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!

Super-Easy Digital Handwriting

I've had a few people ask me lately how I added my signature to my watermark and to my blog posts. Technically I use a digital drawing pad instead of a mouse with my laptop and that's how I made it. BUT since then I've found a super quick and easy way for you to make your own which doesn't involve you spending $100 on a drawing pad. In fact, it won't cost you anything if you have a tablet.

If you have an iPad, I use an app called "Paper" by FiftyThree . It lets you draw with your fingertips (not your nail - don't want to scratch that screen!). Here's the fun part. The more pressure you put on the screen with your finger, the thicker your line will be. The less pressure, the thinner. And it's so easy to use! It gives you different "albums" to use and there are many pages in each to play around with. Don't like what you made? Use the eraser tool to erase it! There are many colors, too. As you can see, I used it to write the word 'Love' for the card in my daughter's album. Once you have the app there are other more complex tools you can order but I've been using for a while and I've never had to purchase anything.

See that little box with an arrow button in the middle of the X and the + at the bottom of the screen? That's the button you press to share your creation when you get it just how you want it. That share button will let you email it to yourself. With this one I just emailed it to myself then uploaded it to my favorite photo processor.

Now I have a neuromuscular disease that makes my fingers and hands tremble so normally my handwriting isn't the best. It's kind of shaky and not very smooth. But see the 'Love'? I did that! Even with my shaky fingers! It takes whatever you write and makes it SMOOTH. Awesome, right?

But what if you have an Android tablet? Unfortunately, Paper by 53 isn't available for Android, however I have heard of a similar app called Bamboo Paper that IS available for free in the Play store and iTunes. I tested this app out, too and it works a LOT like Paper by 53. Only this one lets you pick your pen size and has more colors available (and cuter ones!). But as far as writing goes, I found the Paper by 53 App slightly easier to get the look I wanted. Either way - there are two fabulous free options that will let you get your own handwriting digitally into your scrapbooks or on your blog!

I've had a few people ask -- the Project Life card used on my page above is from the Stampin' Up! Everyday Adventure kit and you can get one by clicking here. Just go to PRODUCTS at the top, then SHOP NOW and all of the Project Life items are on the left side. :)

Hope you have fun!

A Simple Work of Art

I am such a sucker for fast, flat, simple cards! So guess what I have to share with you today? I used to have a feature on the blog called "Flat Tuesdays" where I'd share a completely flat card with you. Well, it IS Tuesday...

A few of my team members and I went to the Stampin' Up! 2014/15 Catalog Premier last night and got to get our own copy of it. We also got one of the BRAND NEW stamp sets called "Work of Art" and it is one of my new absolute favorite sets (even before I knew we were going to bring one home!)

It's got a little watercolor-y action going on and has greetings AND the background images. Everything stamped on this card is in the set. The background "swoosh" is stamped in Pistachio Pudding and the words on top are stamped in Baked Brown Sugar. The heart is stamped in Strawberry Slush. I used my spritzer tool and a Soft Suede Stampin' Write marker to spray some brown on it. Then I rounded the corners with the new Project Life corner rounder.

I love how quick and easy this card is - five minutes TOPS!
You'll be able to order from the new catalog on June 1st, if you'd like to get your hands on one before then just email me at holly@hollystamps.com and I'll get one to you.

Audrey Title Page - Project Life by Stampin' Up!

I've mentioned in previous posts that in 2013 I did a Project Life album for each of my girls and took a photo every day. I'm almost finished with the albums (all of the photos are in there, I just have to finish my journaling). But one thing I didn't have finished was the title pages. For some reason I was having a complete mental block on how to do them. I had photos of her in each season which didn't all match and that was making it harder for me to come up with something.

When my Everyday Adventure kit from Project Life by Stampin' Up! came this week, I knew I had the perfect design for my title pages - FINALLY! The colors were broad enough that it took the various colors of all of my photos and tied them all together. Yay! Here's what my final title page for Audrey's page looks like. And I was SO happy - the Day to Day stamp set had all of the season names that I needed to go with my pictures.

If you're wondering about the title card with her name and the date, I created them in My Digital Studio and did an earlier blog post about those here.

If you are new to Project Life and pocket scrapbooking, and are wondering about the size of a yearly album like I did you can see how thick my finished 365 day album is in the photo on the right. And the best thing is that the album closes flat with even a little room to spare for embellishments (I didn't use many in this album).

Don't forget - Thursday is the day to order the first batch of Project Life by Stampin' Up! goodies, so be sure to check back here on Thursday, May 1st for ordering details!

Project Life by Stampin' Up!

My Project Life by Stampin' Up! arrived a few days ago and Stampin' Up! relaxed their policy on when we can show items in pre-order so I thought I'd take some photos of what they look like and give you all a little sneak peek today!

If you are already a Stampin' Up! demo you can pre-order the goodies NOW, or if you're not a demo you can sign up as one (contact your current SU! demo for more information - or if you don't have one yet, feel free to ask me any questions you may have by emailing me at holly@hollystamps.com) OR you can begin ordering your very own kit as a customer through any Stampin' Up! demonstrator on Thursday, MAY 1st!

I have lots of photos here, if you want to see one bigger, just click on it! :)

First, let me just tell you that while I adore everything this kit came with, I LOVE the little box it comes in! It will hold your entire kit, accessories, pens, photos, etc. in one little box right there! As someone who does a lot of my scrapbooking at crops where I travel, this will come in SO handy! I can plan out each page and keep them in the box.

Next I ordered the accessory pack but had no idea what was inside. First, there are these super-cute little sticker letters in both black and green. Sticker alpha's are my favorite so I was VERY excited to see these!

 Next there were 4 different die-cut 3" x 4" cards! They are all cute, but this one is my favorite.

You also get a sheet of these cute little clear plastic accessories. LOVE the banners and arrows!

Cardstock stickers! Four sheets of them.
I can't wait to use these!

Then there are wood cuts and arrow clips. How cute are these?

Here's a picture of the entire accessory pack. Notice there is also a roll of washi tape (in my favorite color!) AND cute circle puffy stickers! My love of puffy stickers dates back to the 80's, but I digress...

And here's the backside of the Everyday Adventures box with the core kit, the accessory pack goodies, my pens AND the corner rounder - they all fit so nicely!

And see that little yellow label around the side of the box? It comes as a sheet of stickers (in many languages) that allow you to put on your box to keep them all straight. This kit is SO cute, I can't wait to see what other Project Life kits will be available in the new catalog! If you want a catalog, feel free to contact me for one when they come out!

This first stamp set is the "Day to Day" Project Life stamp set. It's much bigger than I thought it would be. I laid them out on an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock so you could see how big they actually are. As a daily/weekly PL'er I'm in LOVE with this set.

This Project Life stamp set is the "Point & Click" set. I love all of the elements and it looks like some of the labels coordinate with the Framelit dies. Yippee!

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!

Project Life by Stampin' Up! - Splash Harbor Page

YAY!
My Project Life by Stampin' Up! pre-order arrived today via the big brown truck and I couldn't wait to play. Here's just a little sneak peek of a page I did with the products.

I had these great spring break photos that I've been excited to scrapbook and the colors were perfect for the Everyday Adventure kit that arrived today.

I have to say - I LOVE the new 4" x 4" pockets. They're such a fun size to use.

Even though the new Stampin' Up! annual catalog comes out June 1st, you'll be able to order this Project Life kit and its goodies on May 1st! I'll post order links on the blog on that day!

My Favorite Current Stampin' Up! Products for Project Life

If you've been regular reader of my blog then you know I've been using Project Life for the past two years to do my scrapbooking. So you can imagine how excited I was to hear that Stampin' Up! would have exclusive Project Life products coming out soon.

Since the products haven't been released yet, I thought I'd share some of my favorite current Stampin' Up! products that I love using in my Project Life albums. These are products that you can get your hands on right now! (and a few of them are from the Occasions mini catalog that is only available for one more month)

Last year I did a daily Project Life album for each of my girls. While I loved it, it took a LOT of work and time. So this year I thought I'd do a weekly album for each of them.

Here are a few cards from my first week of 2014. Can you tell we had a ton of snow? I love the Retro Fresh washi tape (Occasions mini catalog) from the This and That line. I also used the This and That Rotary Date Stamp on my Week 1 title card.

Stampin' Up! has so many fantastic stamp sets that also work well with scrapbooking. One of my new favorites is the Just Sayin' set (Occasions mini catalog) with some adorable speech bubbles that make fun captions on your photos. I popped the "woo hoo!" bubble up with a dimensional to give it a little more dimension. For my "Week 1" card I used both the Notable Alphabet (week) and the Memorable Moments (1) sets. With two girls I don't have a lot of pages without bling so I added a strip from the Basic rhinestones.

What I love most about Project Life is that it allows you to make fast and simple pages, but they still are so fun to create and don't take a ton of time to do it.

Stampin' Up! & Project Life!

It's official...
I have died and gone to heaven.
Why?
Stampin' Up! just announced that they have partnered with Becky Higgins and Project Life to offer EXCLUSIVE items and kits with Stampin' Up!'s colors.

And the best part? Some of the items will be available to order on May 1st!

I hope you are as excited as I am! Demonstrators get a pre-order so keep watching this blog and I'll have some fun sneak peek projects to share with you as soon as my box arrives!