Well, this is it.  My last post with products from the Stampin' Up! 2010 Summer Mini Catalog.  It's been a great mini catalog from which to shop! 

     Today, something different to end it all – scrapbooks!

     Earlier this summer, when my husband became ill and was in a hospital far from our home for over a month, I made a small scrapbook with photos of his garden, his pets, and his Bridge Club friends.  He truly did enjoy having this small scale album with him to show off to visitors, not to mention the nurses and other staff!  The album, of course, was from the Summer Mini Catalog.  It holds 6" x 6" scrapbook pages, and has an Old Olive Polka Dot Designer Cover.  The papers that I used for the album from the Island Oasis Set coordinated perfectly with it.  (Oooh – think Christmas Colors for this Album, too!)  The other album in this photo is another album for 6" x 6" pages, and its cover is a Bashful Blue Herringbone.  The papers that I used for this album were from the coordinating paper set, Travel Journal.  For pictures of both sets of papers, just go back a few posts on this blog.  They're wonderful to work with in scrapbooks!

     While there are 6" x 6" scrapbooks in the 2010 "Big" Catalog, none of them has a designer cover – they have a Natural Linen cover and are quite a bit more expensive than these lovely albums.  So you might want to consider stocking up!

     You might well ask if there are going to be albums in the 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog.  Indeed, there are.  But both of them are for 8" x 8" scrap pages.  A nice size and I'll definitely be buying – and using! – them.  But for efficiency in the use of Designer Series Paper, you can get 4 pages out of one sheet for a 6" square album, while the 8" square allows you no more than if you were making a 12" square album – one!

     Here is a full description of the albums.  You have only until just before midnight Mountain Daylight Time tonight to order them!  I'll be glad to place the order for you if you'd like to call me (808.854.6145).  Or you can go directly to my website and place the order there!

     Tomorrow:  Welcome the 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog with another of the Diva Coffee Break Team's color challenges!

     What would summer be without travel?  Of course, it would still be summer.  But if you have kids, there just isn't anything better than a road trip!  OK, I know that there are those of you who might have had some, well, disasters doing this.  But by and large, it's a great time for everyone. 

     And what would Stampin' Up!'s Summer Mini Catalog be without something related to travel or vacations.  I think that they outdid themselves this year, with the Travel Journal Designer Series Paper and the coordinating Stamp Set, Sentimental Journey. 

     Our daughter and her family took a road trip this summer from their home in North Carolina to our family's cabin on a lake in northern Minnesota.  What a trip they had – and grandma will be making a scrapbook of that trip for sure!  We'll be visiting later them later this year and everyone will get involved in putting the pictures in the scrapbook.  What fun!  I think I will have to take several packs of this paper with me!

     BUT – I'll have to buy it soon!  Because this paper set and the stamp set will disappear from Stampin' Up!'s repertoire on Tuesday, August 31st!!

     All kinds of travel are covered in both the papers and the stamp set – planes, cars, boats – and the colors are perfect for whatever activities and scenery you found to photograph while YOU were traveling this summer!   Here are pictures of the products that you can buy, but only until August 31st!

     Oh, and just like yesterday, a bit of a sneak peek at some 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog products!  Yup, there's that Decorative Label punch again!  What you probably can't tell at this small a resolution is that this scrap page is 8" x 8"!  That's new for Stampin' Up! AND there are two brand new albums in the Holiday Mini from which you can choose!  I can hardly wait to get mine!

     At this point, my husband is feeling quite well, thank you, and his surgeon has asked that he get out a bit if he can.  This is all while we are awaiting a date for the surgery.  It's going to be quite extensive, and requires the operating room to be reserved for a full day.  But with all the drugs the medical types are pumping into Harry, he really is able to get out a bit.  So out we've been getting him.

     One trip has been to the Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu.  This is a great trip because Harry really misses his garden at home, and he can look at some plants that are similar to what he has at home.  Great for him and for us. 

     Meanwhile, Harry shows off the album I made for him that features his very own garden.  Last week I shared the pages featuring our pets, and today I'll start showing off some of the garden pages.  The overall colors throughout the scrapbook (pet pages not withstanding) are Garden Green/Certainly Celery and Pumpkin Pie/So Saffron.  The scrapping technique for today's two-page spread is one that I use a lot with the small (6" x 6") page spreads:  I take a whole bunch of photos and make them into a collage and print that as a larger photo on one page.  Then, on the facing page, I feature 2 or 3 individual pictures of the objects in question.  Here I'm featuring the tropical rhododendrons, or Vireyas, that are current blooming in our garden.  The photo at the left shows how you can get 11 nice pictures on one small page!

     The paper for this page is from the Designer Series Paper, Flocked Together.  I really wish I had "found" this set earlier!  This coming year I'll pay better attention to ALL the designer series paper sets so I don't miss anything.  The stamp sets featured on this page – as well as on the right side page – are Paradise and Tropical Party.  I originally thought this would be too busy, but I really like the effect when it's all put together in the scrapbook.  You can see that I matted the photo with So Saffron and Garden Green.  I didn't mat most of the photos in this album because of my time constraints.  But sometimes, I just had to get out the card stock and the paper cutter and mat away!

     On the right, I used a page from the Designer Series Paper Jackpot. Now, because my dear husband runs the local ACBL bridge club in Hilo, Hawaii, I already had a big stash of this Designer Series Paper.  And I'll be keeping it for Bridge Club use even after it retires.  But I digress.  The fact is that this paper is NOT just for cards and games.  Look at that lovely diamond pattern in So Saffron!  OK, it's Diamonds as in Hearts, Spades and Clubs.  But it's also diamonds as in a cool pattern!

     As the new papers come out I promise that I'll be much better at looking at them ALL to make sure that neither I nor you just discount a set because the paper that the catalog features just doesn't appeal.

     ALERT!  These Designer Series Paper sets are going to retire July 1st!  They are absolutely perfect for scrapbooking and, if you're a scrapbooker as I am, you might just want to stock up a bit before they're gone for good.

     I only have computer time late at night as the rest of the time I'm spending with my husband.  But I really hope to be back here with some analysis of the Stampin' Up! retired products lists and some suggestions for what you might want to snap up before it goes away.  Meanwhile, please keep my dear husband in your thoughts and prayers!

     Last week I posted a scrap page featuring our lovely black cat, Cholla.  I had it lying out on a table, and our house sitter noticed it and asked why I hadn't done something about our dog, Hoku.  With all that's going on in our lives right now, creating a scrap page featuring the dog just wasn't anywhere on my priority list.

     First, a brief aside about what's going on (and why I have a house sitter).  My husband, Harry, has become very ill, and is a hospital on the island of O'ahu.  We don't live on O'ahu, and that's made life somewhat difficult.  Right now I'm back on our island – the Big Island of Hawaii – and crafting just wasn't in the picture when I returned home a few days ago.  I had to get some business taken care of and pack for both me and my husband for a prolonged stay away from home. 

     As I spent some time talking with Harry on the phone the first few days I was back, it became apparent that he really missed his daily walks in his garden.  And he'd asked me to pet the dog and scritch the cat for him a couple of times.  I first thought that I'd go around the yard and take some pictures so he could see what was growing at the moment and maybe take some pictures of the pets.  Pictures.  Aha!  Pictures go in a scrapbook, don't they?!  And so I decided that I'd make him a scrapbook to have with him while he's awaiting surgery, which may not happen until next week.

     This has given me the opportunity to use my craft room which I so thoroughly cleaned out last week (no, I didn't know I'd be gone for so long!) AND to focus on scrapbooking during National Scrapbooking month.  The scrapbook was of the quick 6 x 6 kind, but I had fun as I did each 2-page spread thinking about the techniques I was using, and how I could share them with you.  So, over the next few weeks, I'll be doing just that – sharing my scrapbook pages with you, of course with my thoughts about quick and easy techniques.  The bottom line in all of this is that you should approach a scrapbooking project with the idea of having fun doing it.  I've seen too many people struggle and freeze up when faced with a pile of photographs and a room full of paper and embellishments.  That's OK if you're entering a contest.  But, if you're like me and most scrapbookers, you just want to have a memory book that's fun to look at as time goes on.  It's just not scary!

     OK – so here's the first page to show off (though not the first page in the book).  Of course, Harry misses his pets, and I did, indeed, have to make a page featuring Hoku the Dog, to go along with Cholla's page.  The stamp set that I used for this page is D Is For Dog.  Did you think I had C Is For Cat and not the dog's stamp set, too?  Not hardly if I wanted to keep peace among the pets.  Here's another copy of Cholla's page so you can see how these two pages go well together as a 2-page spread.

     I had already made Cholla's page with the Melon Mambo, and somehow the pink wasn't going to work for Hoku the Dog.  He's just not a pink person.  But, even with the Soft Suede (an In Color that's going to be continuing as a standard color in the next Stampin' Up! Catalog!), I could tie the two pages together with lots of different techniques. 

• I scored the card stock in the same pattern to texturize it.
• I stamped and cut out the bones from the D is for Dog set to match the fish from the C is for Cat set.
• I used Crushed Curry (sniff, going away) as the photo mats
• I used a square rhinestone brad for the dog's collar to go with the round one I used for the cat's
• I used 1/2" Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon on both pages.

     The pictures are not the same size and the colors are not the same.  But the two pages work just fine together!

     I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post while I'm away from home.  But the photos are all ready to show off.  I just need to find some time for myself to write them up!

     Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and I hope to be back in my craft room before long.

     My Craft Room is finally back in order – and all my paper slots are labeled with the new colors that will be coming out very soon.  Retiring stuff is all packed up for my Summer Open House, and there are empty boxes ready for all those retiring stamp sets to be added to the stash.

     And now I can craft!  I understood going into my cleaning project that things were out of hand.  But I didn't realize how MUCH out of hand until I started coming across all these old copies of the demonstrator magazine, "Stampin' Success."  Last evening, I started paging through some of them, and came across an idea for a card in the May 2009 issue that used the stamp set, D is For Dog.  Ah ha!  I have been wanting to use one of the quotations from the new stamp set, Favorite Thoughts, with the set, C is for Cat.  And now I had a wonderfully clean craft room and the time to make it!  Do you see all those exclamation points.  I know I'm an exclamation point queen, but I really, really do feel elated that this project is done!

     Anyway, I woke up this morning and looked at the card and thought, "Hmmm.  It's cute, but who do I send it to?  What's the occasion?"  OK, back to the drawing board (all cleaned off, I might add!).  And the 6" x 6" scrap page was created.  Cholla (cho-ya) the Cat is, indeed, the Queen of our household, and she is treated thusly.

     Both projects use Melon Mambo card stock and ink (this is a color that Stampin' Up! is keeping) and the accent color is Crushed Curry (yes, I had to go dig the card stock and ribbon out of one of the packed boxes, but all is nicely put away again).  The little gold fish were stamped onto Crushed Curry with a stamp from C is For Cat, trimmed and then turned over to show just the card stock.

     The technique that I picked up from the magazine was to texturize your card stock with some simple, straight-line scoring.  The card shows one side of the scored paper and the scrap page shows the other.  I think that both look equally good; it's really just a matter of personal preference and the project involved. 

     The card layout here isn't anything really special.  But I encourage you to work with your scoring tool (I used Stampin' Up!'s Fiskars cutter with the scoring blade) to make some designs with whatever card stock you have. 

     Have fun crafting.  I'm going to be doing the same now that I can find everything!

When I said "accordion album" to three different people, they each described a different album to me – and I’ve made all three!  Today’s album is sometimes called an "explosion album."  Explosion albums can be large or small, and today’s is a very small album that I will demonstrate to a group of Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) later this month.  They each will have a kit of papers from the Patterns Pack III which is currently a Level 1 Hostess Set, along with some coordinating ribbons and punched card stock for decorations.  I’m going to encourage them to mix and match their kits if they’d like – more fun for everyone! 

But they have to have a sample so they can see the possibilities for this easy little album, and here’s what I’ve prepared.  I have my brand new pack of Tea Party Designer Series Paper and I’m having a blast with it already.  I’d used up most of the first couple of packs that I bought when it first came out, and now that it’s Spring, I need MORE!

Above is the cover of the album, made with light cardboard (the stuff that comes with those packs of wonderful Designer Series Paper!) covered with some of the Tea Party papers.  I punched a Scallop Circle topped with a circle punched with the 1-3/8" Circle Punch, all sealed together with one of the Pretty in Pink Corduroy Buttons featured in the current 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog.  The ribbon I used is a So Saffron Ribbon from the ribbon set Elementary.

Now for the inside of the album.  I made this one with three squares of 6" paper, and it holds 4 square photographs inside.  I decorated the triangles formed by the diagonal folds with punched imaged using the Boho Blossoms Punch and the Heart to Heart Punch, using So Saffron, Bashful Blue and Pretty In Pink Card Stock.  I cut the photos at 2-3/4" square, and the So Saffron Mats at 2-7/8" square.  

I also put two photographs on the outside of the album – after all, there are two blank square pages there – why waste them!?  Here’s the outside of the album.

Note that I "captured" the ribbon on the back cover of the album under a Pretty in Pink Scallop Circle Punch image, layered with a So Saffron Boho Blossom Punch image.  I actually used transparent ("Scotch") tape to anchor the ribbon, then I used Sticky Strip to adhere the Scallop Circle elements to make sure that the ribbon was safely in place.  Oh, and that tape was covered nicely by the punched elements, thank you!

Of course, I have one of my "One-Page Tutorials" for this project!  Click here for the latest version – updated from years ago when I first made this project.

Have fun with this – and, of course, if you need any of these fabulous papers, ribbons, punches or card stock, you know where you can order 24/7!  Right here!!!

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!

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!

I have been waiting all summer to be able to use My Digital Studio to create a very special album to commemorate our family’s time at Bear Lake, Minnesota, this summer.  Now I’ve finished the album, and it’s ready to be sent off to be printed (not quite yet as Stampin’ Up!’s printing service is not quite ready to take orders yet!)

This will be the cover of the album.  There’s not much in the way of embellishments, but the alphabet is one that comes with MDS. 

The photograph is a very unusual photo of SEVEN loons swimming in formation near our dock.  We couldn’t believe that many were swimming peacefully.  Unfortunately, the only camera at the ready was a lower resolution camera.  But we’re happy to have the photo anyway.

As the week goes on, I’ll share some of the pages from the scrapbook with you.  As I don’t have the opportunity to get photo releases from most of the people in the album, most of what I show will be scenic pages.  Not bad, though!

As promised, here is the right page that goes with the left page in the scrapbook layout I introduced  yesterday.  This is my grandson, Quin, who had a blast at the Oregon Zoo.  I wanted him to stand in front of the Black Bear because it had the ruler markings.  But Quin wanted to stand in front of the Sun Bear, because they’re the same size.  Of course, both photos turned out well enough to make the scrapbook.

Again, I used the Circle Scissors Plus, and this time I double-matted the photo with Chocolate Chip and Baja Breeze Card Stock.  In this case, the bear was real, though thankfully behind glass.  And that cute, cute Bear from the stamp set, Under the Stars, adds even more fun to this page.

Now I have to go get packing for yet another trip across the ocean.  Come to think of it, my destination fits right in with this theme:  It’s a place called Bear Lake in Northern Minnesota.  Hmmm, think I’ll get to use this stamp set there??  Believe me, it’s packed.

In fact, I’m packing lots of my Stampin’ Up! supplies just in case of rainy days.  Our little granddaughters will be there, and grandma is going to try to get them hooked on stamping at a very young age!   Yes, you call me a "pusher"