girls.  They really liked them.

My DD's Painting

My oldest (13) received quite a few art items for Christmas.  One item was a set of canvases.  Last night she painted this beautiful scenic.  She's never had any real formal training but loves to draw.  It was great to see her use a different medium, and I really like how it came out!  Just had to share.  I didn't get my camera exactly flat to the canvas, but it's still pretty!

Happy Holidays to All!

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Ornaments!

I have a bunch of ornaments to share with you today! First up is the ornament I gave to my friend, coworker and SU! sideline, Darla. She loves purple and liked her ornament as well as the box I made for it. I got the tutorial for the box from Monica Weaver's Add a Little Dazzle blog (the link to the PDF is next to the image of the ornament, in red that says 'Click Here').

Tonight I FINALLY got our tree up.  Yes, December 22, and I'm just now getting the tree up.  I opted for the 4.5 foot one I bought last year instead of pulling out the full-sized one.  The full-sized one is beautiful, but it's a very full tree and I just didn't have the energy to set it up.  The short one is up on an end table and looks pretty with the new blue and white LCD snowflake lights I found for half price at CVS today.  I'd purchased some light blue ribbon with snowflakes on it last time I was at Michaels, and it looks good with the new lights.  The blue ornaments I bought last year finish the look nicely.  I used the silver garland that I'd put on the tree last year on the bannisters of our staircase with a few of the small ornaments hanging from it.  That'll have to do for our Christmas decorating, as I just don't feel like hauling down all of the boxes from the overhead in our garage to do any more.  I think this is the latest I've ever gotten the tree up - I need to get it up earlier next year!

After decorating, my youngest asked if she could make one of the glitter ornaments.  I grabbed some reinkers and glitter to get her started.  I had nine small glass ornaments left (three of which might be nearly as old as she is - 11!).  She did five, I did the remaining four.  It was some nice mother-daughter time.  My oldest wasn't interested, so her little sister made her one - a green one, big sis's favorite color.  They all came out beautifully, don't you think?

 

I used SU! reinkers (Tempting Turquoise, Lovely Lilac, Glorious Green and So Saffron), but not SU! glitter.  I have soooo much glitter that I've purchased during several years' visits to our local rubber stamping show, held at the end of January each year, that I'm trying to finally use it.  Most of the glitter we used was Susie Sparkle Hologram Glitter.  I have about 10 different colors of it, and this project was perfect for it.  I love that gold one - a glitter called Solara.

Well, enough of a break - I need to finish wrapping gifts tonight and get the dining room table cleaned off so that tomorrow all I need to do in the living/dining room is vacuum and dust.  Then it's off to tackle the kitchen/family room tomorrow, and bathrooms and bedrooms on Thursday.  The clock's ticking until family joins us for dinner on Christmas day, and I'm behind schedule (but then again, when am I not running behind?).  Merry Christmas, everyone, if I don't post again before then.

Glitter Ornament

I've seen these beautiful glitter ornaments around on several stamping blogs lately and this week found a video tutorial by Tami.  I love the cute box she made for the ornaments, too.  I have the envelope die on order and it'll hopefully arrive in time for me to use it for my stamp camp on Friday.  Either way, we're going to make these cute ornaments as one of our projects.  I tried one using clear glitter, but I wasn't too happy with the results.

For this one, I used turquoise Stampin' Up! Fine Cosmo glitter with a Tempting Turquoise reinker.  I LOVE how it shimmers!  I used a white Icicle rub-on to decorate it, and turquoise grosgrain ribbon and silver elastic cord tops it off.  It looks darker than it really is - when will I learn to photograph my projects during the day?!  Anyway, I hope you like it!

Hershey Bar Pull-Up Treats

Last year I saw a tutorial for these cute treats over at SplitcoastStampers.  Don't know why I didn't give it a try last year, but I didn't... but I did this week!!  Here's my first attempt.  I used Brocade Blue and Night of Navy card stocks (I love those two blues together!), Snow Buddies level 2 hostess from the Holiday Mini catalog, There are a few things I'd do differently next time:

1.  NO GLITTER - well, at least none on the cover itself.  A little to glam up the snowman is fine.
2.  Add something to the belly band - maybe a piece of Brocade Blue DSP or something.
3.  Pierce around the scallop circle punch instead of using Night of Navy marker to color in dots.

I'm thinking of going to the Ladies' Luncheon after the late church service next week and they are asking for all types of demos/reps to show their wares so that the ladies attending the luncheon can do a little Christmas shopping.  I thought I might participate and bring some stocking stuffers like Snowman Soup (I've got nine made so far), maybe some matchbox die nugget boxes and these cute pull-up treats.

November Stamp Camp Buffett

This month I repeated three projects for my stampers and added two new ones.  I think everyone liked being able to pick and choose what they wanted to make and to make as many as they wanted.  From last month, I had the Big Shot Owl Treat bag, the cute Sweet Treats Turkey from Connie Collins, and the three-drawer Matchbox Die Dresser.  New this month was the Christmas Card I redesigned based on Dawn Olchefske's original card, and an oldie but goody - Snowman Soup.

Isn't this turkey just the cutest?  I saw him on Connie's stop on a blog hop about two months ago.  I ended up participating in her Big Fat Ribbon Share, and much to my surprise, she included that cute turkey in my ribbon envelope!  I knew my stampers would get a kick out of him, and I finally got to make a few myself this time around.  I couldn't find the Jelly Belly Autumn Mix that Connie used in hers, so we ended up with another Jelly Belly mix that had some browns and reds in it (Soda Shop, I think it's called).  Darla made 8, Laura 5, and 6 for me.

Maddie and Holly each made the Christmas Card and both made several packets of Snowman Soup.  I forgot to take a picture of the back, but I used My Digital Studio to type out my poem and used some of the graphics from Christmas Jingle on MDS to decorate it.  I found these cute tree and star marshmallows at Walgreens early this month and thought they'd be cuter than normal marshmallows (although I did give the gals the option of using regular mini marshmallows - they both chose to use the special ones).

I always love it when I can get together with the ladies at work to spend some stamping time together, and it was great to have four of them join me yesterday, even though it was the Friday afternoon before our week off for Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving Card - MDS Style

Wanted to play with My Digital Studio tonight since I can stay up a little later than usual due to the Veteran's Day holiday tomorrow.  I'd found this wallpaper that I've been using on my computer for a few weeks now, and decided to feature the image on a card.  I toned down the image by setting the opacity to 80, added some ribbon and a sentiment (strangely, I couldn't find a Thanksgiving sentiment in MDS).  The sentiment I chose is in Pumpkin Pie, with an opacity setting of 70 to better match my image.  I'm so glad I made the plunge and bought MDS - love it, love it, LOVE IT!

Christmas Card for 2009

Today I had my first workshop at someone else's house in a LONG time!  We made the brag book I posted last month.  While the gals were making their brag books, I decided to work on my Christmas cards.  I was so impressed by this one that Dawn made (scroll to the bottom of the post to see it), I wanted a variation of it.  This is what I came up with, and it'll be our Christmas card this year.  Simple enough to mass produce, as we only send out 25 or so cards a year.  I managed to get most of the pieces cut out during the workshop (Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, and Very Vanilla cardstocks).  I love this pinecone stamp (from Autumn Days) and the glitter just adds that little extra touch.  I used Chocolate Chip and Old Olive markers to color the image, punching it out with a 1 1/4 inch circle punch and framing it with the 1 3/8 inch circle punch.  The pinecones are popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals, as is the square behind them.  The sentiment is stamped in Chocolate Chip and is from the level 1 hostess set, Holiday Best.  The embossed image is from the Petals-A-Plenty embossing folder.  Love it!

Matchbox Die Chests

I had fun making these cute matchbox die chests for my next team swap.  We were supposed to meet today, but two of us weren't feeling well today, so we had to postpone.  I hadn't used my matchbox die yet, and it's SO EASY!

This was also one of my stamp camp projects this past Thursday.  I used a clear rhinestone brad and the small filigree brad piece for the drawer pull (although it's more decorative than functional).  I used retired Parisian Breeze specialty paper, and I'm so sad it's gone!  I bought three packs of it, and it's quickly dwindling.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a GREAT week!

Some My Digital Studio Cards

Feeling a bit under the weather this weekend, but thought I'd share with you a few cards I've made recently using Stampin' Up!s new software, My Digital Studio.  The first is a card I created for Halloween:

It was fun to make!  The Upsy Daisy card I've shared before, but I made it before watching all of the training webinars that SU! provided it's demonstrators, and I've fixed a few things that I'd done wrong.  I also added some drop shadows to give more of a dimensional feel to my card.  I really like this one and will likely change the color scheme a few times and have several of them printed up to have on hand.

The holiday card will likely be our Christmas card this year.  This one is a 6 x 6 card.  I just sent it to SU!s printing service to see how it looks, and if it comes back as great as my calendar did, I'll be ordering more.  The way things are going, I don't think I'll get any cards made the old fashioned way this year (although I do have the ones I made last year and never sent out!).

Last up is a card I made using a new image download for MDS, the Medallion stamp, my favorite from the new SU! catalog:

I really love My Digital Studio and wish I could play with it all day, everyday!  There's just so much you can do with this program.  I'm anxious to work on a multimedia project, but that will have to wait until Thanksgiving break when I have some time to sit down and be creative.

My how time flies...

I can't believe it's been over two weeks since my last post!  Things have been a bit hectic, so that helps explain it, I suppose.  My oldest needs to complete service hours for both her 8th grade history class and for confirmation class (thankfully they overlap and hours can be credited to both).  Our church does an annual fundraiser for the high school youth - a pumpkin patch, so I've been spending time with both of my girls manning the patch.  The little one doesn't need the service hours, but she's a people person and loves to come along anyway.  With her pumpkin patch hours, she' all set for this trimester at school, and has caught up on some missing hours for confirmation class (yay!).

Our first grading period progress reports are due by noon tomorrow, and my kids buried me with make-up work and quiz retakes over the past week or so, and it always takes so much longer to get those assignments into the computer than if I was just entering one assignment for the entire class.  It'll be nice to put that behind me for a bit.

I'm getting ready for my monthly stamp camp with the gals at work.  My theme is "No Tricks... All Treats" so this month we're making things that you can put a treat into.  The gals will have their choice of four projects - however many they can make in the three hours that we're stampin'.  Two are borrowed from other stampers - the cute owl treat bag from Dawn and the ever so cute turkey Connie made using the new Sweet Centers cups.  The other two I need to post, and will eventually get them photographed to share.  One uses the matchbox die which I finally got a chance to use, and although the three drawer chest has been out there a while, I really like how mine turned out and I'll share it soon.

Looks like I'm narrowing in on 30,000 hits, so in my next post I'll offer up some blog candy to celebrate - details next time!  Until then, have a great rest of your week!

Bamboo Spine Photo Album

I'm going to be doing a workshop for a friend in early November and we decided on a making a mini-scrapbook/photo brag book.  A long while back I had run across Chiaki Haverstick's Bamboo Spine Album and it fit the bill perfectly.  I wanted to use my favorite Simply Scrappin' kit - Petal Party, and this weekend I made our class sample.  I hope the gals enjoy making this album.  Here are a couple of shots:

This is the front of the album.  The bamboo stick is covered with the ribbons.

This is the back of the album.

Here's the inside front cover and page 1 of the album.

Here are two of the pages from the inside of the album.

I enjoyed doing some mini scrapbooking and think I'll use mine to keep my girls' school pictures from over the years.  Thanks for stopping by today, and have a great week!

It's a My Digital Studio Party!

Welcome to our My Digital Studio Party - you might call it a Blog Carnival, hosted by Stampin' Addicts. It's is all about My Digital Studio, also known as MDS - the digital papercrafting solution released on October 1 by Stampin' Up!  Each stop on the carnival will feature at least two projects created using My Digital Studio.  Be sure to visit all 16 sites to see what you can do with MDS between now and November 1.

For my projects, I chose to make a 2010 calendar, an 8x8 scrapbook page, and a 6x6 card.  First up is the calendar.  I used a calendar template available in MDS first, and then added my images.  These are shots of our family vacation to the Big Island and Moloka'i last summer.  I added the image on the top page of the calendar, and decided to add the same image as a background to the calendar part of the page, but with some transparency to the image.  I used the color picker tool in MDS for the background color of the top page, choosing a color from the picture itself.  MDS uses your computer's fonts, so I chose a favorite to type out captions for each month.  The calendar template was in gray, so I went in and made everything black so it would stand out a little better against the background image.  I added my own family events for each month, along with moon phases (I'm an amateur astronomer, so a calendar isn't complete without moon phases).  My photograph of the calendar doesn't do it justice (wrong camera setting), so I'll try photographing it again during the day to see if I can get a better shot of it.  The paper it's printed on is thick, kind of like the slick feel of Whisper White paper (but heavier than WW).  It comes spiral bound, and you also create your own cover for it.  Shipping was amazingly fast - I ordered it on a Saturday night, and it arrived on the following Wednesday!

My second project is an 8x8 scrapbook page from an album I'm making for my youngest.  She just got back from her class trip to Catalina Island, and while she was gone, I got started on the scrapbook using the images I had taken the day I helped drive them down to Long Beach.

She had a wonderful time and took about 120 pictures with her own digital camera while at Outdoor Education Week on Catalina, so I'm going to have fun this weekend sitting down with her to work on her scrapbook using MDS.

My last project is a 6x6 card that I created using the Christmas Jingle designer kit that is available in MDS.  I just love this cute deer - which is also available as an individual stamp in the current Stampin' Up! catalog.

MDS features embellishments like the brads, ribbon and focal image in my card above, as well as many designer series papers to use for backgrounds, and stamp images like the sentiment I used here.

My Digital Studio is such a versatile program - there's even more you can do with it, which will be shared by other bloggers on our blog carnival, so make sure to visit everyone's site.  You have until November 1 to view all of the projects created by the sixteen of us participating in the blog carnival.  Thanks so much for stopping by, and if you have any questions about MDS, I'm here to help!

My Digital Studio Blog Carnival Participants:

DMDezigns/Dawnmarie: My Digital Studio - The Birdseye Overview
HowManyCats?!/Comeka: Digitize Your Sketch Library with MDS
Yapha: Turning Templates into Treasures
Willysgirl/Sarah: MDS Xmas and Extras
Hollylogic/Holly: MDS as a Design Tool (or How Not to Slice Up All Your Brushed Gold)
Lyssa: Playing with Stamps You Don't Own
Lilysinkpad/Sara: Simply Scrappin' Kits Go Digi
JulieA/Julie: Wanna Little Music with Your Slideshow?
lovetostampandscrap/Cheryl: Creating a Calendar to Beat All Calendars
Melina Stamps!/Melina: Man-Scrapping with MDS
BroncoMom/Joyce: Build Your Own DSP
Britiney: Clever Album Covers - A Piece of (Cup)Cake
S1itcher46/Kim: Hybridizing and Cataloging Collections
Kelli: Side-by-Side Test: Is it Actual or Is It MDS?
Scrapbookmama/Ellie: Keeping the Spotlight on Your (Adorable!) Subjects

Upcoming My Digital Studio Blog Carnival

Did you know that Stampin' Up! is rolling out My Digital Studio, a digital papercrafting software package, on October 1?  To help celebrate its release, I'm participating in a carnival style blog hop hosted by Stampin Addicts. Starting at noon EST on Saturday, October 3, and running through November 1, there will be sixteen sites that feature at least two projects created using My Digital Studio (aka MDS).  You can access the MDS Blog Carnival by clicking on the button on my sidebar any time after noontime, EST on October 3.

MDS is a great way to get those photos into scrap pages that you can design in a snap. You can also make cards, calendars, and all sorts of other projects.  Even if you aren't a digital scrapbooker, MDS is great for designing your layouts before cutting card stock.  You can also do hybrid scrapping - use some printed out designs from MDS and add your own layers and embellishments.  Think of all of the possibilities!  I've been using it for a month and love it.  Be sure to check back on October 3 or thereafter to see all the great creations we have to share with you!

Father-in-Law's Birthday Card

Today my FIL is celebrating his 80th birthday, so I wanted something a bit special to give to him.  I had an extra card front of my New Year's card that I made for the Stampin' Addicts' Holiday Blog Hop back in August, so I decided to rework it and added part of the Medallion stamp, stamped in VersaMark and embossed in gold.  When I showed my husband, he said "hey, now that's CLASSY!"  Inside, I used a sentiment from the set It's Your Birthday - 'Life is not a matter of counting years, it's a matter of making years count' and then 'Happy Birthday', both stamped in VersaMark and embossed in gold.  I stamped the envelope to match.  I hope he likes it!

My Digital Studio Calendar

 

 Tonight I spent time working on a 2010 calendar that features some of my favorite scenic images from our Hawaii vacation this past summer.  I'm having fun learning how to use My Digital Studio, and this was my first time trying out the calendar function.  So far I'm liking how it is turning out.  The template I used had grey numbers and elements, so I'm busy changing them to black, which takes a while.  I have five or six months finished at this point, but I'm getting pretty tired, so I think I'll head off to bed!

A Wreath and a Milk Carton Project

Friday afternoon was my first stamp camp of the new school year, and several of my coworkers, past and present, joined me to make Becky Roberts' milk carton project.  It was fun getting the gang together again to stamp and visit.  The only problem was that I had dropped my key tag punch when putting together my box of stuff to bring for stamp camp, and we found out early that the drop had damaged the punch and it wouldn't work.  So, I improvised making a template that everyone could trace to make the handle for their milk carton box.  Bummer, to say the least, as SU! just retired that punch!  Hopefully I can get it back aligned and working again.  Anyhow, I put together the Autumn Meadows milk carton I had designed last weekend while everyone else was working on theirs, and here it is!

Today was my upline's team meeting (hi Jeanne!).  This month I hosted our project instead of having Jeanne do all the work.  I shared the Big Shot Wreath project that I first saw on Jenny Moors' blog, and everyone had a great time creating their own version.  Here's what I came up with:

I used Chocolate Chip craft ink to color in the letters, and it came out much darker than I had wanted (Something told me to bring along the Close to Cocoa craft pad, but did I listen to myself?  No...).  So with the suggestion of Jeanne and our other team members, when I got home, I added faux stitching with my gel pen.  It helps tie in the stitched Chocolate Chip ribbon, and now I'm happy with it.  I hope you like it, too!

Have a fabulous week, and once again, thanks for stopping by today!

Weekend Sketch Challenge #98

I haven't participated in a sketch challenge for a while, so I thought I'd give it a try this time - with a twist!  I created my card using My Digital Studio.  I saw the sketch on Beate's blog over at Fresh & Fun and this is one of the cards I came up with.  I then discovered all of the embellishments for the Christmas Jingle Designer Kit, so I changed up my card and I like this version even better:

What do you think?  Thanks for stopping by today - have a fabulous weekend!

Big Shot Owl Treats

Last year I saw this cute post from Dawn Olchefske - a treat bag that looked like an owl using small cello bags and the Top Note die for the Big Shot.  To create this cute owl treat topper, I used Only Orange, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White and Basic Black card stocks, the large star punch, and three circle punches - 3/4 inch, 1 inch, and 1 1/4 inch.  I sponged some Close to Cocoa ink on his cheeks and eyelids.  The eyelids are popped up with a stampin' dimensional and the eyes were given a little detail using a white gel pen.  These are so fast and easy to make - I'll be making them for my youngest daughter to share with her classmates, and for my middle school daughter to share with her teachers and friends.  I think we'll make them for my October 'No Tricks, All Treats' stamp camp, too!

I'm so excited to be having my first stamp camp workshop of the new school year.  There will be 12 of us meeting after school tomorrow in my classroom to make the cute milk cartons that were designed by Becky Roberts.  I offered several designs for my stampers, and we'll be making the Cast-A-Spell and Razzleberry Lemonade milk cartons that I designed as well as the Summer Picnic milk cartons that my upline, Jeanne, designed.  I will also be working on an Autumn Meadows version that I designed last weekend.  Any extras that I have will be assembled and donated to our church Pumpkin Patch craft booth.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Fall/Thanksgiving Swap

I've been dabbling around in my craft room this past week, trying to come up with ideas for my fall/Thanksgiving swap for our team meeting next weekend.  I wanted to use the Autumn Days stamp set and thought about making a wreath card using the spray stamp from that set.  I was inspired by LeAnne last weekend when I saw the beautiful wreath cards she created using this set,  but I didn't want to flat out copy hers, so this is what I came up with.  I hadn't used Soft Suede yet, so I thought I'd try it on this card.  The spray was stamped in Soft Suede, then Always Artichoke, then More Mustard (I drew a circle onto the Confetti Cream card stock first with a compass).

I stamped the sentiment in the center of the wreath using the Holiday Best level 1 hostess set (love it!).  I used markers to color in the images before stamping - More Mustard, Bravo Burgundy and Always Artichoke on the leaves, and Soft Suede for the sentiment.  I added Soft Suede ribbon to highlight the wreath, and some Autumn Traditions designer series paper in the background, along with two vanilla 5/16" brads.

The rest of this weekend means time to finish preparing the milk carton kits for my stamp camp on Friday afternoon with the gals at work.  Since many of them can't stay more than a couple of hours, I thought I'd help speed things up for them by having all of the scoring and cutting lines done before stamp camp.  That part is done - now I just have to cut the DSP panels that I used on the Halloween milk carton I made last month.  I'm looking forward to having a chance to sit down and chat with the gals while we work on a project together!  Thanks for stopping by today!

A Card CASE and a Pop Up Cake!

At a recent stamp camp, my upline shared with we stampers a very cute card that she received from Mary Pickett as a swap during convention.  Using the circle scallop punch, Mary had created these cute ice cream scoops.  She also created her own DSP by using one of the texture plates on the Big Shot, but lightly brayered on some Pretty in Pink ink onto the plate before running the Whisper White through the BS.  Soooo creative!  Jeanne didn't have many of the half-backed pearls from the pretties kit that Mary used on her swap, so Jeanne used the 5/16" white jumbo brads instead.  I love this card and will be making it with my own stamp campers in the coming months.  Not the best view of it as I photographed it at night under my desk lamp, but you get the idea of how cute this card is!

We made two at Jeanne's stamp camp, so the extra one is going to my neice who celebrates her birthday later this week.  I wanted to make it an even more special card, so I grabbed my new Pop Up Cake Sizzix die and made a cake inside the card.  I know it opens sideways compared to the direction the candle would normally be facing, but I still think it's cute, and what's better, it still fits inside a standard-sized greeting card!  I used some old DSP to decorate the layers.  I hope she likes it!

Another MDS Scrapbook Page and a Helpful Hint

I've been trying to troubleshoot off and on all day today, trying to figure out why My Digital Studio on my Vista machine hangs, particularly when you try to adjust a font on an MDS project.  I updated Windows, reinstalled QuickTime and Java, uninstalled and reinstalled MDS, all to no success.  Late tonight I was reading a thread on Stampin' Addicts about someone who has MDS loaded on her Mac and was having a similar issue.  James, SA site administrator, made a comment about fonts sometimes causing problems when you have too many of them on your system.  Since I was having MDS hang when trying to work with the fonts tool, I had that 'a ha' moment and checked how many fonts I had installed.  Between the fonts and the various versions of each, get this, I had 422 installed!  YIKES!  So, I took some time to delete fonts that I never use, trimming my font list down to 180.  I went back to MDS, and guess what?!  Now it works!  If you end up getting MDS and run into font problems, check how many are loaded on your system and trim the fat a bit if you need to - you'll find it runs great after that!  After other posts I read about fonts, it sounds like my system should boot faster now, too!

Since then I've been working on a scrapbook album of the Girl Scout Junior Jam campouts that my girls have participated in over the past few years.  Here's a page where I took a layout from one of the kits that is part of the MDS software, then changed it by moving page elements around, deleting some, and sizing the pictures how I wanted them.  If you are into scrapbooking, I think you'll LOVE My Digital Studio.  Soooo easy to use!  It's a great tool to add to my craft stash, and I'm so glad Stampin' Up! created it.

Upsy Daisy Card

I'm still having fun using my new My Digital Studio software, new from Stampin' Up!  I plan to use the software to help design cards, so this is what I came up with for my first. I was having trouble figuring out how to add card stock layers, but then I tried adding a square punch, enlarging it, and filling it with either a color or a designer paper and viola, it worked!  I can see this being a really cool tool to use to design stamp camp cards and scrapbook pages - without wasting paper on a design that ends up not working out.  In MDS, I can build it first, then cut card stock and designer paper to create the real thing.  Soooo cool!

My Digital Studio

Stampin' Up! just released it's much anticipated design software, My Digital Studio, for demonstrator purchase during the month of September.  Customers can get their copy starting October 1.  My copy arrived yesterday, but I didn't have time to play with it until tonight.  Here's a very simple scrapbook page I created highlighting some of my favorite sunset pictures taken while on our vacation on Moloka'i this summer.  I look forward to getting to know all the in's and out's of the program and plan to use it as a design tool for cards and scrapbook pages.