I'm All Ears!

Just a fun card, playing along with Virtual Stamp Night on Splitcoaststampers this past weekend.

Quick and easy!

I used this week's CAS(E) this Sketch challenge.

Stamps: Perfectly Preserved; Paper: Early Espresso, White, Orchard Harvest DSP; Ink: Lucky Limeade, Crushed Curry marker; Accessories: Perfect Polka Dots EF, Cannery Set framelits, Adorning Accents edgelits, Big Shot, Sentiment via MDS, Dimensionals.

And it is our biking friend's birthday today... so while the stamps and framelits were out, both hubby and Little Missy got busy working on making some surprises for him.  Hubby made pumpkin bread and attached a cow bell, perfect supplies for any crispy cyclocross day!

Missy loves to make pop-up cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

FM84 Splash of Color

Today Holly has given us a fun challenge on the Friday Mashup.

Photo Source

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge:

1. Make a project with "Dry Embossing".
2. Or Make a project using the colors " Daffodil Delight, Basic Grey & Basic Black".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a project with "Dry Embossing & The Color Combo".

I combined this challenge with a card for Hope You Can Cling To challenge on Splitcoaststampers, Beate's challenge called Rays of Hope.

I used clean&simple layout #213.

Stamps: French Foliage; Paper: Basic Gray, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP; Ink: Summer Starfruit, More Mustard, Soft Suede, Basic Black; Accessories: White baker's twine, Sponges, Perfect Polka Dots EF, Circles #2 die, Perfect Pennants die, Big Shot, Dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by!

Elegant Ornament

Today I'm going to share another stamp club project we made this week.  Although embossing in silver or gold is a great way to add elegance to your holiday cards, there is an easier way... go with browns.  Stamping with Soft Suede or Early Espresso ink, coordinating with matching paper, and using a clean background will give your cards a classic vintage elegance.

Stamping three ornaments, folding in half, and gluing together gives the image great dimension.  The top half of the background is embossed with the Stripes embossing folder, and I added tulle for extra interest and touch-ability.  Stampin' Up no longer carries gold cording, so I picked mine up at a local craft store.

And here is the inside.

Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, Greetings of the Season; Paper: Early Espresso, Whisper White, Candlelight Christmas DSP; Ink: Early Espresso; Accessories: Early Espresso scalloped tulle, Gold cording, Stripes EF, Big Shot.

Thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Mittens

This week is stamp club week, that is, crazy week!  I don't know why hosting 17 ladies in my home over a couple days is so taxing?!  This club session we're playing with Holiday mini supplies to make Thanksgiving and Christmas cards.  I'm a sucker for cozy mittens, so the coordinating mitten stamp set and punch are perfect!

I used a blast-from-the-past Freshly Made Sketch #21.

I love the feel of the sweater trim... must - get - more!  Here we punched one mitten and hand-cut the other.

Stamps: Make A Mitten; Paper: Gumball Green, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Snow Festival DSP; Cherry Cobbler, Gumball Green, Whisper White craft; Accessories: Gumball Green sweater trim, Lucky Limeade baker's twine, Builder Mitten punch, Sponge dauber, Northern Flurry EF, Circle #2 die, Perfect Pennants die, Big Shot, Dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by!

Countdown to Christmas: Advent Calendar

7 weeks to go...  Remember the candy wrappers I showed during this past weekend's MDS2 blog hop made with the hostess disc Eventful Year and this FREE download Days in December kit?

I had combined the candy wrapper template from Eventful Year with the advent calendar template from Days in December to create little miniature Countdown to Christmas candy wrappers.  They are printed on copy paper for easy wrapping.  
 

They're cute, but I don't think you get the real advent calendar feel.  So I mounted the candies on card stock. 

Now that's a countdown!  :)  Little Missy will start at the bottom and work her way up to the star.  She's all ready for December way before Thanksgiving!  *eye-roll*

I know you're going to ask... I hand-drew and hand-cut the tree.  Didn't come out bad, if I say so.

Paper: Summer Starfruit, Always Artichoke, Early Espresso; Accessories: My Digital Studio 2, Days in December download, Eventful Year hostess disc, Stars #2 die, Big Shot.

Don't forget, today's the last day for FREE downloads and 50% off all digital kits!  Go... NOW!  :)  No, really, MDS2 is a bunch of fun.  Make sure you give it a try!

How about a little Scrappy Monday?  This past Saturday was Digital Scrapbooking Day.  I was sick in bed, so what better way to pass the time than digi-scrapping to some challenges on Splitcoaststampers?  3Fries asked for a CAS layout, one photo, minimum punches and stamps, and some twitter lingo.  I'm not a tweeter, but what the heck.

I used Sketchy Thursday's November 2011 Guest DT sketch.  Little Missy had been hearing all the news and warnings for the upcoming storm, so this is how she prepared.  Luckily we came through without any damage, although we are feeling the residual effects of gas shortages in our area.  DH also invited a colleague to stay with us, as he was without power for days.

MDS Elements: Stamps: French Foliage, A Split Second; Papers: Very Vanilla Textured, Beau Chateau DSP; Color Palette: Marina Mist, Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla; Accessories: Flag punch, Simple Stitches; Font: Arial, CK Alis Handwriting.

Another page is a combination of a Thursday Music & Lyrics Challenge and Scrapbook Sketch Challenge.

MDS Elements: Stamps: A Split Second; Papers: Pumpkin Pie Textured, Basic Gray Textured, Very Vanilla Textured, A Split Second DSP, A Day in the Life DSP, Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP; Color Palette: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Gray, Very Vanilla; Accessories: Flag punch; Font: CK Alis Handwriting.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stampin' Addicts MDS2 Blog Hop

You may have heard, Stampin' Up is celebrating National Digital Scrapbooking Day all week with FREE digital downloads, 50% off all digital kits, designing contest, and more!  What a great opportunity to highlight some fabulous features of MDS2!

So, welcome to the Stampin' Addicts MDS2 Blog Hop! If you have been interested in learning more about digital scrapbooking and designing, this is the place to be!  You may have just come from Paula's blog featuring custom-sized projects.  Weren't her custom projects awesome?  Today I'm going to share some projects that involve converting templates or existing projects into new, different-sized projects.

There are so many adorable card templates in these kits, and I've wanted to use them to create a scrapbook page.  With the original MDS program, we would have had to either go through some complicated steps to convert the template to a different size or recreate the whole design.  But with MDS2, we can import a template into a different-sized project easily.  Here is the original card template I started with.

With your new (scrapbook) project open, use the path insert > add other template pages > choose the template and follow the wizard to insert your page.  MDS2 resizes the template for you.

A little bit of nudging of existing elements, adding some photo boxes, splashes from French Foliage stamp set, and baker's twine, and there you go.  An easy way to get a start on a scrapbook page!  Notice the baker's twine bow; I used the MDS2 feature of cropping embellishments.  This page uses the Autumn Spice digital kit, which includes French Foliage, and is one of the kits on sale.

I feel like this next project was cheating, because it was just too easy!  I copied the cover of March's Stampin' Success magazine a while back as a backdrop for my monthly newsletter, using the kit New Heights (also on sale).  I thought it would look great converted from 8-1/2 x 11" page into a greeting card.

There is a training video on mydigitalstudio.net called Project Size Conversion that shows how to do this, but in a nutshell, while your original project is open, click edit > change project size/type from the top tool bar.  The program will step you through creating a new file and build the pages for you!  The sentiment is from the set Loving Thoughts.

My next project illustrates some other fun and helpful features of MDS2.  I fell in love with the Christmas Village stamp brush set when Stampin' Up released it last year, but I was a little bummed that is was so difficult to color the buildings in MDS.  MDS2 to the rescue!  With a combination of stamp image coloring (color stamp image more than one color) and the freeform brush tool (allows you to freeform color a box with different colors which will sit as a layer beneath the stamp image), I was able to color a whole village scene.

Wouldn't this be a perfect holiday card?  In addition to the Christmas Village stamp brush set, I used embellishments from Home for the Holidays ensemble.

Finally, I had wanted to create a 3-D project with one of the free downloads Stampin' Up is offering this week.  This one uses the Days in December kit, along with the hostess disc Eventful Year.  

I combined the candy wrapper template from Eventful Year with the advent calendar template from Days in December to create little miniature Countdown to Christmas candy wrappers.  I had another idea for these candies; come back next week to check it out!

Would you like to learn more?  Mydigitalstudio.net has information on the MDS2 software, including what content comes with the program, and a 30-day FREE trial.  The website also has extensive training videos with all the wonderful features of the software.  I encourage you to take some time to play with this fun program!

If you aren't yet a member of Stampin' Addicts, you can sign up here. Make sure you check out the next stop to see what Tanya put together using the calendar effects. She has some great ideas!
 

 

The complete blog hop listing:

1) Yapha -- Design in Spreads
2) Paula (scrapshappen) -- Custom Sizes
3) Heidi (hlw966) -- Project Size Conversion with Importing Templates of Other Sizes
4) Tanya (Tanya27) -- Calendar Effects
5) Adriana (escape2stamp) -- Mirror Text

Thanks for stopping by!

FM83 Christmas Window Scene

Today you are getting a sneak peek at tomorrow's Friday Mashup challenge, because tomorrow I'll be participating in the Stampin' Addicts My Digital Studio 2 blog hop, highlighting the new features of MDS2.  Make sure you come back for that!  So on the Friday Mashup, it is Amy's turn to challenge us with a sketch and rosettes.

So here is the "Mashup" Challenge:

1. Make a project with the "Sketch".
2. Or Make a project using "Rosettes".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a project using the "Sketch and Rosettes".

I went a little off on my own with the layout, as I thought it looked like a window scene.  How to incorporate a rosette?  Ah, how about a Christmas wreath?

Two Christmas posts in one week?  What the heck?  You can go crazy decking out the snow people in the Stylin' Snowfolk set, but I kept it simple.  I sponged the snow drifts and snowman lightly with Wisteria Wonder ink.

I used Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details to create little holly blobs on the wreath.

Stamps: Styin' Snowfolk, Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper: Bashful Blue, Always Artichoke, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Whisper White; Ink: So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, Real Red, Wisteria Wonder, Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Chocolate Chip marker; Accessories: Real Red taffeta ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds, Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, Circle punches, Sponges, Texture Plates Kit #4, Big Shot, Post-It notes, Two-way glue pen.

Thanks for stopping by!