Wednesday, February 29, 2012

White Wednesday - Congratulations Card

...and I'm back to blogging. It's been a while, I know. Lots has happened. Car accident, flu bug, dog surgery, I could go on and on but I'll spare you the details. Let's just say I am SO glad today is the last day of February.

And today is White Wednesday!
Do you know what I loved most about Stampin' Up!'s regional convention last week? It made me think of some older products and techniques that I had forgotten about! Like Dazzling Diamonds! There were quite a few swap cards I'd gotten that used it and made me fall in love with it all over again.

So this is it. The White Wednesday card slathered with Dazzling Diamonds (and a smidge of Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz). *love*
To order any of the products used, just click the links below! And don't forget - if you place an order of ANY amount through my online store today, I will send you this card as a "thank you!".

See you tomorrow and have a wonderful LEAP DAY! :)

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Stampin' Up!'s Columbus Regional Convention

Well, it's official. The nasty stomach flu bug has hit the VanDyne house. I think Audrey and I have slept more the past few days than we have in the month of February! But THANK GOODNESS it didn't hit last Saturday - because last Saturday the Holly Stamps team - AKA, the Funky Stampers (and some amazing guests!) hit the road and attended my first Regional Convention. Stampin' Up! sure knows how to show us a good time - there were swaps, demos, make n' takes, and so many sample ideas my head was spinning! I tried to take as many pictures as I could, but definitely didn't get all I could have. I was also SO excited to finally meet Shelli Gardner! (The founder of Stampin' Up! and standing in the center of us all) She was such a sweetheart and so inspiring!

We also added another demonstrator to the Holly Stamps team that day, welcome Betsy Adair! (third from right).

I think now would be the perfect time to express how much I love each of my team members. It's been such a pleasure to have each and every one of them become friends, I really am truly blessed to have them. THANK YOU, LADIES!

~ Holly

If you love stamping, crafting, cardmaking or scrapbooking I'd love for you to consider joining the Holly Stamps team! Don't think you have to live in Ohio to join the team, you don't! The team communicates online. At only $125 for the starter kit, check out the Sale-a-bration specials too! They're so good I wish I could join again! Seriously - a FREE pack of Designer Series Paper or a My Digital Studio download every month for the rest of 2012? It doesn't get any better than that!
If I can start feeling better tomorrow, I may have a card to share with you!
Have a fantastic Wednesday!

Friday, February 24, 2012

Baby MDS Blog Hop Page

Typically I wake up Friday morning and don't check my computer at all. Friday is my long day at work and it's usually CRAZY so I don't like to add to the craziness by checking my email. But THANKFULLY, I did this morning before work when I had about five minutes. And guess what I saw? A Facebook post by Miss Erica Shaw with a link to her MDS Blog Post for this morning.

WHAT?!?!??!?!
HOW DID I FORGET?????
Well, I've spent every spare minute this week getting card swaps ready for Stampin' Up!'s regional convention tomorrow in Columbus. That's how I forgot about my MDS blog post.

This is where My Digital Studio templates REALLY come in handy! I had FIVE MINUTES this morning to get a page made and a blog post finished. Impossible, right? Not with MDS templates! Here's the time break-down.

1. Start up MDS and begin a new MDS 12x12 document. Chose template without auto-fill. - Less that 1 minute
2. Pick out the Twitterpated template (that works SO well with baby girl photos!) - 20 seconds
3. Choose my photo directory and pop in my 4 photos - 40 seconds
4. Change the title - 30 seconds
DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

MDS Blog Hop - Sale-A-Bration CD's!

I love My Digital Studio Blog Hop Friday! I love being challenged differently each week, and this week was no different. I've been doing and posting lots of scrapbook pages created in My Digital Studio lately, so I wanted to try something other than a scrapbook page this week. So I went hybrid!

Our challenge was to create a project with Sale-A-Bration CD's. Now I've had these for a while and haven't really had a chance to use them. I was happy to have a reason to sit down and use them today!

First, I created the top note shape using a punch shape, then filled it in using my photos (see Heather's video on how to do this here). I added the background paper from the Everyday Enchantment digital content CD, then added a black border of 4 to it. I added a green heart with another black border of 1 then fit 4 of them on one 8-1/2 x 11 sheet that I printed out on Whisper White cardstock. When you are finished your sheet will look like the image to the right. -->

Cut them all out and leave a little bit of the background paper when you cut. Then punch a small hole with a Crop-A-Dile on each side of the top, and tie it with the Lucky Limeade Everyday Enchantment ribbon.

I *love* my big tree. It is on my dining room wall and I love decorating it lots of different ways. The key is to adhere everything on the wall with Sticky Tack. We use this stuff all the time at school and I love how I can hang things up then take them back down easily without having to worry about taking paint off the wall with it. :)

Products Used:





Be sure to check out the amazing projects from the other blog hoppers this week! I know I can't wait to see what they've come up with! :)

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Scrapbook Sunday - Valentine's Dance

Last night my husband and I went to the annual Valentine's dance at our church. I was asked to take photos for all of the couples attending. Now, I'm not big on getting in front of the camera and Chad is not a fan of getting his picture taken either. But, I had a little inspiration from my blog hop buddy, Joanna Bohanon to make a page with me in it for a change. So we did it. Got our pictures taken, and I actually scrapbooked them!

Of course, I used My Digital Studio and the Twitterpated kit that I absolutely LOVE! It's so perfect for Valentine pages.

I don't think I've announced it on the blog yet, but My Digital Studio now has a 30-day FREE TRIAL! I was waiting to mention it, because I wanted to let you all know about a new My Digital Studio club I'm starting in March. It will be the second Tuesday of each month for 6 months. There will be 6 members who will each be hostess for one month - $25 minimum order each month whether or not you are able to attend that night. I will have a television set up with MDS projected on it and will walk you through how to create 3 projects. A card, a scrapbook page, and a various project will be made each month and you will be given a CD at the end of each month with those projects on it for you to load into your MDS at home and pop in your own pictures and text. As of tonight I only have 4 of the spots remaining, so email me at holly@hollystamps.com if you are interested! If you plan to join the club, you may want to wait until March to download your free trial so that you will have the first month of the club with the FREE software!

To download the free 30-day trial of My Digital Studio, just click here!
I also may open up an identical digital club online for non-local folks if I have enough interest, so let me know if that's something you'd be interested in!



Pin It


Supplies Used:




Thursday, February 9, 2012

My Digital Studio Blog Hop - Templates!

Yay! It's My Digital Studio blog hop day! This week we were challenged to use a template.

I did a few sample projects for Stampin' Up!'s Leadership event this year, and got to create an album from a template. Usually I just create my own, but this one was so easy and simple to make! I created the whole album with the Delight in the Day template in an evening.

I love the colors, the elements, and everything this album kit has. Usually I'm the queen of changing things, but with this one I didn't need to change a thing! And easy? THIS is easy! Pop in your photos and your text, and that's all you need to do!
Thanks for following the blog hop this week, and be sure to check out all of the other fantastic MDS goodness by following the links below! :)


Pin It

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

White Wednesday - Crazy Embossing

Sometimes (OK, more than sometimes...) I get these ideas that pop into my head. Today's technique popped in there while I was watching "Tangled" with my girls. Now sometimes the ideas I have don't turn out anything close to how I imagined they would look. But tonight, well I was pleasantly surprised to find out it worked out so much better than I imagined it would!

First, find a stamp that has a lot of surface space and not a lot of detail. The Medallion stamp worked great for this, but I can imagine flowers, etc. too.

After you stamp your card with Versamark ink, lay it down in your embossing tray. Take your first color of embossing powder and pour it in spots, then without tapping the first color off add another color in the same way. Then do it again with another color. Fill in the other empty areas until you have the whole stamped image covered THEN tap off your powder. BEWARE - it will mix. And that's up to you what you want to do with it. You could save the mixed powder to use at a different time, or just pitch it. I'll save mine - you never know what it will look like on another project.

I have a friend with a Birthday this weekend that I was planning to send this to - I hope she likes it! ;)