MDS Blog Hop - Hybrid Scrapbook Page

If you are following the My Digital Studio blog hop thank you for hopping through to my blog!

Today's challenge was for us to use our e-cutters or create a hybrid project. And since I don't have an e-cutter, I have a hybrid scrapbook page to share with you today.

I posted the original MDS page that I started with here two years ago as one of my hop pages and this winter I finally had it printed as a 12" x 12" page. Now I love how simple the original was, but it wouldn't be a hybrid page if I didn't add something to it!

I decided to make my own banners using the "I am..." stamp set that I received at the Stampin' Up!'s convention two summers ago. I love this set, but had never used it. It was about time! I stamped the words in Versamark and heat embossed them with black powder. Then I bordered the banners with a black Stampin' Write marker and cut them out.

I added them to the page with two stacked Dimensionals in the middle to give the banners some dimension.

After I added the banners I added some small punched Basic Black flowers scattered around the page.

Once I added those I got out my sewing machine and sewed around my page with white thread and a straight stitch. There wasn't any kind of order to where I sewed it, I just didn't want to stitch over Audrey and I wanted to make sure to sew the ends of each banner down.

After that I added all of the rhinestones and the page was done!

Thanks for joining me for the blog hop today! I haven't forgotten about the 40 days of cards - I'll have another one posted later tonight.

Now head on over to my buddy Jeanna's blog for her take on the challenge! I'm so excited to see what she's done this week. :)

Daily December - Cover Page

This year Stampin' Up! came out with a Daily December kit for My Digital Studio. If you're not familiar with Daily December, it's a concept introduced by Ali Edwards in which she documents the entire month of December and her family's holiday traditions day by day for that month.

Our family has a ton of Christmas traditions, but I've never documented them in one place so I thought this year would be the perfect year to do it.

This -->
is my cover page. I used an 8x8 ring binder by Stampin' Up! and their 8x8 divided page protectors that are in the Holiday mini catalog. For my title panel I used Stampin' Up!'s vellum and printed directly on it after I designed it in MDS. To keep it consistent I plan to use a little bit of vellum on each page. I printed out some of the patterned papers from the Daily December digital kit to use and put them in the smaller pockets, with some Whisper White for my journaling. Then I stitched some red ribbon to the side of it to give the page a little texture.

Are you doing a Daily December album this year? If so, post a link to it in the comments -- I'd love to check it out! I'll be posting more pages this month as I get them completed.

Hello Fall Pocket Cards in MDS

Just a quick post today to share a blog post I have featured on the My Digital Studio blog. In the post I share two projects using the new "Hello Fall Pocket Cards" download and the 8" x 8" divided pages available in the current Holiday mini catalog. Check it out if you have a minute -- the pocket cards are so fun to play with!

New Scrapbooking Kits! {This Day}

I love scrapbooking! As far as papercrafting goes, it was my first true love.

Lately I've been doing a lot of digital scrapbook pages, but there's just nothing like putting the papers together, using printed photos, and adding gorgeous embellishments. So in the spirit of both traditional and digital scrapbooking, I decided to design some hybrid scrapbooking kits.

What's hybrid? No, it's not some greek mythological figure. :) "Hybrid" is taking digital scrapbooking elements and combining them with traditional scrapbooking elements.

I *love* the versatility of these sheets. First, they are 8-1/2 x 11" and fit in any standard three ring binder (I've seen some really cute ones at Target, and the office stores lately!) or album. And I love how you can swap the elements on the page and move them around to fit your pictures. Not to mention with the way these pages are set up YOU decide how many photos you'd like to use.

The {This Day} Kit contains the following:

• One 8-1/2" x 11" pocket sheet protector
• Six matching pocket cards designed in My Digital Studio and professionally printed by Stampin' Up! on their heavy cardstock with a matte finish.
• One package of Stampin' Up!'s Basic Rhinestone Jewel Elements
• One 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of Sahara Sand cardstock
• One 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of Whisper White cardstock
• A bag of pre-punched elements to add to each card.
• A step-by-step instruction sheet that shows how to add embellishments to each card.

Colors used in this kit:

Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Sahara Sand, Basic Gray, Perfect Plum & Rich Razzleberry

Due to Stampin' Up!'s ordering policies, I am required to place the order for the rhinestones after the kit is purchased by you, so your kit will be shipped to you a week to ten days after your kit is purchased.

The entire kit is only $10 (+$2 shipping) and can be purchased by clicking the image link below.

Still have questions? Check these answers out!

Will there be other kits, like for boys?

Absolutely! I'm hard at work designing other fun kits for boys, Birthdays, holidays, etc. I will be posting them as soon as I get them finished. When you are done, you'll have an album full of fun pages. You could even create your own to add to it!

I have lots of rhinestones left! What do I do with the extra embellishments?

Use them on other projects, or save them for future pages in your album!

Can I add embellishments of my own to the page?

Absolutely! This is YOUR page - I've just given you a jumping off point. Get CREATIVE! Included in the kit are two extra matching sheets of cardstock for you to use as you'd like.

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:

Tree, Thoughts & Prayer Large Décor Elements

Whisper White Cardstock

Basic Black Cardstock

Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch

My Digital Studio Express

Top Note Shape - Digital Download

Blossom Builders Designer Printed Kit

InLinkz.com

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! :)

1. Jeanna Bohanon

2. Mandy Grant

3. Julie Leblanc

4. Amber Meadows

5. Terri Mongeon

6. Aly Schilling

7. Cindy Schuster

8. Erica Shaw

9. Heather Summers

10. Alesha Walls

11. Holly VanDyne
12. Isis Pinero (this week's guest blog hopper!)

November 25 - Tri-fold Card {MDS Blog Hop}

Today I challenged the MDS blog hop girls to use the new tri-fold card Stampin' Up! offers with MDS.

About a month ago I had one of these printed with the intention of sending it to my mom. But when I got the printed card I knew there was no way it was leaving this house. The first reason was when I designed it in My Digital Studio I didn't pay attention to the sizing, I just assumed it would be the same size as a normal A2 card. I was so shocked to find out that it was such a large size! I had created my project using the 5"x7" tri-fold card and I guess I didn't realize that EACH fold would be 5"x7".

The other thing that amazed me was the quality. There was nothing flimsy about this thing, it's printed on very thick cardstock - which made me think that this thing was just too nice to send to someone like a normal card. (Yes, I still love you Mom - I'll send you another card!) I wanted to PLAY with this thing! Dress it up and make it a home decor project. Which is just what I did.

I love the silver glitter paper from Stampin' Up! so I used that to create two little scalloped circle frames. Then I used the clear window sheets (also punched with the large scalloped circle) to place in the 3-D frames with a stamped flower and punched black heart. But when I put my little 3-D frames on the project they didn't show up as much as I wanted so I made another one in black and placed it directly on the tri-fold so it would look like a shadow of the glitter frame. That helped it show up so much better.

And don't forget that the tri-fold has a back that you can design as well! I designed it when I had it printed, but didn't play with that side yet - I figure I can play with that one later so that way when I get tired of looking at the front side of the project I can just flip it over and BAM! New project! Here's a picture of the back -

And don't forget - from now until November 30th, if you purchase My Digital Studio Express for $39.95 you can pick from one of three digital download bundles ($40 value) for FREE!

My Digital Studio Express	Silver Glimmer Paper	Window Sheets	Basic Black Cardstock	Marina Mist Cardstock	Basic Black Classic Ink
Marina Mist Classic Ink	1-3/4 Inch Circle Punch	2-3/8 Inch Scallop Circle Punch	5 Petal Flower Punch	Small Heart Punch	Scallop Trim Border Punch
Flower Fest	Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents	Stampin' Dimensionals

InLinkz.com

Now go visit my other My Digital Studio blog hoppers! I can't wait to see what everyone else did with their tri-fold cards, and I can't wait to see what you do with yours!

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. Alesha Walls

12. Holly VanDyne (you are here!)

April 3 - Spring Gable Box

This project post is over at the HybridChick.com again for today - it has the complete instructions and supply list for this project! VERY fun project to make and would be a quick and easy place setting or gift box.

Just a few quick things since I neglected the blog for the past few days...

Welcome Erin!!!
I'm SO excited that Erin has signed up with me as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. She's a super sweet person and I'm so happy to be working with her! She has a fantastic blog too - you can check it out here. So welcome Erin!!!

Vendor Blender Tomorrow
I will have a table at a vendor blender tomorrow at the Loudonville library - if you live nearby or want to check it out please do, I would love to see you! My trusty little sidekick Audrey will be there with me so I'm excited to get some mommy/daughter time with her. I'll have some prizes, cards for sale, etc. It's going on from 9am - 3pm.

April Card Night Details
April card nights are Tuesday, April 14 & Thursday, April 16 from 6-8pm at my house. Please email me or call to RSVP. The nights are filling up fast, so please give me a call soon if you'd like to come. I'll post the details again and a picture of this months cards this weekend.

Have a FABULOUS weekend! :)

April 20 - Altered Childrens Book

Back in 2006 when I was a finalist for the CK Scrapbooker of the Year contest - as part of the hoops we had to jump through for the big prize we had to create a class proposal for a Creating Keepsakes University online class. First they said my class proposal was going to be used (yay!) but then they did away with the online classes (ugh!). So I was left with the class which I've just hung onto for almost two years now. So - time to share it!

I won't post the text here because I made it into a PDF document with much more info that will fit on here so if you'd like to download it, just click the link below. It's in a .zip file to make it smaller, so just download that then extract the PDF to view it or print it out.

ThermOWeb makes these GREAT laminating sheets that I put over my photos/journaling so that as often as my girls look at the book then can't smudge it (and crayons wipe off!). They love this book and want me to read it to them at bedtime all the time, so the laminating sheets really do help with the wear and tear. And for the journaling you can use yesterdays digital downloads, just download and print them on colored cardstock that will match the book you are altering!

Click here to download class PDF!

April 14 - Digital 101 Page

I love doing digital pages, just don't often get a chance to do them since I've been trying to limit my computer time lately. Well, that and the fact that I'm so hopelessly addicted to paper...and stamps...and embellishments...you know how it goes. :)

But I am very excited that I will be teaching a "Digital 101" class over at Couture Scrapbooking. If you've always wanted to try digital scrapbooking (or even just hybrid scrapbooking which is a mix of both paper and digital scrapbooking) then this class is the perfect start.

I've come up with a digital kit of goodies (paper, embellishments, etc.) that we'll be using to make this page and a few others. And you'll receive a PDF with step by step instructions for putting it all together. And last but not least, access to a class-only forum where you can chat with me and the other students to talk about the class, the projects, ask questions, etc.

I'm so excited, I really do think it is going to be a lot of fun! To the right is one of the pages that we'll be making in the class using a bunch of Photoshop techniques (you'll download a FREE 30-day trial of the software for this class if you don't have the program installed on your computer already). Hope to see you in class! If you want more details on how to register just click here.