More Digital pages!

Come on, you know you want to!!  Come to my Digital Class!!  My digital class is actually a hands on class, but if you are in the area, come on down!!  You don't have to have a lap top, sit next to someone that does and take notes! :) 

One of the great things about Stampin' Up's My Digital Studio is the online community that comes with it.  Stampin' Up! has put together a website where users can come and get inspired, learn a trick, get a tip and share their ideas! Inspire - Create - Share !  That is the Stamin' Up! motto after all.  I can across this beautiful template that was made by another MDS user named Terri Mongeon.   She has a blog too, and is an MDS pro.  I loved her page, so I made one too.  There are hundreds of pages to see, cards and other projects too!  And ANYONE can use this site, you don't have to be a demo (but if you want to be one just ask me how!) check it out here  My Digital Studio.   And contact me if you are interested in learning more about My Digital Studio.

Explore!

Where can you come up with scrapbook layouts?  Just look at greeting cards!  The challenge over at SplitcoastStampers this week was to Stretch the Sketch.  That means we took a card sketch and made it work for a scrapbook page.  Here is the card sketch.


And here is the page I made using the sketch.

The papers and elements on this page are from the World Traveler Kit.

Love, Sympathy, and Perfect Plum

This week I needed a variety of cards.  I needed some thank you cards, as well as a birthday and sadly a sympathy.  I was looking through my stamp sets and decided to use one that had never been inked- you know you have a stamp hoarding problem when you have stamp sets that have never been inked.  I came across the set Love and Sympathy, which just the other day a friend asked if I had and could she borrow.  I did not think I had it, but here it is! Then I remembered that I bought it to use with my watercolor crayons, which I don't use enough.  So this was the perfect opportunity to use somethings that I loved but never used! 
On this first card I also decided to use some brand new things as well.  I used my new Spritzer bottles to add some interest to the background.  The spritzers are new to this catalog and new to me.  I added some water to the bottle, and then two drops of Perfect Plum. I also made one in Crumb Cake for another project.

Next time I think I will use even less water for a deeper color.   Here are some close ups of the spritzes of Perfect Plum.   You can also see the new Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons.  Love those! And, the label was made with the new Tag Duo Punch! 

 Another great use for the spritzers is to moisten a stamp.  Here I used the watercolor crayons to ink up my flower image.  I then gave the image a mist of water with the spritzer. 

This card uses the same stamp as the one above. I cut this center image out with the Apothecary Accent Framelit Dies and used the co-ordinating paper piercing template to add some pierced details in the corners.  I also sponged the sides of the White card stock with a sponge and Crumb Cake ink.

This next card was made in the same way as the one above.  I used to new Apothecary Accents Framelit Dies to cut out the center image.  I resized it like I did on this card from last week.  I also used the piercing template and sponge on this card.

My Digital Studio Class



The My Digital Studio class is almost here.  Would you like to learn how to make great projects right on your computer?  I would love to show you how.  Come to the first night just to see what its all about.  Ill have projects out for you to see.  Cards, photobooks, scrapbook pages and more.  See how great digital can really be.  If you then decide to buy the My Digital Studio software from me, you can attend 5 more classes FREE!  If you have the software already, or have another Stampin' Up! demonstrator to buy from, or even if you are a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, you are still welcome and class is only $5 a night.  We will meet 5 nights in July (once a week, Tuesday evenings except the first night)  and then we will go to one or two nights a week for August, depending on interest and if you still want to meet that often after you have learned all sort of tips and tricks.  Each night we will learn some of the features and new ways to use them.  We will also make a project start to finish.  Bring your lap tops but if you don't have a laptop, we will have laptop people sit next to non laptop people, so you can see better.  My laptop will be connected to a projector so that you can all see what I'm doing.  At the end of class we will have a half hour Q & A.   Click on the tab under the my blog header and see the full class flyer.  And please feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

  

   

Reason to Smile

When I was working on this page my husband walked into my craft room and said "Is that a paper page?"  I guess it has been awhile since I made a scrapbook page with paper and scissors!  I love how it turned out, but I will say that I almost tossed it aside and made a digital one instead :)  I forgot how long it took me to make a page.  I printed the pictures out a few times because I wanted to zoom in or make them bigger, things I could have just done right in the software if I had made a digital page.   I decided to make a paper page because of my daughters dress.  As I was looking at the photos, I was reminded of some paper I had.  I was worried that maybe it had sold at my retired products garage sale but when I searched through the unsold items, there it was!  And, there was also some retired rick rack ribbon in pumpkin pie, so cute! Two of my favorite things, paper and ribbon!  I made a two page spread, and I am happy with the result. 

Here is page two.  When searching for a flower stamp to use for the background, I decided on the set "Reason to Smile".  This is an exclusive set that will be available only in July.  When you spend $50 on any product, you can pick up the set for only $5.00 in either wood mount or clear mount.  And I liked the name of the set so much I used it for the title of my page!  

These cute little scallops are from the Dotted Ribbon Border Punch.

This label was made with the new Apothecary Accents Framelits Dies for the Big Shot.




Thanks for stopping by!

The Farm

The Farm in Door County Wisconsin has been a family tradition for generations.  The picture of my husband with my sons and the scarecrow is in just about every photo album of my extended family, with other dads and kids in the picture. I love having family traditions and showing the kids things that I did when I was their age.  I used the Barnyard Buddies digital stamp brush on these pages, as well as frames from the Downtown Grunge digital kit. 

Starting in July I will be offering a My Digital Studio class.  If you are interested in joining us, please contact me for details.  The classes will be held at the Lombard Church of the Nazarene just off Rt 53 in Lombard Illinois.  We will meet Tuesday nights in July, except the first week we'll meet on Thursday due to Fireworks (YEA) First Class July 5th at 7:00.  Class will go until 8:30 with a 30 minute Q & A afterwords to address your specific questions.  Class is free in July when you buy MDS from me.  If you have the software already class is just $5.00 a night. If you are a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator too, you can still come, the more the merrier I say, and I think once you get to really know this software, you will love it! 

You did it!

This is another digital page!  It is for a challenge at Splitcoast stampers.  They are now doing weekly scrapbooking challenges on Tuesdays and I am so happy about that!  Challenges are a great way for me to get started on a page, and inspire me to get to work.  This challenge was called "Less is More".  On this page I am embracing the white space, using less papers, layers and patterns than I normally do. And, I wanted to use the grass punch that I didnt even know I had until recently.   What do you think?  play along at www.splitcoaststampers.com.  Check out the Challenges forum and see what sort of challenge you would like to try.  Card challenges, color challenges, scrapbook challenges, you name it, they probably have it going on.

World Treasures Flowers

There is a new Designer Series Paper pack that I really love called International Bazaar.  It is full of really fun bright papers.  I know I'll get a lot of use out of this paper pack.  This card uses two patterns of paper from the pack, as well as a stamp set that coordinates really well with the paper called World Treasures.  I used this set a few days ago on another card featuring a peacock.  The colors in this card are Lucky Limeade, Pacific Point, and Rich Razzleberry.   I used markers to ink up the image so that I could get multiple colors on my stamp.












 You may be wondering about that shape in the center of the card.  It is from the new Apothecary Accents Framelits Collection, but I wanted a smaller version, so here is how I did it.  I grabbed a scrap of Whisper White cardstock and ran it through the big shot with the Framelit Die. 

Then, I moved the die further down the paper, and ran it through again.  Voila, a smaller label in a cute shape just the right size for the flowers.    I then used the new paper piercing template that matches to add some piercing detail around the edges.






Thanks for stopping by!

Butterfly Thanks

I really like butterflies, so one of the first sets I picked out of the new catalog was a set called Papillon Potpourri.  It has 6 lovely butterfly images and, even better, a matching punch!  I get just about any stamp set with a matching punch! :) 
I needed to make some little thank you notes to send out with some orders this month, so here are two of the thank yous I came up with. 
The cards measure 8 by 2 3/4, folded in half.  I then cut the edge of the front side with the scallop border punch. 

This card uses crumb cake as its base, with a strip of newsprint DSP (designer series paper) behind the scallop edge, and the butterflies.  There is also a bit of green DSP behind the butterflies to set them a bit.  I added some pearls to the centers and pierced around the green paper.   The new catalog featured some perfect plumb taffeta ribbon, which I had previously passed on, but it looked so lovely in the catalog I had to get that as well.   Those marketing people really know what their doing, huh?



This card is basically the same but uses Baja Breeze as its base and crochet trim ribbon. 





I used a sponge to ink up the butterflies because I thought the marker looked too harsh when I used it for this card.  here is a picture to show the difference.

Thanks for stopping by!
Beth

Faithful Friend

I received a wedding invitation this week!  It was for the wedding of my cousin Don, and his fiance Angela.  The wedding invitation was very pretty and had peacock feathers on it.  I was happy about this because I just opened a box of new stamps and one of them featured a peacock!  Any excuse to stamp right?!  And, since Don and Angela have found each other, I thought the sentiment that comes with the set worked really nicely too, so this is the card I made to go with her shower gift.  The set is called World Treasures and I loaded up this card with all sorts of new elements.   I used Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, and Elegant Eggplant as my colors.  I embossed the Elegant Eggplant paper with the new Fancy Fan Embossing Folder and made a frame for the peacock with the new Apothecary Accents Framelits.  The largest Framelit only comes in one size, but I wanted it to have a border, so I cut out another label shape in Lucky Limeade and cut it in half lengthwise.   I then glued it to the back of the Whisper White piece, and trimmed it to fit the Elegant Eggplant paper.  I also cut out the sentiment image with another framelit from this collection.



















And, for even more detail, I used the new paper piercing template to add some detail around the white piece.    For the mail peacock image, I stamped the bird three times, once in each color.  I then cut out the various pieces I wanted to use to complete the peacock in multi color.  I could have used markers to ink up the peacock and only have to stamp once, which is how I colored the sentiment stamp above, but that would have been to easy :)  Actually, I wanted the peacock to have a bit more depth and dimension, so I cut each layer out separately and popped the Peacock up with dimensionals.  I also added some rhinestones to the Eggplant Layer and the sentiment.   I hope you like the card.  The colors are very vibrant in real life : ) 
Thanks for stopping by!

Blooming with Kindness

I am playing around with some new stamps today! This set is called Blooming with Kindness.  I love the big flower stamp.  The buttons are new too! There are called Vintage Faceted buttons.  And, the new products keep coming, the ribbon is new, the paper color (primrose petals) is new, and the paper piercing was done with the new paper piercing items.














  I LOVE the new paper piercing items.  There is a new bigger piercing mat, a new paper-piercing tool, and new paper-piercing templates.  I really like these new templates.   There are 3 6" x 6" templates, co-ordinating with Stampin' Up! punches, framelits and basic shapes.   I only used a little bit of piercing in the corner, but I think it adds a little something to the card.   I lined up the corner of the paper with a guide line on the template, then pierced the desired holes.   This was a very quick card, I needed to send a Thank you note, but I look forward to trying out some of the patterns on the various templates. 

Thanks for stopping by!

stamp sets for sale

I have updated my page about what retired stamp sets I have for sale.  Check it out by clicking the tab above!

Bold Blossoms

Super quick post today!  I am getting ready for my retired products garage sale.  I needed a quick and easy card to bring for my make and take.  It needs to be easy, as I wont be able to sit and demonstrate it because hopefully I will be so busy bagging up sales! : )   Not sure if this will be the card I bring, but it is simple and yet cute.  I even stamped a little flower on he envelope.

 If you live in the Chicago area, come and say Hi!  Directions and times are on the Garage Sale button to the right.