MDSM66 MDS Hybrid Shaped Card ~ Perfect Blend

This week is my turn to host the MDS Monday challenge.  My current hybrid card obsession is shaped cards.  There are lots of MDS shapes that can be used as a card base - a canning jar, an owl, a lava lamp, an oval, a hexagon, a pumpkin, a cupcake.  You get the idea.  If you need to brainstorm, start with punch shapes.  You can use stamp images as well.  Even custom punches would work.

Think you need an e-cutter to make a shaped card?  Nope!  Although feel free to use one.

• Design and size your card base in My Digital Studio and print out on card stock.  With this method, make sure to create a mirror image of the card front for the back of the card base, and pay attention where your score line will land.  Then hand-cut your card base.
• Keep in mind to preserve as much of the score line on your card base so your card is robust and doesn't fall apart.  
• My favorite method, to avoid printing on card stock, is to design and size in MDS and print on copy paper.  Print only one of the shaped images, then after scoring the card base, temporarily adhere the copy paper to the card stock and trim the card stock and copy paper simultaneously.  Move the copy paper around before cutting to maximize the retained score line.
• Repeat the process to embellish the card.  Design and print in MDS, followed by hand-cutting, or print or use the copy paper method for adding traditional Designer Series Paper.

Shaped cards are super fun, so I hope you give this a try!

Here's a video of how to create a shaped card from My Digital Studio, as it was happening.  :)

And in case you are interested, here's an example of how to make a shaped card using Silhouette Studio.

Stamps: Perfect Blend MDS download, Non-SU Starbucks stamp; Paper: Gumball Green, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Epic Day DSP; Ink: Gumball Green; Accessories: Linen thread, Dimensionals.

Stampin' Up! Big Wish

I am so excited to show you a new trick today.  A past Card Concept challenge got me thinking about cake pops.  How fun is this inspiration photo?  The Occasions catalog has the Big Wish stamp set with cake pops, but they are solid rather than line images.  In order to play along with the Mix-Ability challenge #50, Color It Twice, once with alcohol markers and again with colored pencils, I needed line images. 

I was poking around my Silhouette Cameo e-cutter software, and I figured out a way to trace an image from My Digital Studio.  But rather than cut it out, I changed the trace line to a print line so I could print a line image for coloring.  Cool, huh?

Here's what the stamp images look like -

And here's what I did with it -

I used a little bit of marker contraband here, but here's some good news... Stampin' Up's Blendabilities alcohol markers will be in the upcoming 2014-2015 catalog.  I can't wait!  After coloring with markers, I did a bit of shading with colored pencils.  This card uses Splitcoaststampers sketch SC449.

MDS Download: Big Wish; Paper: Early Espresso, Whisper White, Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP; Ink: Basic Black marker, Copic markers; Accessories: Colored pencils, Banner punch, Decorative Dots EF, Big Shot, Sewing machine, Thread, Dimenisonals.

Check out this video to see how I did it -

Video Tutorial: Pumpkin-Shaped Card

Hi Everyone, Thanks for stopping in to learn how I created the pumpkin-shaped card from last weekend's Stampin' Addicts Winter Blog Hop.

In My Digital Studio, I expanded the jack o'lantern image from the Calendar Kit brush set as large as possible in a 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 landscape card file.  This page was then exported as a jpeg file.

Inputting the jpeg file in the Silhouette Studio e-cutter software, I did the following:

• Traced the outline of the image
• Separated and elongated the stem
• Copied and mirrored the pumpkin image to stack on top of the original in order to create a card base
• Drew three ovals on top of the pumpkin image to create shapes for cutting paper embellishments

See the video below for all steps and details.

Here's another view of how the card is decorated using embellishments from the Thankful Tablescape kit.

This month's online hostess code is BFSTGCT9, available through October 10. Thanks for stopping by!

MDSM26 Gold-Star Patient

Hi Everyone, Time for another MDS Monday card sketch.  I was flipping through the Stampin' Up! catalog, and I found a fun layout that would work for a card or photo page on page 125.  Did you recognize it?  You can choose to use stamp brush image or photo(s) for your focal point - up to you! 

To steepen the learning curve a bit, I'm going to challenge you to try the "edit punch shape" technique.  The lower right punch shape was created from Chevron punch #5.  Here is a video to show you what I mean and how to do this.

You don't have to stick with the suggested punch shapes.  Go crazy!  Get creative!  I can't wait to see what you make!!

Of course I have to keep working on my MDS scrapbook pages, and it is quite difficult to find just one photo that I like.  Here I used one of the punch shapes as an insert to help tell the story.

My husband had surgery last Fall for a giant-cell tumor.  You've always got to make fun of a tough guy who's scared of a needle, so I kept up with my "way to go" theme, using the Game Day photobook download.  Here I used one of the template pages for the background, moved some things around, and added the sketch over the top.  Couple little tricks here:

• The houndstooth pattern is actually a stamp image.  I created my pattern on a blank page, exported as a jpeg, and then brought it back into the flag punch shape as a photo fill.
• To get a better idea of how the final page would look when printed, I cropped when exporting (0.15" from top/bottom, 0.35" from left/right).  You can check out Stampin' Up's video on how to do this here.

MDS Elements: Stamps: Game Day; Paper: Basic Gray textured, Glimmer paper; Accessories: Flag punch, Star punch, Custom Pointer punch; Font: Stencil, CK KOTM1.

Thanks for stopping by!

MDS Videos: Stitched Hearts & Transparent Background

As promised, here is a couple videos illustrating the tricks I used on Monday's MDS page.

The first one I used two half-hearts (cropped hearts) merged together so I can get a deeper shadow on the outer edge of the heart.  This gives the illusion that the center of the heart is touching the card stock base, making the center stitching of the hearts look realistic.



IRL, the More Amore DSP has laser-cut hearts that one can snip and use.  But the digital DSP comes with a white background.  To work around this, I imported the DSP into a photo-editing program, cropped and used the magic wand tool, and saved as a PNG file into the embellishment area of the My Digital Studio program.


Thanks for stopping by!

MDSM15 Rapunzel Birthday Party

Time for another scrapbook sketch on MDS Monday, and Beth's got a cute one for us!

Thanks to MDS, I'm able to incorporate some elements from my daughter's birthday party invitation

into the scrapbook page.

This was the year of Rapunzel, and we *had* to go meet her at Disney, as well as have a Rapunzel-themed birthday party.  Since I used this brick background earlier for the Disney page, I thought I would shoot a quickie video of how I made it.

MDS Elements: Stamps:  Calendar Kit sun, Celebrate Any Day clothespin; Paper: Well Worn DSP; Color Palette: So Saffron, Perfect Plum, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive; Accessories: White baker's twine, Chocolate Chip brad, Candid frames, Petite Pennant punch, Ornament punch, Oval punch, Curly Label punch, 5 Petal Flower punch, Blossom Bouquet 1 punch; Font: Tangled.

Thanks for stopping by!

MDS Video: Editing Shaped Clips

You may remember this digital page I did back in March.

Notice the heart-shaped clip in the lower right corner of the photo.  I love paperclips and shaped clips, but it drives me batty if they don't look "clipped", KWIM?

One possible way to crop within MDS would be the crop-embellishment-with-a-punch-shape trick.  This method would work if you can get the inside of the clip to fit inside a heart punch or custom punch.  It didn't quite work for me here.

So I went with option B; I used my photo editing software to complete the job.  The software I used is Photoshop Elements, and other programs may work as well.  This key is that your finished edited file be a .png file type.

I created a video so you can see the process.

Thanks for stopping by!

MDSM11 Apple Picking

Good morning, Everyone!  Time for another MDS Monday challenge.  Tara has a good one for us, to use the following sketch and stick to one digital kit.

I've mentioned before that using one kit is the way to go with many digital pages.  The coordinating papers and embellishments make designing so easy.  So I pulled up my list of digital downloads, and The Write Stuff II was the first kit I came upon.  I gave it a whirl, and I think it came out pretty well.

I've had an apple bushel on my to-do list for a bit, so here was a perfect opportunity to give it a try.  I used the File It Fun label 8 punch, and I kept cropping and stacking layers to create a little bushel container.  I also applied the paper rip option to the background paper layers.

Here's a little video I threw together on creating the bushel.

Stamps: Perfectly Preserved; Paper: The Write Stuff II; Color Palette: Old Olive, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Creamy Caramel, Soft Suede; Accessories: The Write Stuff II kit, Early Espresso baker's twine, More Mustard button, File It Fun label 8 punch; Font: Clipper Script.

Thanks for stopping by!

MDS Video: Ripped Edges

Do you remember this MDS Monster page I created a few weeks back?

Here's a quick video with tips on how to create the background.

Thanks for stopping by!

Step-by-Step MDS Page and a Video

The blog posts have been a bit thinner than usual.  What have I been up to?  Well, on Friday I mentioned the e-cutter I recently obtained.  I've been playing with that for about a week... fun, fun!  But even more time consuming has been the learning curve on creating videos.  Holy Baloney, Tony!  Without the proper software, this is very painful!  I'm currently on a 30-day free trial.  I sure hope Hubby agrees to let me purchase this software which has made my life easier.

Meanwhile, I've had a request to do some step-by-step tutorials of MDS Monday pages to get some beginners going.  I'd be happy to help out, when I have the time.  Warning though, triathlon training season is about a week away, so time will be dwindling very quickly in the near future.

Since I made a video tutorial to accompany by Friday Mashup page, why not start there?  There was a sketch to start with, so I add some sketch elements to my page first.  I'm pretty literal; I add the sketch to the background and start adding punches (Labels Collection 2, flag, circle) directly over the sketch.

From there I pick some patterned papers and draw my color combo from the papers.  I knew I wanted the Spring Fever kit, so I just played with patterns until I found a combo I liked.  This could end up taking a loooong time.

• Delete the sketch from your workspace.
• Add Spring Fever paper to Labels Collection punch (hint: double-click the punch shape to be able to zoom in or out on the pattern in a pop-up window)
• Add Twitterpated paper to flag punch
• Add photo to circle punch
• Adjust the flag size to your liking.  Add a standard drop shadow and change the offset to x=2, y=2.  Copy and paste a second flag.  Angle the flags at 7 and -7 degrees.

• Add Textured Whisper White card stock to the background.
• Add honeycomb stamp from Lemonade Stand kit, Basic Gray, opacity 20%, and send to back.  I had also added a drop shadow, offset x=2, y=2, to make the pattern stand out a little more.
• Add Spring Fever borders and layer behind the Label Collection punch.  Drop shadow offset x=2, y=3.
• Add little bunny and chick graphics.  I had mirrored the chick.  No drop shadow.

 

• Add Very Vanilla designer rosette, recolored Basic Black.  Add drop shadow at opacity ~52%, blur medium, offset x=1, y=1.  (hint: use the align button on top tool bar for quick centering)
• Copy and paste Twitterpated flag punches, resize, and fill with striped Spring Fever paper. (hint: use align button)
• Add "fishtailed" Certainly Celery satin ribbon following the video tutorial below.
• Add a text box.  I actually used a couple text boxes to get the spacing right.  Font: Bodoni MT Conde, Beautiful ES.
  

• Now some tweaking.  I added a white mat to my circular photo, drop shadow offset x=2, y=2, and adjusted the size.
• The Labels background was a bit bright for me.  I changed the opacity to 80%.
• Copy and paste in place the Labels Collection punch.  Edit to 100% opacity, fill with Whisper White color, add Basic Gray mat, size=1.  Add a drop shadow opacity 35%, blur medium, offset x=1, y=1.  Send the white punch behind the Labels punch filled with Spring Fever paper.

Let me know if this tutorial was helpful.  If I get good feedback, I may be brave enough to try it again.  :)

Here is the video for the custom punch trick and filling a custom punch with an embellishment.  If you prefer photos, I have a few on my previous post.  First edited video ever... be gentle, please!  :)

Make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel.  I'll be creating more videos very soon.  Thanks for stopping by!