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I Finally Made a Calendar – With My Digital Studio!

Aloha, all!

I finally made a calendar using My Digital Studio from Stampin’ Up!  I am so pleased with the result, and have sent it off to be printed by Stampin’ Up!’s printing service.  I love that I can put a photograph behind the grid page, and change the font styles and colors wherever I want.  I especially liked that I could use the color picker and pick up a color from the flower that is the main picture on the calendar and make that the color for the text for the Month and Year.

Here’s a short (less than a minute) video that shows all the pages.  I can hardly wait to get the printed version.  (And I sincerely hope that I didn’t make any serious mistakes calendarwise!)

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My Own Take on My Own Challenge

Aloha, all!

Today I was a host of a "Chat and Challenge" on SUDSOL (a group for Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators).  OK–the Saturday after Thanksgiving, everyone’s stuffed and sick of shopping, right?  Wrong!  We just had a small group.  But what fun we had with my sketch!  It’s a bit different from the sketches I usually make or use.  But I just felt as if I had to do something a bit different.

Here’s the Challenge Sketch.  I’d been looking at some pinwheel cards, and this just popped into my mind.  Of course I made the sketch using My Digital Studio.  I didn’t have to waste a scrap of paper in the making of it!!

And here’s my own take on it as a greeting card.  I’m definitely back into my Green and Red phase of Christmas Cards.  But what struck me most was, as I looked at the photo I’d taken of my card, that I realized it looked just like a CD or DVD.  Now I have this idea in my head that I’m going to use a disk as the background for a card.  Hope I can get it out of my system before I ruin too many blank CDs!!

I used the stamp set, Four the Holidays, just inking up the word "Merry" in "Merry Christmas" in Versamark then applying Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder and heat embossing it on each rectangle.  The background papers are all from the Designer Series Paper set, Merry Moments.

The center piece is a Very Vanilla Jumbo Grommet, with Real Red 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon.

I made the circle of Designer Series Paper, with the Garden Green mat behind it, with the Circle Scissors Plus.  I’m really starting to get the hang of the Circle Scissors!  In another couple of months I’m going to be an expert and ready to start teaching others how to use it!!!  One of the problems I have here in East Hawaii is that paper is so often just so saturated with moisture that it’s hard to get a good clean cut.  So I try to find the time of day when things seem driest to go playing with it.  Had a good stretch of dry time when I made this!

Why don’t you try this sketch out for yourself!  I’ll send off some Designer Series Paper samples (four 4" x 5-1/4" pieces) to anyone who e-mails me a link to a card they’ve made with this layout!  Deadline for this "offer" is Saturday, December 5th.  Have fun!!!

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Our Rainforest Garden – Part II

Aloha, all!

Ah, the rain continues!  But with rain in Hawaii always comes rainbows, at least when the sun has a chance to peek through the clouds!

This photograph shows the view I have from my kitchen window.  A friend told me, upon seeing this picture, that she’d gladly wash dishes all day if she could see this view!  I have to tell you, that washing dishes all day gets old, even WITH this view.  It’s better just to stand there with a cup of coffee and drink in the beauty of my husband’s garden (yes, he’s definitely the gardener!)

As with yesterday’s photo, I framed this up a bit with My Digital Studio.  There are tons and tons of embellishments for scrapbooking pages (and cards, of course!).  But I really didn’t want to clutter this photograph up on a blog with too much of that.  By the first of December, I hope to have a complete 2010 Calendar to share with you that will show off more of what  My Digital Studio has to offer.  

Also as I said yesterday, I hope to have my webinars fully up and running by the first of the year.  I have several "guinea pigs" who are taking my webinar training now, and they’re helping me make sure that I’m going to have the best product possible once I start offering it to you.  I could use a few more "guinea pigs", though.  If you’re interested, please send me an e-mail and let me know.  We can set up a one-on-one session if there’s somethign you’d like to learn about My Digital Studio.  Or I could invite you to one of the group sessions that I’ll be hosting in December.  Just let me know!

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Our Rainforest Garden – Part I

Aloha, all!

I take most of the photographs of my cards and other projects out on our front lanai (or porch).  All year round, the New Guinea impatiens bloom gorgeously, and a few frequently seem to peek out from the sides of my cards.  Last week, in a Chat and Challenge session in which I participated (in a group called SUDSOL, which is a great group for Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators), one of the women asked if I could show off a photograph of more of the garden.  And I gladly shared this picture with the group.  Yes, we see several stalks of bananas from our lanai, though it looks right now as if all of them will become ripe at the same time.  Ladies and gentlemen, there is only so much banana bread that one can make in a single week!

Of course, I had to frame this up a bit with some images from My Digital Studio, with which I’ve been working a lot.  It is just the most wonderful toy for this computer junkie.  I just don’t know where to begin to show you what you can do with it!  But I’m working on it.  I’ve been practicing on my training webinars, and I should be ready to set up some classes right after the first of the year–when there will be more wonderful digital downloads to add to this great new product that Stampin’ Up! offers!

Tomorrow I’ll share a photograph of the garden as I look out the kitchen window towards the back of the house.  Then I’ll have to get back to making some more holiday cards!  The Holidays are HERE!!!

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Would You Like a Card from My Digital Studio?

Aloha, all! 

That’s not an idle question!  I have some lovely (if I say so myself) cards that I’ve made with My Digital Studio, and that have been printed by the Stampin’ Up! printing service.  I’d love to send you one if (1) you’re not already a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator; (2) you sign up for my Newsletter (and it’s a good one especially this holiday season!) and  (3) if you’d leave a comment right here on my blog before November 3, 2009.  Now that’s not too much to ask for a beautifully designed and printed card, is it?

This is one of the cards that I’ve had printed by Stampin’ Up!’s printing service.  I was going to send them all out, but I just have to keep one for myself (and no, this is not one of the cards I’ll send out–it will be something non-seasonal!)

Hope to hear from LOTS of you!!

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New Downloads for My Digital Studio

Aloha all, and especially those of you who have already purchased My Digital Studio!

Last week saw the very first new downloads for My Digital Studio.  There was so much in the original MDS package that I couldn’t imagine what Stampin’ Up! would come up with first.  Well, first on my list was the Halloween stamps and papers!  Now I know there are some of you who don’t pay any attention to Halloween.  But there are quite a few images in the stamp sets and patterns in the papers that I’m sure you’d love both sets.  Think of how you could use those lovely pumpkins for a fall garden scene!

But for now, my first Halloween Card with the new sets. This card is a 5" x 5" card.  Now, if you just had the rubber stamp sets, you wouldn’t be able to make this card, because the pumpkin stamps are too big.  BUT, in My Digital Studio, you can resize everything to your heart’s content (well, if you make things too much larger than the original, there may be some pixilation of the design–ask me if you want more information).  Everything in this card is downsized! 

The jack-o-lanterns, the grass and the greeting are from the new digital download, Pumpkin Patch.  The spider is from the older set, Eat, Drink and Be Scary (included in the original MDS), and the Designer Series Paper is the new digital set, Cast A Spell.  The card stock colors are Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, and Old Olive.

This really was a lot of fun to do!

Tomorrow, I’m back to paper and ink!  But I saw a great card done with some other new digital downloads that I’m dying to copy and share with you.  So you may see some more digital projects before long, too!

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My Digital Studio Cards and Webinars

Aloha, all!

Once again I participated in an online chat and challenge where it was just easier to sit at my computer to make my card–then I get to chat with everyone in the chat room!  Can’t beat that.

With this card I tried to make the white layer look textured.  I think I should have used something a bit larger than the little white circles.  But overall I like the idea of the texturizing.

As the month goes on, I’m planning to design some webinars about using My Digital Studio.  They will be overviews of the program as well as instructions in making specific projects.  This will be a new venture for me and I’m really looking forward to it!  If you’d like to be notified when I have a webinar available, please join my newsletter list.  The first few webinars will be free of charge while I make sure that I’m providing you and my customers what they need out of a webinar.  Once everything gets settled, then I may start charging for the webinars except for customers.  If you help me out by participating in a few of the original programs and providing critiques and input for how I might do things differently, you’ll definitely be part of the group that gets them at a very special price!

OK–off to enjoy what looks like it may be a sunny afternoon in East Hawaii!

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Taking a Break from “School”!

Aloha, all!

Where have I been?   In "school," that’s where!  I have almost totally engrossed myself in learning all that I can about My Digital Studio, the new Stampin’ Up! product that you’ll be able to order beginning less than a week from today!  Finally, on October 1st, you’ll be able to order your very own copy of this great digital paper crafting program. 

And I want to be here for you when you start using it to help you get off to a quick start with it.

In previous posts I shared some of the projects that I’ve made with MDS.  Today I’d like to share a few techniques that I’ve learned from my own practice with the program as well as from seeing the work that other Stampin’ Up! demonstrators have done.

I know it’s only September.  But, by the time you’ll be able to order My Digital Studio, it will be October, and I need to get those greeting cards done quickly.  And, yes, I send Halloween cards.  It’s one of those times when I can make silly projects and I’ll only offend those who are offended by Halloween in the first place.  (Of course, I definitely do not impose my Halloween cards on those who find Halloween offensive, for whatever reason.)

In this card, I made a "punch" pumpkin out of designer paper of my OWN design!  How can you do that, you may ask?  In MDS it’s easy.  Just superimpose two different digital papers (or the same paper set at different angles) and reduce the opacity of one or both so you can see through them.  Voila!  Here I have some Pumpkin Pie and Basic Black mixed together, with some stripes and polka dots.  And the little spider on the right is hanging on three of his wordy webs.  That’s done by placing the whole spider "stamp" on the card three times, lining them up nicely, then placing small squares of black "card stock" over the spider in the top two webs.  Super easy!

If you’re used to using any kind of digital imaging program, you’re already very experienced in this sort of digital TRICKery.  But it’s definitely a TREAT to do with this Stampin’ Up! digital papers and images.

Today, one of my neighbors who’s going to be moving to the mainland is coming over to play in the craft room.  Want to bet I’ll have her at my computer, too?  But for sure I’ll have something I’ve made with paper to show off tomorrow.

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Designer Kits in My Digital Studio

Aloha, all!

As I showed you yesterday, you can use My Digital Studio to make a scrapbook all of your own design.  I did most of the layouts myself, and picked embellishments, stamp sets and papers from all over the place in the program.

Today I’ll share a couple of pages that I made using one of the built-in Designer Kits, Sunny Day.  In these Designer Kits, there are entire pages all laid out for you.  All you have to do is find your photographs and click and drag them into the spaces designed to holdl them.  MDS resizes the photos for you automatically (it does this no matter how you lay out your scrapbook pages.)

What I scrapbooked this time was my trip back in May, where I visited my son and his family in Oregon, family and friends in Maryland, and a couple of side trips to different parts of Pennsylvania.  The first page is the page that will be on the cover of my book.  Stampin’ Up!’s printer will be offering books with leather covers, books with printed photo covers, and so much more!  You can even get individual pages printed, and then add your own 3-D embellishments to make a hybrid page!  This book, though, is just for printing.

Unfortunately, for today’s blog, I’m a bit limited in the pages I can show you because the pages contain photographs of lots of people with whom I enjoyed my trip, and I’m not going to bother them with requests to be able to post their pictures on the Internet.  But you’ll get the gist of what MDS can do. 

For one thing, I’m probably not someone who would put pink, green, orange and turquoise together on a scrapbook page.  It really takes a good designer to make that color combo work.  And Stampin’ Up! has some darned good designers, because I think this works just fine!

The page above is one that I made myself, but using only elements available in the Sunny Day Designer Kit.  I didn’t need permission from the azaleas and rhododendrons to show their photographs off!

Beginning today, I’m back in the craft room to make some cards for swaps.  Then I’ll be off for a couple of days while I go with my husband to Honolulu.  I hope to get some of those swap cards done to share before I leave!

Meanwhile, start thinking about all those scrapbooks that you’ve been putting off because you just don’t have the time.  When you get your own copy of My Digital Studio, you’ll get them done in NO time!

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“My Digital Studio” is Addictive!

Aloha, all!

Oh, my, where has the week gone!!!??  I’ll tell you–it went somewhere while I had my head buried up to my ears in My Digital Studio projects! 

What have I completed so far: 

• A 12" x 12" scrapbook about our summer at Bear Lake, Minnesota (mentioned that in my last post)
• An 8" x 8" scrapbook about our late and much loved dog, Cedro.
• An 8" x 8" scrapbook about my trip to the mainland last May.

The two 8" x 8" scrapbooks are very different.  Today I’ll share some of the pages about Cedro with you.  Remember that everything on these pages is either built into My Digital Studio, or is a photograph that I uploaded into the program.  Text is made with a built-in-text editor, but uses fonts that you already have on your computer.  There are no fonts included in MDS.  There are, however, "stamps" that are alphabets.  I used those in making the cover of the Bear Lake Scrapbook I shared in my last post.  The background color for this entire album is Kraft card stock, with a row of Whisper White stitching running along the bottom.

Most of the colors are standard Stampin’ Up! colors.  The embellishment colors for the page are Not Quite Navy and Pumpkin Pie.  One of the things that MDS lets you do is change the opacity of elements such as these, thus changing the color, as I did with all but the dark Not Quite Navy flower.

In the following page, I used the built-in color picker, and "picked" the two darker colors for the embellishments out of the outfit I was wearing in the upper left photo.  Way cool way to do this!

For the next page I used some of the winter-themed MDS stamp sets.  There are snow flakes in several different sets, and I was so glad to find something with which to use them (we don’t have much snow where I live in Hawaii!)

What fun it was to do this scrapbook!  I loved being able to choose from so many stamps, embellishments and colors!

Tomorrow I take a different tack.  I’ll be sharing with you some of the pages from a scrapbook I made using one of the built in Designer Kits that MDS offers.  Completely different look!

I am so excited about this product, and I’ll be working hard to get my MDS certification as soon as we’re able to try for it.  And then I’m looking forward to many of you buying this program and working to help you make the most amazing scrapbooks–in record time and with no mess in your craft room!

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