MDS Blog Hop - Hello My Name is Goofball

It's that time again!

Time for the My Digital Studio blog hop. And I'm SO excited that we're welcoming a new member to the hop this week - the mega talented Wendy Weixler! I can't wait to see what MDS goodness she shares with us each hop.

This is the hop where we share what we've been working on in MDS. I've been knee deep in wedding photos this week and thought I'd scrapbook one of my favorites. These kids are so awesome and have so much fun wherever we go - this photo is so them. I love it!

I also love the "Playground" Project Life digital kit. As it's name says, everything in the kit is fun and playful. Perfect for my photo.

I've been working on some big changes for this blog and hope to begin to implement them starting next week, so be sure to check back soon!

Now head on over to Jeanna's fabulous blog by clicking the image below and check out what amazing creation she has to share with you today!

MDS Blog Hop - Looking for Sea Glass

Yay! It's that time again - time for the My Digital Studio blog hop where our theme for this week is "Summer Fun".

I've been on a simple kick lately. And I'm a firm believer that when you love your pictures you don't need a whole lot of "stuff" to overshadow them.

So here's my simple page of our day of summer fun. The only thing I used in MDS is a strip of cardstock and a font (Century Gothic).

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Time to visit the next blog on the hop where I'm sure Jeanna has something amazing to share with you!

MDS Blog Hop - For the Love of the Game

YAY! It's MDS Blog Hop day!
Sorry about the short but sweet post today - my agent sent me revision notes for my latest book so I've got to dive in head first (if I don't come back out of the writing cave in a week or two, please send someone in to find me!)

For the blog hop today we're supposed to share what we're working on (as far as MDS) but I took it a little more literally and MDS'd what I'm working on this week.

I love. love. love. the Downtown Grunge kit. Even after years, it's still my go-to kit for so many projects.

Well, I'm off to take on these edits and whip this book into shape so I'll see you again when I get out - hopefully I'll have a super-shiny new book safely tucked under my arm.

Now head on over and check out my friend Jeanna's fabulous MDS project! I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

MDS Blog Hop - Dad Selfie

I love my dad!
He's always doing something funny or goofy to make me laugh. We had a birthday party for my youngest daughter last weekend and when I put my camera card in my computer to download the photos from the party, this selfie was on it. Of my dad! Hilarious! He didn't know he was giving me ammunition for my MDS Blog Hop Father's Day page! (thanks, Dad!)

This is such a super fast page, here are the few supplies you'll need:

Background Paper
Downtown Grunge

Embellishments
This & That Retro Fresh
Staple & Stitching
Gold Sequins

Be sure to keep following the hop, next you'll see what project the fabulous Jeanna has in store for you! Just click the 'next' button below!

MDS Blog Hop - Love Page

This week for the MDS Blog Hop we're sharing what we've been working on. It's the end of the school year so I'm doing everything EXCEPT for MDS. (Unfortunately!) But I did come up with this quick, simple page to share with you today. My friend, Abby is getting married this summer and I have a lot of wonderful engagement photos I took of her with her (future) hubby, Zac.

Here's my supply list!

Background
Designer Series Paper - Glimmer - silver

Embellishments
Neon Notes - flower 3
Staple & Stitching - Staple
This Makes Me Happy - flag
This Makes Me Happy - pool party and dots
Nobody's Business - white frame
Blossom Builders Rhinestones - 7mm Blushing Bride

Stamps
Everything Eleanor
Moments Ago


Be sure to keep following the hop, next you'll see what project the fabulous Jeanna has in store for you! Just click the 'next' button below!

MDS Blog Hop : *heart* This Page w/ Project Life

Welcome back to another week of the My Digital Studio blog hop where we share some fun digital projects. This week we're working on projects about Mothers. This theme is near and dear to my heart for two huge reasons. There is no doubt in my mind that God put me on this Earth to be a Mother to these two amazing little girls. I take this job very seriously and hope I'm doing alright with it. They (and their daddy) are definitely the loves of my life.

I'm LOVING playing with the new digital versions on the Project Life Everyday Adventure kit from Stampin' Up! and wanted to try the cards in a non-pocket page way. The hexagons at the bottom and the top of the picture are just the 2x3 cards blown up big and turned on their sides.

This was a super-fast and easy page to make, just add a few cards, some stitching and the heart this stamp.

Be sure to keep following the hop, next you'll see what project the fabulous Jeanna has in store for you! Just click the 'next' button below!

MDS Blog Hop - Black is the New Black

Hello and welcome to the blog for another MDS Blog Hop day! Today we're showing what we've been working on and for me, it's scrapbooking!

There's nothing I love more than classic black and white. I love how it can take a seemingly normal photo and make it really stand out.

I wanted to keep this page simple and keep it blacks, grays and whites. Easy, right? Except for that flower that looked absolutely beautiful in yellow, right? I just popped it on my page, hit the recolor button and chose black instead. And look how fabulous it looks now! I love how easy and fun the recolor feature is - it may be one of my favorites in MDS!

Now head on over to Jeanna's blog by hitting the "next" button below - I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see what she's been working on this week!

MDS Blog Hop - Spring!

Yay! It's MDS Blog Hop day again! This week we are sharing projects that have to do with a Spring or an Easter theme.

The project I'm sharing today was featured on the My Digital Studio blog a few days ago, but we've been having so much with this Lego play mat since I made it that I thought I'd share it for my project today. My girls are always big "spring break planners" and always have a full schedule for me, but they also love helping me make things that we can play with and this was perfect for this!

I started with an 8" x 10" canvas and filled the background with Watercolor Wonder DSP (the green chevron pattern makes some really fun grass!). The curvy road is just a capital S punch blown up pretty big and colored black. Then I used a re-sized Daffodil Delight rectangle punch for the lines on the road. I printed it out, laminated it and my girls got to work filling it up with Lego's and playing! There are so many options you can make with this project (use some blue and make a pond or lake for your Lego scuba divers!). Make a few and adhere them together!

I'm sure the rest of the blog hoppers have some beautiful and fun projects for the hop today, including the talented Miss Jeanna who is next in the hop! Just click the 'next' button below to travel to the next project and thank you so much for stopping by!

MDS Blog Hop - Miss You Already Page

Thanks for joining me for the blog hop this week! I'm sorry, this is going to be a short post for me today.

This week one of the most amazing women I've ever known, my Aunt Joan, passed away. To say I'm heartbroken would be an understatement. She meant so much to me and I'll miss her so much. I already do. She always knew what to do and say and always had a smile on her face even when her health wasn't the best. I am so blessed to have had her in my life.

So my quick page using the Blossoms Abound kit is of my Aunt Joan with her nieces and nephews a few Easters ago. She loved us all so much and we loved her right back.

Now hop on over to Jeanna's blog to see what she's been working on this week - just click the next button below!

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. :)

MDS Blog Hop - Using MDS to Build a Website

Hello and happy MDS blog hop day!
This week we're showing what we've been working on with MDS and this week is a pretty big one for me.

Back in the day (well, about 10 years ago anyway) I used to design websites as my day job. Hand designed and coded them. And even though my disease forced me to move on to another profession where I don't have to use my hands as much, I haven't forgotten how to do it and I still love to play around with creating them.

I needed a new design for my author website. I have a new book finished and my old website was very much about my old book. Which meant - time to freshen it up! The last site I designed in Photoshop, but this one I wanted to create with MDS. I write books for middle-grade readers (grades 4-8) so I wanted it to be a fun looking site and knew I could do that with My Digital Studio.

I started with an empty 12"x12" canvas and for the first page just did my black background with the Vintage Overlays set for the very light chalkboard scratches. Just change it to white and put the opacity down to about 5%. I exported that image out at the web size .jpg and sent it to my server to use as the background image. That way if the visitor to my site was using a big monitor and my homepage image wasn't big enough to fill the space it will fill the background with this background image to make the page look seamless.

Next I inserted another identical page (I LOVE that you can do this in MDS!) and used that already created background to build my home page on. I used a bunch of different fonts and some fun elements like the notebook paper (with torn edges) and some stamped doodles. Once I was done I exported it to a .jpg at the web size and sent it over to my website's server. Once it was there I used a free image map site (http://www.html-map.com) to map out all of my links in HTML, added the code to my .html file and sent that to the server too. Home page done. Yep, it really was that easy.

Next I created another identical page and kept a lot of the elements from my home page design for the header on the rest of the pages on the website. Here's a hint - while having a completely graphic website may LOOK great, search engines won't know what keywords to look for when they are adding your website to their searches. Why? Because the text in images can't be read by computers. Text has to be coded into the document for it to be read correctly. So for the header I just really moved some things around and then exported that for web the same as I did the other pages. I made an image map for the links like I did with the home page.

Finally, I wanted to create a header for my Facebook author page so I duplicated the website header, took out the links, added the ribbon back and straightened the picture frame. Exported it as web and added it to Facebook. I love that everything has such a cohesive look now!

Thank you so much for stopping by the blog today and I hope you continue hopping to the next blog, Jeanna's by using the 'next' button below. I'm sure she has something fabulous to share with you today!

               

MDS Blog Hop - Valentines!

Happy Thursday and thanks for following the MDS Blog Hop from Elizabeth's blog!

As you may already know, today we were challenged to create something having to do with Valentines or love, etc. I *love* these photos I took last weekend of my girls and their friend, so I knew I had to use them this week.

I don't know if you feel the same way, but sometimes I just want to create a page without re-inventing the wheel. Sometimes a completely blank 12x12 page is SO INTIMIDATING! For today I decided to try a template and I'm so happy I did because I love how it turned out.

I started with the A Split Second designer series templates and used the first page. Then I added some sequins, some rhinestones and some stitching and a whole lot of fun elements from one of my favorite kits - the Hello There kit.


Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Now it's time to turn you over to Jeanna who is sure to have something amazing to show you, just click the "Next" button below!

MDS Blog Hop - Happy Birthday To You

It's MDS Blog Hop time again!

If you've been hopping along, you've just come from Elizabeth's blog and her fun project!

This is the week where we share what we've been working on and for me that's birthday pages! My oldest turned 11 this week (how is that possible?)

Have you seen all of the Retro Fresh kit downloads they've been releasing in the weekly downloads lately? Well, it's safe to say I'm in love with them!

On this quick page I used the Retro Fresh Pocket Cards, Retro Fresh Embellishments, and the Retro Fresh Washi Tape.

Now you get to hop along to Jeanna's Stamp Time Somewhere blog where I'm sure she'll show you an amazing project - just click the "next" image below!

MDS Blog Hop - The VanDyne Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

Today we're sharing what we've been working on, and for the past few weeks I've been trying to get my Christmas cards finished up, addressed and out the door by TODAY! I'm having surgery to remove the pins from my foot bright and early today so I've been working overtime trying to get everything Christmas finished up -- especially my cards!

I still have a few more to mail (that may not arrive until after Christmas!) but I like to think I have a somewhat decent excuse. ha ha.

If you click on the image above you'll see a slightly larger version of it.

This is the first year I've used a tri-fold card and I have to admit, I'm SO in love with them. With the template (Bright Reviews tri-fold card) I used they were so super-quick to put together. I used the back of the template too, but changed the year from 2012 to 2013.

And that's my project for today! Now I'll send you over to Jeanna's blog where I'm positive she has something amazing to show you (doesn't she always?) :) I hope you have a very merry Christmas!

MDS Blog Hop - Calendars

I love Stampin' Up!'s calendars, so when I saw this week's MDS Blog Hop theme was calendars -- well, WHOO HOOO! :) I had the perfect one to share with you. I created it last year for my desk at school and even though the calendar is now outdated, I still have it on my desk front and center, because I'm so in love with how it turned out and I love the pictures.

I made this using the 10" x 5" heavy easel calendar (printed through MDS's print service) and the Sun Garden designer series paper kit. (Frames are from Downtown Grunge)

The first photo above is the front page of the easel. The second photo is the front flap which has each month on it. MDS makes it so easy to create your own calendar -- just drag the calendar of your choice over from the right-side menu in MDS and it does all of the dates, etc. for you! It doesn't get any easier than that!

The last photo is the back side. For each month I used a close-up photo that matched the photos on the front of that month. The best part about doing that is that now that it's 2013 and the calendar is "outdated", I can still use it by just showing the backsides of the calendar! With just a flip it became a fun photo easel. These calendars make fantastic gifts that anyone would love.

I hope you loved today's project and are enjoying the hop! Now hop on over to Jeanna's blog post and calendar project by clicking the 'Next' image below!

MDS Blog Hop - Christmas Vintage Photo Tags

It's that time of the month again - the MDS Blog Hop where we share what we're working on! You've probably gotten here from Elizabeth's blog -- she's so talented, I can't wait to see what she's working on this week!

About a year ago I saw an idea on Pinterest where they wrapped their Christmas presents in plain paper then put an old photo of the recipient on the package instead of a tag. What a cute idea, right? Well, this year I thought I'd MDS it up a bit and made tags out with MDS with the old photos on the tags. I had so much fun at my parents going through old photos!

I started with the Decorative Label punch shape, colored it black, then added the Texture Overlay from the Vintage Overlays kit. I colored the overlay white and set the opacity to about 10% so it would be light. It kind of gave it a slightly worn look that I wanted. The holly berries that I added over each photo were from the Holly Jolly greetings download.

I hope you enjoyed today's project -- what have you been working on to prepare yourself for the upcoming holidays?

And now it's time to visit Jeanna's blog to see what fabulous piece of artwork she's come up with to show you today! Just click the "next" button below and you'll be right where you need to be. Enjoy your weekend!

MDS Blog Hop - The Meaning of Christmas

Yay! It's a Christmas blog hop and I couldn't be more excited about it! If you're following the hop you probably just came from Elizabeth's blog and her fun Christmas project. She's awesome, isn't she?

I adore Christmas and wanted to make a home decor piece from one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite Christmas movies - The Grinch who Stole Christmas. I'm loving the chalkboard trend so that's what I used. In addition to a lot of downloads, I also used a lot of free fonts for this one so I'll list those, too!

Downloads:

"Christmas" - Stamped from brush stamp in Baby's First Christmas kit
Background - Essentials Designer Series Paper
Silver Glimmer Paper - Glimmer DSP kit
Staple - Staples & Stitching kit
Swirl Edge - Torn Edges kit

Free Fonts:
"Maybe" - Charlamagne STD

"He thought" & "Perhaps means" - Bernard MT Condensed

"doesn't come" "a store" & "a little bit more" - Chalk-hand-lettering

"From" - Bergamot Ornaments

Thanks for visiting today and now I send you on to the next Christmas themed project from Jeanna! Just click on the "next" button below. I can't wait to see what she's done this week!