Sweet Scoops Birthday Invitation

Here's another My Digital Studio birthday party invitation. This one was not created for an actual party; it was created simply as a sample for my blog and to show my customers. I thought it looked kind of whimsical and could also be used for an ice cream social invitation. Makes me want some ice cream, but it's a little too early for that. Thanks for visiting!

The 2012 Holiday Mini is Here!

The 2012 Holiday Catalog is available today and I'm so excited about some of the fabulous new products that are in it! I think my favorites are the new stamp sets with matching Framelits dies and the stamp sets with coordinating punches, but there are also some great new trims, fabrics, papers, and so much more! I can't wait to get started on my holiday projects and I know that you'll feel the same way once you've seen what's inside this catalog. It's chock full of ideas and inspiration. I have some more My Digital Studio projects to post, but then I'll be back with some projects using these fun new tools and accessories. Thanks for visiting!

My Digital Studio Invitation for a Special Event

I've been playing around with My Digital Studio quite a bit, making invitations, announcements, party favors, and other projects. I'm really enjoying it!
Last month, my family had a very special celebration when my grandmother turned 90. My mom hosted a surprise party/family reunion and asked me to design the invitations. I have always loved this photograph of my grandmother, so I knew that the invitation would have to include the photo. I designed the invitations using My Digital Studio and they were sized to fit into a business-size envelope. I'm not really sure why I chose the color combo that I used, but I like the end result. Watch for more My Digital Studio projects soon. Thanks for visiting!

No, I didn't disappear...

Life just kind of got in the way this past year. You know how that goes right? I can't believe that it's been a little over a year since my last blog post. I'm so sorry! I know that it's pretty pathetic, but I really have had some good reasons. We have had so much going on in our house during the past 12 months or so, the biggest of which was helping our oldest look at colleges. While I'm glad that the college search process is over, I have to say that it was a fun experience. We got to visit some great places, some of which we'd never seen and some we hadn't visited for a long time. Anyway, once I got busy with college visits, helping to edit essays, and all of the other things that go along with having a child in the process of applying to school, it was difficult to get back into other things (like blogging). I have truly missed it though and I have some fun projects that I will begin posting in the next few days, as well as updating the links for the catalogs and specials (oh my gosh, I'm so bad!), so look for more posts soon. Thanks for visiting!

It's Here!

If you haven't heard already, the 2011~2012 Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog is here and it's jam-packed with lots of great new products! With over 130 pages, there's something for everyone! I've been through mine cover-to-cover several times and I have a pretty big wish list (yeah, that didn't take long). I haven't placed my first order yet, but I can guarantee you that it won't be long before I do. The way I see it, I can wait a little bit. With Monday being a holiday, things won't even begin to ship until Tuesday anyway, so I figure there's no rush. I'm taking a couple of days to make sure that I get just what I want when I order. You can order a copy of the 2o11~2012 Idea Book & Catalog by visiting my online store. Thanks for visiting!

Stepping Outside the Zone...

...my comfort zone that is. I'm still relatively new to this whole "digital thing" but I'm getting better at it. It's not that I haven't wanted to do any digital projects, it's just that I wasn't sure where to begin, and I truly have not had a great deal of extra time to play around with my My Digital Studio. After making the Tri-Shutter baby album in my last post, and some scrapbook pages (which I will post later) I started to really have fun with it, and now I'm "hooked" on it. I made this card in a matter of a few minutes, and it is completely digital. I have realized however, that I don't own enough My Digital Studio downloads, so I need to go shopping. I went through the My Digital Studio Catalog and created a pretty big wish list. Now I just need to prioritize, which could be a difficult task. :o) OK, back to creating! Thanks for visiting!

Tri-Shutter Baby Album

OK, so I still haven't been so great about posting lately, but I hope today's project will make up for it. And really, I HAVE been very busy! The project that I am sharing today is for an upcoming class. This album was inspired by one that I saw ages ago on Andrea Walford's website. I actually went to work months ago trying to figure out how to make one of these, but things got busy and I put it aside. I went back to work on it last month, and this is my completed project. What do you think? Only a portion of the album is shown in these photos; in reality, it has five photos, and opens to almost 35 inches! All of the elements in this album, including the cover design, were created using My Digital Studio. It took me a while to size them just right so that I could use my punches with them, rather than cut them all by hand (ugh! ~ I don't mind cutting, but cutting these would have been lots of work). When using My Digital Studio, any punch image that is added to a project will be the same size as the actual punch when the project is printed, but any stamp image will be larger than the size of the actual stamp. For one of the images, I used the large star stamp image from the Nursery Necessities Stamp Brush Set, and I wanted to punch the images using my Star Extra Large Punch once I printed them. I found that in order to size the images so that they would be the size that I wanted, I had to first place the punch image on my digital project page, noting the size of the image. Once that was done, I added the stamp brush image, then re-sized it making it 1/8" smaller than the size of the punch image. I then layered the stamp brush image over the punch image, centering it inside the punch image. Are you still with me? After that, I made the fill color for the punch white so that it would not be seen when it was printed. I printed the images, punched them with my punches, and had the perfect embellishments for my album! As I said, it took me a while, but I think it was worth it. I'm so happy with the end result. Well, I guess that's all for now (I think it's enough). I have some new scrapbook pages that I created with My Digital Studio that I will be sharing over the next few days, so be sure to check back for those! Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: None
Ink: None
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, & Whisper White Cardstock, Subtles Patterns DSP Stack
Accessories: 5/8" Certainly Celery Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Sticky Strip, Star XL, Small Star (retired), Designer Label Large, Decorative Label XL, & 2"x1-3/8" Oval XL Punches, My Digital Studio Software