A Little Digital Mojo with Digital Frame Tutorial

I'm doing a half-hour My Digital Studio Presentation at my upline Marlayne's Spring Fling this week-end. I will be presenting a scrap page as well as a card. This week's Mojo Monday sketch has borders, layers and a nice clean design. It is a great card to show my audience how to use the various stamps, punches, Designer Series Papers and embellishments that MDS has to offer.


What I especially love about working digitally is that I can use stamps and embellishments I don't have at home. On this card, I used the Big Bold Birthday stamp set as well as Pear Pizzazz Seam Binding Ribbon - neither of which I have in my stash at home.

Another great thing about MDS is that our favorite papers, colors and embellies never retire!  I loved the My Sweet Pea suite of products in the 2010 Occasions Mini and I still love them. I often use them in my digital crafting so it's no surprise that I used them for this card.  Those felt embellies are gorgeous accents for any girly project. I also just downloaded the Sweet Stitches Big Buttons (just retired from the 2011 Occasions Mini) which coordinate beautifully with the My Sweet Pea motif.

One thing I struggled with in this card is the top scallop punch length. There is no way to 'cut' a punched element or stamp with MDS (there will be an email going to SU! with this suggestion shortly...). So how did I create the frame? I couldn't figure it out but I got my solution on the My Digital Studio Forums. First you add the top scallop trim border that you need 'trimmed'. Place it where you need it. Create a page layer with the same cardstock or designer paper what is underneath the punch and put it over the area you want hidden. Here I show it in Daffodil Delight, so you can see it, on my finished card it's in Early Espresso. The first image shows the punch over top, the second image shows the Daffodil Delight over top of it.

Another limitation I found with MDS is changing the color of a layer. You can't, as far as I can tell, unless it's the card background. So if you think you'll want to change the color of the layer, do a square punch, adjust the size to what you need and then you can change the color anytime. If you have Designer Paper in the background, you can easily match the design on the paper by double clicking on your layer or punched image and moving it to where you need it on the DSP sheet. See the MDS screen shot below to see what I'm talking about ;)

I hope you've enjoyed this card and this has helped you a bit with your digital creations. I love My Digital Studio for all the reasons listed and know you will too!  Keep letting stamps (and digi stamps) bring out your creativity!

Easy Butterfly Pansy Tutorial

Another Pals Paper Arts Challenge awaited me this week and it was a Celebrity Color Challenge. Our projects were to use Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzazz and Peach Parfait. I'd be lying if I told you I loved Poppy Parade, I haven't really used that color in the last 10 months. And that color combination isn't really 'moi'. But that's why it's a challenge, right? So here's what I came up with :)

I also promised you that I'd show you how to make those adorable butterfly pansies. They're very easy to make!  I can't take credit for them though, I learned how to make them about a month ago from a fellow Demonstrator :) First, using Stampin' Up! Shimmery card stock (because it soaks up water better and also adds a little shimmer to your flower), punch out two butterflies with the Butterfly Punch. You can also use Whisper White or Very Vanilla card stock but the water may not soak in as easily.

Next, spritz your butterflies with water until very wet. Using SU! reinkers, drop one or two drops of your chosen colors (here I used Poppy Parade and Peach Parfait) on a paper towel. Pick up ink with an Aquapainter and 'paint' the wet butterflies. Place ink where you want it and let the colors run together. You will get a 'tie dye' effect. Let your butterflies dry.

Once dry, use a coordinating color (Concord Crush on my pansies) to draw the lines on the pansies. Put a little adhesive in the center of the bottom butterfly and adhere the butterflies together. I added a green rhinestone brad in the center of my pansies to add a little glimmer.

As you can see, these are very easy and take only about 10 minutes to make! Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

A little Anniversary Mojo

Tomorrow is my and my husband's 9th Wedding Anniversary. I can hardly believe it! To celebrate this special day I of course made my hubby a card. Mojo Monday had a gorgeous sketch that I thought would work well with the Artistic Etchings Stamp Set and Trinket Key I was planning on using for my card. This Anniversary post is also very fitting because this is my 100th blog post!!!  I can't believe it!

I used the Newsprint Designer Series Paper in the current IB&C as well as the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder to emboss the top piece of DSP.  Stamping on textured card stock isn't always my thing, but it worked well with the Eiffel Tower. As I started putting it together I worried it was a bit busy with the layered Newsprint DSP. In the end though I think it worked well! Although everything on this card is Very Vanilla, Early Espresso and Basic Black, I did the scallop circle in Cherry Cobbler to make it pop a bit. This really pulled the card together.

I love the Trinket Keys to add a little "je ne sais quoi" to those extra-special cards. Keys can be symbolic in many ways but on this card it symbolizes the "key to my heart".  Pretty darn sappy, eh?

Enjoy - next time I'll show you how to make those adorable pansies from last Monday's Mojo Challenge! In the mean time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Ships and Postage Stamps

The new stamp set in the Summer Mini, The Open Sea, is sooooo not me. Heck, when I first saw it mid-March I thought to myself "Who is going to buy that???  Boats?"  Well, I knew it would be someone's cup of tea, but certainly not mine.  I'm eating my words now...

I saw a few samples made with the stamp set at a recent meeting with my upline, saw a couple on Splitcoast and, well, I was hooked. I could make FABULOUS masculine cards with it and it was very versatile. So I took the plunge and ordered the set that was so not me ;)

Us demos know, this happens often... a stamp set we don't particularly like becomes a favorite after we see samples with it. Accessories or punches that we can never see ourselves using also become our faves. I think this is happening with this stamp set :) My next project will use the coordinating DSP, Nautical Expedition.

I made this card for this week's Pals Paper Arts Challenge. We were challenged to do a clean and simple card using buttons. I tend to use buttons a lot so I swapped them for compass 'postage stamps' using the new Postage Stamp Punch (LOVE IT!). I also used the Chocolate Chip Baker's Twine. I was introduced to distressing of card stock a few weeks ago and love the effect.  I just used my Craft and Rubber Scissors and 'scraped' them along the edges of the card stock.  If you look closely, I tore it too, but I didn't mean to ;)

So what do you think? Yay or nay for the stamp set? Clean and simple enough? Keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

A little 'Tuesday' Mojo and Stamper's Group Sneak Peak!

I never do this. I want my Stamper's Group members to have a 'surprise' (hopefully a good one ;) ) when they come to make their projects every other month. But I loved the Mojo Monday Sketch so much this time around that I wanted to use it for one of my projects this month. So what I'll do is post the card but no dets - you'll have to wait 'til Sunday next week to get those - sorry!  All I'll say is that a lot of what you see  are new Summer Mini products and there is some 'old' in there too, just used in a different way :)

Enjoy, and keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!