Happy Anniversary to the MDS Blog Hop!

If you've arrived here from another My Digital Studio Blog Hop blog I'm sure you know by now that it's the 1-year anniversary of the blog hop! When I was asked to join, I figured it would be a great reason to update my blog more - I never thought that it would evolve into what it has. These girls have become such good friends of mine, I've learned a TON about MDS from the other ladies in the hop, and some of us got to meet each other at Stampin' Up!'s annual convention a few weeks ago. What a fun and amazingly talented group of girls to be involved with!

Lots to celebrate today!
First, the hop challenge. Our challenge was a to make a card, any card. Since it was a special occasion I wanted to make it bright and fun so I used this template card (which are now SUPER-EASY to find, just click the "Templates" option when starting a new project and you can look through them ALL at the same time, not just by the size you are creating it in! I used a template because I just didn't have a lot of time to do make today's card. Why not?
I've been UPGRADING, baby! Upgrading MDS, that is! (and doing lots of playing around, too!) ;)

MDS2 HAS ARRIVED!
It's everything you've been looking for in a digital design program and more! I used just a few of the new features on my card for the hop today - let me tell you what I did!

You can recolor your embellishments!
Audrey and Natalie showed you how to do it with real jewels this week, but MDS2 will now let you recolor jewels (and any other embellishment)! See my rhinestones in the flowers? See how they're yellow? In the embellishment menu there is a new button called "RECOLOR" - just click it and pick which color to use!


You can color your stamps!
Just add your stamp, then on the Stamps menu, click on the new button next to Match Color that says "COLORING TOOL". How cool is that? See my "Thanks"? I used the recolor tool to add different colors to the thanks instead of just leaving it all white like they had in the template. And seriously - who doesn't like to color? :)

WHAT? THERE'S MORE?
That can't be it, right? There's a CELEBRATION going on, right? YES! YES! YES!
Some of us have decided to give out little "presents" or like my friends in England call them, "pressies". And here's mine to you - this fun little 5"x7" printable. I'm going to print mine and keep it at my craft room desk. Just click this link to get the PDF file of the image. You can print it at home or print it at your local photo printer, I only ask that you please only use it for personal use. :)

To make it I used the Seriously Awesome digital stamp set, and the new Chevron Punch kit (which also has some AMAZING chevron stamps and a template too!)

WAIT! THERE'S ONE MORE THING!
The MDS blog hoppers are challenging YOU today to create your own card and upload it to the My Digital Studio site. Just tag your sample with the keywords "MDS Blog Hop" so we'll know how to find it!

Hope you enjoyed celebrating with me today and thanks for stopping by! Now head on over to the other ladies using the links below and see what goodies they have in store for you today!

1. Jeanna Bohanon

2. Rochelle Gould

3. Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc

5. Amber Meadows

6. Terri Mongeon

7. Aly Schilling

8. Cindy Schuster

9. Erica Shaw

10. Heather Summers

11. Holly VanDyne (you are here!)