Hello everyone. The weekend is almost here and I am so ready. What a week. I did have something good happen this week and that is I was able to share My Digital Studio with 3 of my friends and share the same excitement I have, or you could say addiction. Believe me, when I say it's addicting, I am not exaggerating. So thanks for Chris, Traci and Lou Ann for giving me an opportunity to share a new way of papercrafting.

So last night a dear friend of mine came home from work and found her dog had passed away in his crate. As a big dog lover, my heart goes out to her and the pain she must be feeling and sense of loss. She does have 2 dogs, so she still has a dog at home to lay and cry with her while she misses her dear Beauregard. She loves Rhodesian Ridgebacks and Beauregard was her 3rd Ridgeback and now she has Toby left. So inbetween commercials of Survivor I created a card on MDS and I wanted to share it with you.

So you can refer back to this post and maybe re-create it when you purchase My Digital Studio for yourself. I created a 5x7 Portrait Greeting Card - Designer - Summer Home - 5x7 Card 2. The polka dots on the background were actually a tiny little border on the side of the designer card that I stretched out to cover the entire background with polka dots. I think this is what Chris was getting at last night and YES Chris - you can create a swiss dot "effect." The computer still won't physically emboss my card, but I love the sweet little white polka dot on the card. The 3 squares are just blank templates you can drop cardstock into. Remember when you do this, you want to open your cardstock as a page layer and then drag it over the square until the square turns blue and then drop it in and it fills the square. The stitching and staples were from another website where I got a free digital embellishment. Start scouring the web, there are lots and lots of free digital embellishments, paper, fonts and so much more out there free for the taking. All digital elements come "zipped" and you will have to "unzip" all of your digital files. Make a post and let me know if you want more information on that and I'll create a post about it.

Anyway, this is getting long, so one last thing is I wanted to say that the dog stamp is from "Man's Best Friend" and I just mirror imaged the middle one to face it in the opposite direction. Enjoy and I'd love to hear what you think. I'm off to the print to finish up my card using product now.

Happy Friday tomorrow. I hope you find time to play this weekend.

Hello everyone and happy Monday! I wanted to quickly let you know about a class that I will be offering for My Digital Studio. It will be held on Wednesday, February 24th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. The class will be limited to 4 students and the first 2 will arrive at 6:00 and create a card on my computer using Stampin'Up's Digital Papercrafting software called My Digital Studio. They will create, prepare to save for the web so they can share it with their friends and print and change assemble it using hybrid products. The 2nd group will arrive at 7:00 Pm and we will go thru the same steps as the first group but at least 2 people will be creating while the other 2 are learning.

So if you're interested - hurry up and sign up. The deadline to sign up is this Friday, February 19th. Cost of the class is $10.

I have also posted several valentine cards I made, both digital (and then spoofing up with product) and paper versions and posted them on my Picassa gallery, so be sure to check them out.

I will also be having a March monthly card making class on Wednesday, March 10th from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. So if digital just isn't your thing, I'd love to have you join me to create 3 projects on March 10th.

Until then, take care and always find time to play.

Now that I'm in the habit of posting at least once or twice a week, it seems like it's been awhile since I posted. I got a bug from my husband or it could have been from any number of people at the office, but in any event, I've not been feeling too well since Sunday and so I just haven't even felt like going on line. But I could tell I was starting to feel better yesterday when I felt like opening up My Digital Studio and playing around again. However, I was able to play a little bit in my craft room on Friday night and Saturday and so I did make a couple of valentine cards I thought I'd post.

The first one is my 2nd attempt at using the Welcome to the Neighborhood Paper Stack (6x6) that you can get from Stampin'Up free with a $50 order during Sale-A-Bration. I guess you can tell I really love the paper with those cute little houses on it. I had some Making Memories Chipboard from their Love collection a couple of years ago and so that's what's in the upper left hand corner. I then just cut out a couple of the clouds and layered them with dimensionals and I had some puffy hearts and added those. Quick and simple.

Another card I made was using a sample that is in the Occasions Mini. I didn't have a large alphabet stamp and so I just cut a 2" "U" out using my Cricut (Basic George) and I also used cut 4 hearts out right away since my Cricut was already set up. I'm sure they used the heart punch in the Occasions Mini, but believe it or not, that's a punch I don't have. However, I did get the jewelry tag punch with last month's order so I punched one of those out in white and stamped "Love" on it and tied it onto the "U" with silver cord. (That part isn't in the sample I copied). The card I'm talking about that I copied is on page 11 of the Occasions Mini. Check it out!
So when you're stuck for inspiration, pick up one of the current catalogs and copy one of their cards and put your own spin on it. It's really OK to copy - everyone does it and that's the whole idea behind inspiring you - to give you a jump off point. Just always remember to give credit to the person you're copying.

Until next time,

May you always have time to play........