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 - 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. :)

40 Days of Cards - Day 3 - MDS Glitter Thank You

Well, this was yesterday's card... got a day behind already!

One of my favorite elements in MDS are the glitter ones and when they came out with the new Glimmer Kit I was so stinkin' excited.

Why?
Because I knew I'd be able to recolor the embellishments to any color I'd want.

I just had a chance to try it out on (yesterday)'s card and it was just as much fun as I thought it would be! Glittery pinks! Glittery blues! Glittery purples!

I've died and gone to MDS glimmer heaven. Can't wait to print this one out and send it to a dear friend who has been helping me a ton with revisions of my latest novel.

Make Your Own Photo Booth with MDS!

Last night the school I teach at held a Valentine's dance fundraiser and I was asked to take photos. In the past I've seen some really cute photo booths with super-cute props, so I opened up My Digital Studio and went to work.

The best thing is that I hardly had to recreate anything. Most of the shapes and sentiments I used on my props were already stamps! I just had to put them together.

I put everything on a 8x10 sheet and sent it to my photo printer to be printed at a 12" x 16" size. It was perfect. Here is how the sheet of props looked when I had finished.

I wanted them to really stand out so I used white images on a black background. Once I picked them up from the 1-hour print place (got these done at Sams!) I mounted them onto cardstock and trimmed around them so they wouldn't be so flimsy. If I would've done them more in advance I would have just had them printed through the MDS Print Service on their heavy cardstock. The ones I printed at Sams curled a little as the night went on so next time I do this I will order them to be printed on the heavy cardstock for sure.

Each thing on this sheet is already a stamp I had in MDS, the only fonts I used were the the "I {heart}" arrows. For the "We Seriously Rock" stamp I knew I wanted to do a double speech bubble which I couldn't find in my MDS downloads so I just printed it out without it and cut the shape I wanted around it. Worked great.

I found some dowel rods at the craft store, painted them gray so they wouldn't stand out too much when people held them, then mounted my cut out shapes to them.

And...
thanks to my friend Christa for helping me show how great they looked in the photos!

My MDS Bowl Projects

If you missed the MDS Bowl last night, I thought I'd share my projects.

For the first quarter we were challenged to either use Bronco or Seahawk colors on a project. I chose the Seahawks and made this using one of my favorite sayings I had pinned. I used Night of Navy, Green Galore and Smokey Slate.

I used a variety of fonts, and for the background I used two background stamps - Friend by Definition and Distressed Dots. I made them both white, then bumped the opacity on them down to about 10%. I was too chicken to try using the Bronco's colors, but a few of the other participants did and they looked fabulous!

The second quarter challenge was to make a sports project. I don't have any football photos, but I have plenty of soccer photos from this fall, so that's what I used.

For this 12" x 12" scrapbook page I used the Epic Overlays stamp brush set. I've loved this set for as long as I can remember, but don't use it much since most of my projects tend to be more fancy than fun. But this page needed to be fun!

I love the "word" bubble and the arrow that points to her medal. It doesn't get much more fun than this. The "soccer" title is a font with the red glimmer paper underneath. It shows through the letters great and adds a little bit of girly glitter to the page without making it too sparkly.

I made another card for the third challenge, but will save it for another day!

{love} MDS style

The last few days I was working on a page for an upcoming MDS blog post and came across this photo of my oldest. While I didn't use it for the page I was working on, I knew I wanted to use it for something.

For this page I started with the photo blown up to cover the page, then set the opacity lower (35%). I loved the muted color of it, but felt her face didn't stand out as much as I wanted it to so I used a heart punch, filled it with the same photo and sized it as big as the page, making sure it layered over my background photo exactly. To complete the edge I added 105 gold sequins. Yep, thanks to the layers in MDS I could see that there were 105 of them.

All of the "Love"s in the background are stamps - I used the MDS search feature and did a search for love. You'd be surprised how many you will find if you search for them! A few of the I had to crop out the word, but you get the idea. I changed them to white then sent them to the back of my page UNDER my background photo at 35% opacity. That's why you can still see the original image through the stamped words. Sorry, no supply list today - with all of those stamps it would be endless!

DON'T FORGET - It's Tuesday, Stampin' Up! has new downloads for MDS today! Click here!

We've been snowed in but are hoping we may be able to get back to school tomorrow - keep your fingers crossed for us - this mom is starting to go crazy! I would never survive as a homeschooling mom, that's for sure. I told my oldest that and she said "I would NEVER want to be homeschooled - you crack the whip with this school work stuff!"

Today Remember This : MDS Page

We have the day off today (work & school) but I have 2,000 book words to write so I'm just posting a quick MDS page today.

If this looks familiar, it's because it was on the My Digital Studio blog about a month ago but I love this page so much I wanted to share it here, too.

Doesn't that little face make you smile? She got kicked in the face by a cleat-wearing Kindergartener at recess and ended up with some nasty scabs to prove it.

Have you tried the MDS class kits yet? If not, you should - they are fabulous! I use MDS almost every day and I learned SO MUCH from watching the class videos! Lots of great short-cuts and techniques. Plus you get a kit of goodies to use to try it out! This page used the "Love This" class kit (with the addition of a Downtown Grunge frame, of course).

Hope you have a wonderful Monday!

Everything.

It's been too long. I haven't sat down and just created to create in a long time. I've forgotten how good it feels.

Tonight it started with a zipper and its beautiful green shade that I had to pull out and use.

I had this photo from Christmas and although it's a little fuzzy and she has earmuffs on in the house, I still adore this photo. This is her as I see her everyday when she's busy doing all of her little 8-year-old busy things. Too many times I have her smile at the camera or pose for me before I hit that button to snap the photo, but these are the photos I really treasure. A photo of her just being her.

Lots of fun elements and kits used on this page, I'll list & link them all here for you.

Finest Simplicity - white & gray frame
Nobody's Business - gray & white striped tape
Staple & Stitching - white zigzag stitch
Chevron kit - chevron background stamps

Hello Perfection - doodled frame, large polka dots, and you are my happy stamp, today arrow

Love This - heart stamps

Torn Edges - torn edge on right side

Downtown Grunge - kraft background paper

MDS Blog Hop - A New Desktop for My Laptop

Hello and happy 2014!

I have a feeling that this is going to be a wonderful year -- and I hope that it is for you, too.

If you've been following the hop you've just come from Elizabeth's blog. Isn't she wonderful? It's hard to follow someone so talented!

Our first "assignment" for the MDS Blog Hop this year was to design either a computer desktop image or an iphone background. I got a new laptop a few months ago so this was the perfect project for me!

First, I figured out the pixel dimension of my screen then created a custom size image in MDS with the same dimensions. Then -- Ready, Set, Design! And this is what I came up with...

My computer's desktop is a hot mess, let me tell you. Most of what I do everyday is done on this computer and I keep everything important on my desktop. But there was no organization to it at all. Sure, I could just put them in those ugly files, but why would you do that when you can add a little kraft and bling to it with MDS? The background is from Downtown Grunge kit, the doodled frames are from the Hello Perfection digital class. I also used the Bright Blooms kit and the Basic Pearls and Rhinestones kit. I'm so happy with how it turned out! I just hoped my desktop icons would fit.

I changed my laptop's desktop image to my new image and arranged all of my icons to fit in my new frames. Everything fit and there is some room for growth!

That's my project for today - I hope you liked it! And now you get to follow the hop and see what the always fabulous Jeanna has waiting for you - just click on the "NEXT" image below!

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!

Fall Memories Page - In Ten Years

Happy Digital Scrapbook Day!

I have so much to talk about today! First - did you know Stampin' Up! has added a free download available  ONLY today? It's called "Moments Ago" and you can download it here. It was designed by Stampin' Up!'s concept artist Jen Campbell. It's super cute so don't miss out on downloading it!

This week Stampin' Up! also released some great downloads -- one of my new favorites is the Fall Memories kit that I used on the "In Ten Years" page here. Every five years I've remembered to get a picture of Audrey in the leaves the tree in our front yard drops. I love that even though she looks so different now than she did then, she also looks so similar. Same blue eyes and the same sweet smile.

I hope you had a wonderful Digital Scrapbooking Day and got some fun projects created! Don't forget that each day for a week Stampin' Up! has a different digital download on sale for 50% off - you can see them by visiting the MDS blog here. Today is one of my favorite kits ever - the Hello There kit and tomorrow is the All Time Fave kit that I also love. You won't want to miss it so be sure to check back each day!