MDS Blog Hop!! December

Hi Everyone!  It is MDS Blog Hop time again!  In case this your first MDS Blog Hop I will tell you what it's all about!  A group of MDS lovers ( My Digital Studio) get together twice a month to showcase all the great things you can do with MDS.  We have linked our ten blogs together so that you can hop from one to the next and see all the fun projects.  The first hop of the month has a theme, the second hop of the month is "what we are working on".  So, here is what I am working on.....

Gift Certificates!  It is so easy to make business related items in My Digital Studio. I use it for flyers or posters, business cards and signs, and Gift Certificates!
I started with an 8 1/2 by 11 page. I added a rectangle punch for a frame and the text box for all the gift certificate details and grouped them together.  Next I copied and pasted two more onto the page.  I searched through my Christmas looking downloads and added some favorites to the certificates.  I made the middle one match my blog header.  Easy peasy!  And, I will save this document so that I can change it up if I need to ever make one that is not for Christmas.  Delete to trees and add some presents.   Change the string of light into a string of pennants.  Turn Santa Owl in to a birthday owl.  That is one of the great things about digital designing, the ability to change things up with just the click of a button!

Of course I had to make a holder for the Gift Certificates.  I recently received some really fun Christmas goodies from the Stampin' Up! Clearance Rack, so that is what I used.  I love the Clearance Rack! Have you shopped it?  There are some great items on sale now!

I measured the gift certificate and added 1/2 inch to the length, doubled for the width, so I could fold it in half, and I added a inch for a flap to tuck the gift certificate in. 

Here is the front.  I used the stamp set "Color Me Christmas" and the Deco Lables Framelits.

But where will I get an envelope that size?  The Envelope Punch Board of course!  A steal at $19.95!















I used some 12 x 12 Cherry Cobbler paper and the fun Winter Snow Festival tags for the envelope.   Both from the Clearance Rack.






Now hop on over to the next blog on the MDS Blog Hop!  You will be heading over to Holly's Blog, where I am sure you will see something great!

 

 

 

Angel and Santa from the Bow Die

I saw these fun ornaments on Pinterest!  These are not my creation, but I was unable to trace them back to a specific blog. I believe the originals came from a demonstrator named Claire Dean, but I don't see a blog for her.  I took a guess at how that are made and came up with my own version.  Aren't they cute on my tree?  They are made from the Bow Die and they couldn't be simpler or cuter! 
Start by cutting out your pieces.  For Santa I used the Bow Die, the Perfect Pennant Die, the Ovals Collection Framelits, 3/4 circle punch, 1/2 circle punch, 3/8 scallop circle punch and a strip of Whisper White paper that I rounded at the ends.   The angel uses the Bow Die, the 1 1/4 circle punch, and the 1 3/8 circle punch.  Use an embossing folder to emboss your Bow Die.  I used Lacy Brocade on my project.  I thought the swirls were good for a beard.





Assemble the bow with glue dots. 

Add the tails.  Flatten the bow slightly for the Santa. This is the back view of the bow.

Add the oval face to the back and the nose to the front.  Add eyes and hat.  For these I use Tombow Multi Purpose adhesive.

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Add your hat and trim.  I also used a White Gel pen to add some twinkle to Santa's eyes.

I added a loop of ribbon to the back so that it can hang on a tree.  I am going to make some of these to go on gift bags or boxes. 

I think the Angel is pretty self explanatory.  Make the bow just like the Santa, but don't flatten it this time.  Add the Blushing Bride circles as a face.  Make the halo by punching out a small circle in glimmer paper, than punch around the hole with the larger circle punch. 

To make the back look nice and clean, I sandwich two circle together.  This is how that looks on the inside.  Then the next circle goes on top. 

I also add a  small oval to the back, just for more stability.  It seemed a tad flimsy with out it. 














Thanks for stopping by today.

Festive Flurry Ornaments! Love!

I love this kit!!  I bought them several weeks ago and only got around to putting them together today.  Wish I had started sooner because I would have made a ton more.   The kit comes with supplies to make ten and a instructions VIA video online.  I am not a fan of watching video how to's for some reason, not sure why.  I prefer a series of photos, I think so I don't have to pause or rewind.  Anyway, the video tells you to use a hot glue gun and I am also not a fan of the hot glue gun.  A Fellow demo, Meg, who's last name I don't know, said she put them together with glue dots and dimensionals so I decided to do it her way.  Easy peasy! I will make them all this way.  Here are my step by step photos...

Open the kit, punch out your pieces.  You get ribbon and large rhinestones included :)   Kit makes 10 for $14.95.

Take the large Soft Sky snowflake and fold it in half along the score lines. I folded the longer points as "valleys" and the smaller points as "peeks".

Here it is all folded.

Do the same with the silver glimmer snowflake.

Add a glue dot to the backs of the snowflakes on the points.  I put a glue dot on each of the raised folds.  This means 12 per finished snowflake.  That may be over kill, it would most likely be just fine to use a glue dot on every other. 

Place the Soft Sky snowflake onto the Crumb Cake printed snowflake. 













Now add your Silver Glimmer snowflake.

Now make a stack of dimensionals, sticking them together.  I stacked 5, 4 might be good to, depends on how ruffled your snowflakes are.

Stick the dimensionals into the center of the snowflake.

Add the printed Soft Sky snowflake to the center and stick on the rhinestone.  Yea!  Pretty!

Glue your ribbon to the back and use the Crumb Cake circle to cover the ends.  Done!! 

These would be great gift toppers, ornaments, bag decorations! String them together for a garland.  Add them to a wreath!  So Pretty.

And lookie!  It's already on my tree next to last years Ornament!

Last years Ornament uses some products no longer in the catalog but still available online.   The stamps can be found in the "stamps" section under "online only stamps".  They are called "Ornament Keepsakes".

 The ornament framelits match the stamps and are also online only.  I had a hard time finding them online so I ended up doing a search.  Here is the item number so you don't have to search for them.  item # 127816  $24.95

matching stamp set comes in wood mount and clear.  item # for clear is #128051  $24.95.  
Wood mount is # 128048  $34.95.

And, Bonus, that snowflake die I used in the middle is part of the Clearance Rack Blitz! 
Snow Flurry Bigz Die #127813  $13.19!  I checked online to make sure they were still available as clearance rack stuff goes fast and as on today at 1:00 they are. 















Stamper Campers, we will be making the new Snowflake kit on Saturday! If you are ordering anything online ahead of stamp camp, this weeks stamp camp hostess code is #6PAJG9A3.  

Clearance Rack OOPS!

Well, the Blitz has started, but there seems to be a glitch in the works : )  some of the items that have been on the clearance rack for a while are now showing up at regular prices.  Stampin' Up! was most likely going to lower those and unfortunately there is no one at the home office yet to let know of the error.  Oh well, I will have to check the prices later.  At least I can now see what will be on sale.  And, don't forget to check out the "Weekly Deals" and newest downloads today too!



Pop n cuts card base die on sale for 29.96  class attendees - this is what we used at the last stamp camp!

neutrals stampin' write makers on sale for 17.21

Core'dinations paper 2013-14 In colors on sale for 8.96 

blushing bride chevron ribbon on sale for 6.71

Rosette bigz XL die on sale for 32.21

Dotted Scallop Ribbon punch on sale for 11.96

ready- set- send cards 14.96

 

Hopefully the clearance rack prices will be fixed soon! let me know if you have any questions, I know with the different promos its hard to keep track!  Check out the Valentines too, its going to be here sooner than you think!

Clearance Rack Blitz

I'm posting this today so you can get a jump on the sale tomorrow!  In the past items sold out quickly!  I am hoping for some fun retired ribbon, maybe some BAJA BREEZE (love) and some paper!  maybe some older Simply Scrappin' Kits?  If my daughter wakes up in the wee hours of the morning (which she often does), I may log in instead of going back to bed!  Yea, I love sales on SU crafty stuff that much! :)
Let me know if you need help placing an order, otherwise go ahead and place it right from my online store!   

Special Season

Hi all!  I just have a couple quick Christmas cards today!  I have been neglecting my stamps lately.  There are so many things going on!  November and December are flying by!!  But, I wanted to post something so here are a couple cards using the Special Season stamp set.

This card is cut 1 1/4 inches too narrow at the side, and then held closed by the ornament. 

















The ornament is popped up on a dimensional so you can tuck the card front under it.


































Thanks for stopping by!  Off to get the kids hair cuts for Family pictures tomorrow! Fun!

MDS Blog Hop ~ Holiday Print Products

Hi Everyone!  It's MDS Blog Hop time again!  What is the MDS Blog hop?  Well if you are asking that question you are new to my blog :)  The MDS Blog Hop is a team of Bloggers who Love MDS and link our blogs together to showcase all that you can do with MDS.  This is such a talented group of ladies and I am super happy to be apart of it all!  Hopefully you are not saying "What is MDS?" but just in case I will tell you.  MDS stands for "My Digital Studio" which is  Stampin' Up's digital crafting software.  This week we are showing off some of the print products that Stampin' Up has to offer.  Last month print products were 30% off and I really took advantage of the sale.     Here is something I made to go along with some Christmas gifts for neighbors and friends.  This is a "Cookie Recipe Swatchbook"!  Yea!  Recognize the cover?  It matches the cookie tin lids I made a few weeks back (here)!  I love that MDS allows you to make so many coordinating projects! 

Swatchbooks have 26 designable pages for a total of 13 double sized pages.  The books also come with a thick clear plastic cover to protect the pages.   They are a great deal at only $9.95!  If you are making multiples of one project, you save $0.50 each on more than 5, and $1.00 off each if you  make more than 10.  I make these cookies for my family and neighbors, and so I decided to print 6 of these books.  I am also making a larger version that uses the easel calendar, so that it can be stood up on the counter while you make the cookies.  I will have to show you that later thought because I was not finished with that one until just a few days ago and I wont get it back from the printer until next week.   Back to my Swatchbook...
 I decided to make the front side of the pages have a picture of the cookies, then the back of the pages have the recipe.  I have been making Christmas cookies with my friend Jackie for 20 years now.   We keep a core group of cookies in the mix, then add a new one each year to give it a try, sometimes it stays, sometime we never make it again :) 
Here is Jackie showing off a family Favorite!

Here are some Melting Snowmen cookies that we make for the kids.

This is what the backs of the cards look like.  

Here is my swatchbook with the matching cookie containers.  I hope that my swatchbooks have given you some ideas for what you can do with MDS.  Do you take part in a cookie exchange? These would be fun for that.  Have a child on a sports team? You could make a pages with each team member on the front and their "stats" on the back.  Super fun! 
Well, now that you have seen my MDS project, Hop on over to the talented Holly's blog and see what she has made this week.  I am sure it will be great!  If you haven't come to me from Cori's blog, hop all the way around until you come back here to make sure you've seen the all!  We hope we inspire you!  Let us know what you think!