Experiencing a little Mourning this Morning!

It is with much sadness that Stampin' Up! announced yesterday that it will no longer be perusing it's Digital Software and all the exclusive to Stampin' Up! digital download designs that are a part of the My Digital Studio​ software.

This change will come about May 31st, 2015. As a result for those of us who are avid MDS lovers we need to ensure that we have our digital downloads securely backed up on an offline option should we need it in the future.

Suggested options are to save and back up all download files including the actual software and most recent upgrade to either a CD, Flash Drive, External hard driver or a Cloud device. This way should your computer 'crash' you can reload all your content without loosing it as Stampin' Up! will no longer be storing a 'digital library' for customers!

For tips on how to do this please check out the My Digital Studio forum here. 


I realize this will come as a shock to many of you ~ if you are a MDS customer of mine and have questions please do not hesitate to give me a shout and I will do my best to answer them or find the answers for  you!

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Get your Digital groove on!

How cool are these?

My Digital Studio has new POSTCARD print options .... just love this cool save the date sample shown here for a wedding invitation!

If you've never used the My Digital Studio you should totally take advantage of the FREE 30 day trial to see what it can do for you ... click here to visit my store for more info on downloading your free version today! Great for making your own personalized Christmas cards, scrapbooking pages and even great for creating business flyers, cards and other promotional info!

Plus there are amazing resources and support for ideas and tricks and techniques available at the My Digital Studio forum and if you want more support in taking your digital crafting to the next level I offer monthly classes featuring new and different tricks with the software options ~ check out my event page for upcoming classes!

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Rising to the Challenge

Took advantage of a weekend away for Fathers Day to carve out some time to boot up My Digital Studio and rise to some challenges for inspiration with a scrapbook layout of my wonderful kitty Nevada and our recent road trip with her ... one of the things I do love about My Digital Studio is it allows me to scrapbook anywhere and well since the boys were off doing their boy fun a girl needs to be able to play too!

I was inspired by my online friends Maggie and Rhoda over at My Stamping Best Friend and their June's Color Challenge to make use of the wonderful new 2013-14 In Colors of Coastal Cabana and Strawberry Slush with Basic Grey combined with this wonderful Hexagon inspired June layout challenge of Sketch 348 from over at Scrapbook Challenges which I had a whole lot of fun playing along with cause I am loving the little Hexagon punch from Stampin' Up both in its digital version and the traditional punch!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful Father's Day today!

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Happy Valentines All!

I am still loving the Everyday Enchanted paper from the Sale-a-bration catalog ... the color palette is so versatile and well just YUMMY!

Have used it here to make this clean and simple Valentine Card using our new Heart Framelits, the Scalloped Heart embosslit and the Take it to Heart stamp set from the Occasions mini!

Added a little bit of paper piercing around the end for texture and quick easy 5-10 minute card depending on how quick you pierce :)

Just a reminder that that the Free 30 Day Trial for the My Digital Studio Express is still going on - if you have not already downloaded it for your free 30 day play now is the time to do it ... click here to download . 

Hop on over to the My Digital Website here to check out resources, support and awesomely wonderfully inspirations of what you can do with the My Digital Studio program!

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Online Extravaganza

Stampin' Up!' Online Extravaganza, our annual sale to kick off the holiday shopping season, will begin Monday, November 21, 2011, and run through Wednesday, November 30, 2011. 

This promotion is perfect for those would like to shop online during this especially busy time of year and avoid the store line ups or traffic -  however sale prices will be available on all order types so if you prefer the personal interaction of a demonstrator to help place your order please feel free to drop me a line and I can order your 'sale' items for you :)

So make sure to come back and click the above link to my Online Store on Monday November 21st to take advantage of great savings! Savings such as FREE digital downloads valued at $42 when you buy the My Digital Studio Express or 60 % off select Designer Fabrics - these are awesome in all sorts of paper crafting too for texture and embellishments and 30 % off an exclusive ribbon bundle! 

In the meantime here is a little Fall Centerpiece offering to enjoy before the reality of the snow arrives and brings us into Winter ... these are centre pieces I made recently for the AECEO when we helped to sponsor the Quality Child Care Project Mentorship Evening and Raising the Bar celebration.

I made 20 for the tables in a variety of designs but all featuring the Spice Cake Designer Series paper and our Bigz Fun Flowers die, the large scallop punch for the smaller rosettes and with the Petal Cone die inverted for the vase!

 Here are some up close of the flowers ... each one unique!

 I used My Digital Studio to create a coordinating verse for the vases ... Celebrating ECE Everywhere and than the Vintage Vogue floral image in coordination Pool Party, Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Pear Pizzaz and some Pacific Point for fun!

 And how can we celebrate without a chance to be spoiled and pampered with a change to win DOOR PRIZES ... so I donated a couple of start sets with stamp, paper, markers, ink and some embellishments to make a few cards!

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

National Digital Scrapbooking Day

Stampin' Up! is celebrating Digital Scrapbooking Day with four free (brand new) downloads seen here and for more detail description of all the wonderful things included click here for the PDF version!

The free downloads are available until November 7th for more information click here. There are two different file downloads - one for My Digital Studio and one for other programs (Photoshop Elements, Word, etc.).

All you need to do is fill out this quick and simply survey found here to help Stampin' Up with product research and than follow the commands to get your free downloads ... easy peasy!

Here is a sample of a quick and easy Xmas card I made with the Home for the Holiday and So Typefelt downloads ... quick 5 minute card that can be sent as an e-card or printed out and turned into a hybrid card by adding some bling and so forth!

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Save the Date for this deal!

Saturday November 5th is National Digital Scrapbooking day and in honor of the celebration Stampin' Up is wanting to share its wonderful digital downloads for FREE to customers ... all you have to do is complete a quick research survey and than download the free graphics - and if you do not have the My Digital Studio program no worries our downloads work with any graphics program including PAINT or WORD you just need to choose the format you want to download for and whola - free downloads!

Stop by My Digital Studio website this weekend and check it out!

Also at anytime you can download My Digital Studio downloads from my online web store here .

Just to show you the wonderful creations you can make with Digital Scrapbooking options here are some of my favorites:

Coordinating layouts that capture a love story ....

Watercoloring and other cool digital embellishments that allow your creative juices to flow ...

 Vintage possibilities...

Not a scrapbook person - no worries you can also make cards, calendars and many other projects using My Digital Studio!

One of the things I love about working with digital creations is I can do it ANYWHERE I can take my laptop ... and clean up is a breeze! The other benefit is if your storage space for scrapbooks is limited you can create digital scrapbooks using a digital frame that only takes up a sliver of space on a desk or coffee table and make GREAT gifts for your loved ones!

Stop by tomorrow and I will have a sneak peek of a project using one or two of the free downloads available this weekend ;)

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Capturing a Kitchen Reno

So I took lots of pictures to document the kitchen renovation process and what a process it was .... they say nothing worth doing right is easy ... well that was an understatement with this experience!

We are still waiting on a reply from Direct Buy on how they and Kitchen Craft are going to make things right with the financial impact of the extended delay we experienced. A delay that was due solely to their lack of quality control in sending us the wrong sized cabinet initially and than their almost 4 week delay in fixing that problem to get us the correct cabinet so that we could resume our renovation!

It arrived eventually and Element Home Improvements were awesome in quickly completing the renovation and getting us a functional kitchen once again - and we are very please with how it all pulled together!

So with the kitchen fully functional and all organized once again I am hoping that my creative mojo has finally returned and that I can get back on track with my Stampin' as I am very excited with the new Catty that goes live on Friday - some seriously amazing new products coming out!

Sketch Thursday 5.5 and Creative Scrappers 155

These are MDS creations for National Scrapbooking Month ... trying to get my album done before the end of the month to take advantage of the 30% off of printing through Stampin' Up and My Digital Studio Printing!

This first page was inspired by Creative Scrappers Challenge 155

I combined a couple of different features here to tie both pages together ... I used the Strength and Hope DSP on both and combined with the Beautiful Butterfly punch download which I than filled with multiple overlapping textured papers to create a sponged look to them and finished them off with the pearls!

On this page I also used the paper daisy download layered with drop shadows to give it the 'gold look' ... and I used a photo of one of their napkins that my Aunts made as my 'journaling'

This page is inspired from the Sketchy Thursday 5.5 Challenge...

I opted for three photos instead of two on my inspiration and used more of the paper to coordinate with the other sketch ... I just LOVE the many butterflies and how they turned out here ... so much I did not leave any room for journal area but well the photos speak for themselves here and I can add to the back the names of everyone once I print it out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Encore sneak peek - Open Sea

Another sample of the Open Sea ... hope you are not getting bored!

I am just loving the Nautical DSP - it allows you to do so many wonderful colour combos with this set and the great thing about Stampin' Up! Products is that they all coordinate so well together - I love the Word Play stamp set to add an additional sentiment to my envelope - the Go in the Directions of your dream goes great with the compass and is awesome for a Father who is retired and traveling!

I also just love the little Game Spinner hands and am so glad that they were carried over when the Occasion's Mini ends today - they added perfect male bling to this card and coordinate with the compass stamp perfectly as well - think this card would have also been perfect with a 'retirement sentiment' from the Teeny Tiny Wishes instead of the Happy Father's Day sentiment!

Thanks for stopping by and leaving your warm and wonderful comments - they make my day!

Creative Scrappers #152 meets Saturday ScrapSketch27

So the craft room is almost back to a temporary state of workablity - in that everything is back in its container and sorted from the big fall and a small work space is emerging.

As they say everything happens for a reason - my other half has taken pity on me and the perils of 'store bought materials' and their lack of quality these days and taken measurements to build me a custom made storage unit to hold my papers, punches and other products!!!

In the meantime another MDS offering inspired by the Saturday ScrapSketch 27 over on My Digital Studio offered by Alesha Walls ...

Which I used to create the following right page layout using the new Color Challenge from over at Color Q I missed the deadline for it however loved that it showcased some of the awesome colors in the new Beyond the Garden DSP! Also love how the button gives so much dimension stretched up so large - hoping it turns out as crisp when printed!

Then we blog hopped over to the Creative Scrappers and participated in the Sketch #152 which as such a pretty layout as well!

And here is my left side layout for this challenge ... again using the same colour scheme, Beyond the Garden DSP and accenting with a Beautiful Butterfly die layered with textured papers to create the sponged look and depth and some half back pearls for bling factor! I also used the Just Believe stamp set at 20% opacity on the Crumb Cake background to give a tone on tone Wersamark look!

Thanks for stopping by!