Getting ready with the green

With St. Patrick's Day coming I thought I would share some St. Patrick's posts from the past.  Here is my Irish Princess. 

This page uses bits and pieces from the "Lucky Framable Designer Template".  I really like these frameable subway art style downloads because they come as a completed project that you can just print out and pop into a frame, but they also come with all the separate stamps used to make up the template.   Best of all they are really inexpensive! Just $1.95.   There are versions for Halloween, July 4th, and Valentines Day too!  








Thanks for stopping by! 

Digital Deals

Hi all!  I saw that a fun download is part of the weekly deals this week and I wanted to be sure to point it out.  I just love that Stampin' Up! is doing "Weekly Deals" now and I have to say that there is just always something great.  It seems that each week there is a big shot item and a ribbon item, as well as a digital item on sale.  It's the digital items that get me usually, I love all things MDS.   And there is no tax and shipping so its really easy to just add the weekly digital kit to my basket, as well as the new downloads that also come out each Tuesday, to make basket and start creating right away.  Unfortunately, I usually already have the download featured because I probably bought it the moment it came out.   That is the case again this week, but I wanted to point it out to you anyway in case you were not aware that MDS was part of the weekly deals, and also because it is an older download so maybe you missed it.   This weeks digital deal is the Everything Easter kit, which has a cute 18 peice Easter set with adorable bunnies, as well as 9 Easter papers and 30 embellishments.  I have actually used this download several times and one of the best things in it is the basket template.  Here is a link to an older post were I used several items from this fun kit.

You get this template as a stamp, so you can print it out right onto your paper.  You can resize it too.   Fold it and add a handle and your done. 

You can also print out a version that already has a fun pattern.  These come already printed with dotted lines to score on.  Very simple. 

 Another fun thing included in the kit is a fun Postcard template.  I switched it up a bit by taking off the "You're invited" and adding the "Happy Easter"  I also added the Pool Party ribbon.  I love how easy it is to change up a pre-made template to make it your own.

Everything Easter #129363  $8.97 (normally $14.95) this week only.






Thanks for stopping by and be sure to click on my link to the past blog post using the Everything Easter kit. 

MDS Monday #56

Hi Everyone!
It's MDS Monday time again!  This week Joan has a card sketch for us.  I took the opportunity to make a cute Birthday invite for my daughter Jillian.  I used one of my favorite party downloads "Wonderland Party"   The colors are perfect for my girlie little girl and I love the doodle look to the frames.   The kit has two frame stamps, an oval and a rectangle, that are just so cute!  And I like the color combination too! 












Here is the back of the postcard. 

Here is the sketch!   Head on over to the MDS Monday challenge site and see what the rest of the team came up with.   Why not give it a try and come up with a fun card or page inspired by the sketch.  We would love to see what you come up with. 

Here is a look at the Wonderland Party Ensemble, aren't those papers cute?

Here are some of the stamps.

One of the included templates.  I love those circle steamers, they are one of the embellishments.  so fun! 









Thanks for stopping by! 

Faux Mixed Media

I loved the look of the mixed media projects that were shown at the Stampin' Up! convention last year.  They were so fun and I really wanted to make a version of my own.  I never did though :(  They required paint and canvas and I just never got around to getting those supplies and other projects always came first.  Well, the other day I was thinking about them again and as I am living through the very cold winter days, I did not want to go to the hobby store for paints or a canvas.  I decided to see what I could do in MDS.  
Once you look though this post, I hope you stick around to the end, because I want to show you how you can use this background template again and again with just a few changes.  If my kids quiet down, I hope to make a video :)
I started with a newsprint background.  There are several available in MDS.  This project uses Mixed Medley.  Next I looked for stamps that looked like a color wash.  I decided to go with Happy Watercolor.

I applied the two different stamps to the page several times each.  Next I enlarged them and rotated them and mirrored and flipped them so they looked different from each other, then i recolored them all Pool Party.   I then added the dot stamp, also from Happy Watercolor, to the center of the page. 
Next I looked through my stamp brush sets using the search feature. I put "Flower" into the search box and scrolled through until I found a doodle looking flower.

Next I added the stamps to the page, playing around with the sizes until I liked the way it looked.  I also searched for a heart outline, because I wanted it to anchor my daughters name.  I added the heart stamp, then reduced the opacity to 75%.

 

Nexted I played around with how to print it out.  I first printed my page out on Whisper White paper, which turned out really good.  I also tried printing it out on watercolor paper, which also worked nicely and gave my page some nice texture.  

But then, I was sort of afraid to add the color.   I really liked the way it looked and I didn't want to mess it up.  I decided to make it smaller so I could fit 4 on a page, to use as practice.  I exported the page to my photo folder.  Next I opened a new blank page and added 4 photo boxes, 4 x 4 each, and added the page I had created as if it were a photo.  

I printed this page out and started to color in the stamps with my aqua painters.  I intentionally painted the stamps in pretty fast because I wanted them to look really hand painted and whimsical.  

 Once I liked how it looked I did the same with my large page, and I had four smalled pieced that I thought would make really nice cards.   I then went back to my MDS program to make the text blocks.  I opened a new page and added text boxes, filling them in with various texts in several sizes because I wasn't sure exactly what would fit or how much to add.  I printed the page out and started to cut out the words so that they were all separate pieces. 

 Here are my finished cards. 

I mounted them onto 4 1/4 by 8 1/2 Pool Party cardstock, folded in half.  I only pictured three because I already sent one of the birthday cards to my friend Charlotte.  I hope she liked it :)  

Year in Review ~ Update

At the beginning of the year I mentioned that I was going to do a Year In Review book, trying to take a photo a day to sort of document what we've done.  We'll, its almost March and I have been doing a pretty good job keeping up with the photo a day! Of course I still have ten months to go, but its a start.  I thought I would share January with you, since its a finished month. 
I am using the "Year in Review" photo book templates.  This kit comes with a two page spread for each month.  I added duplicate pages and just switched around the stamps and added more photo boxes so that I had a page for each week and a photo box for each day.
Some events will get their own separate pages eventually.  This is just a review, and I plan to print it out as a bound book.  I usually print my pages separately and add them to page protectors.  I do this because i scrap events from all over the past decade or so, and in no particular order.   By printing separate pages I can add the pages into the book where they fit and not worry about scrapping in order. 
If you wanted to so something like this, don't let the fact that it's February stop you.  You probably have taken quite a few photos so far this year if you are looking at a digital scrapbooking blog. So even if you don't have a photo a day, you can still highlight the months.  Maybe do a two page spread for each month?  Whatever fits you.  There are no rules in scrapbooking because its your story, you can do it how ever you like!






check out that serious donut!  The store was calling it a cronut and that cream filling was heavenly!  I need to stay away from that for sure!!

Thanks for stopping by!  As always, contact me with any questions you may have!

MDS Monday #55

Hi everyone!  Its Monday at that means a new challenge at MDS Monday!  This week Cindy is hosting with a fun sketch using State or Province shapes and wooden elements on our page.   The Fifty Nifty kit contains punches and stamps for all 50 states.  You can fill the punch with some fun map paper or just use the stamped outline.  There is a version of Canadian Provinces as well for my Canadian friends.  These are fun for travel pages or to send a note to a loved one in a different state.  Here I used the Florida shape on my page about David's plane trip to Disney.  He was just so cute in the airport with his wheeled Nemo backpack.  He just loved being in the plane too, especially when we were in the clouds!  
Here is the sketch....

Here are some fun downloads for travel pages....

 Fifty Nifty Kit  #130059   $9.95

Providence Of Provinces Kit #131227   $7.95

Sent with Love kit # 132914  $ 9.95

Tickets and Tokens II kit # 125757  $ 7.95

Travel Journal kit # 121071  $9.95
















Head on over to the MDS Monday site and see what the rest of the design team has come up with. Then, show us your travel page!!

MDS Monday #54

Hi everyone!  It's MDS Monday time!  and this time I am actually posting on monday, unlike last week :)  This is a card for MDS Monday # 54!  Can you believe there have been 54 challenges so far?  If you are new to the MDS Monday challenges, you can go back and look at the past challenges and give them a try.  I think sketches and challenges are a great way to start a project.  This week Tara has a card sketch for us.  You can use the sketch to make a scrapbook page as well. This week we are trying to focus on using the Align feature in MDS.  This is really a feature I use all the time.  I use it to line up photo boxes or embellishments, just about anything.  In this case I wanted to be sure my pennants were evenly spaced and the same length.  Once I had them perfect, I clicked on the one at the far right and tilted it a bit.  There are quite a few video tutorials at MyDigitalStudio.net to help you get to know this great tool. 

Here is the sketch.  Now head on over to the MDS Monday site to see what the rest of the team has come up with.