MDS Monday - Lost Boy

I decided to do a digital scrapbook page with a photo book template in MDS to document a fairly horrible experience - we left my youngest child behind at a Rugby breakup day accidentally.  It had been a busy day, and we took two cars, and we both thought the other had him.  It all ended happily, with my son safe and sound, and he displayed common sense and maturity in the circumstances.  But it was a very frightening experience for all of us, and one that I doubt we'll need a scrapbook to remember.  Nevertheless, I wanted to document this day for the sake of posterity - this will become one of the family stories that will be re-told over the years, and I also like to keep it real.  Not everything in the scrapbook has to be about the good times. 

To make this I used a page layout I liked from the 12 x 12 Designer Kit Family Album.  I'm intending to do many more from this album as I collate the year's events.  I am doing it page by page, but at the end of the year I should have enough done to print off as a Photo book.  I kept it pretty simple, just changing the title of the page and adding my journalling.  I wanted to get the story down, while it was fresh.

I often change up the templates in the Designer kits to personalise them, but it is also fine to use them as they are.  If it ain't broke.....you know.  Sometimes the inspiration strikes, other times you just need to get it done.  

Ugh, I still feel shaky about  what "might have" happened to my brave little boy during the 20 minutes or so we didn't know he was missing.  I'm not sure I'll want him out of my sight to go to school today!

 

New Baby love! MDS Monday is back!

New babies are just delicious, aren't they?  My beautiful sister Jane had a divine baby girl just over a week ago - little Lucy.

Hello sweetie!

 I don't know if my sister will be sending out birth announcements, but I couldn't resist knocking some up with the ready-made templates in My Digital Studio.  Which do you prefer?

So easy to just pop in all the details and a cute photo - then save as a .jpeg and upload to the printer of your choice.  Done.

Did you know you can change the photo into black & white in MDS if you think it suits your project better?  Sweet!

 I must say I love the trendy chalkboard look at the moment, so that's probably my favorite. 

This is what I used:

Hello World Digital Kit - not only announcements, but an entire Baby Shower from cupcake toppers to thank you notes in this kit - and you can easily customize it for any occasion.

You can purchase them as digital downloads from my online store, naturally!  Louise's awesome online store

MDS Monday (On Saturday!)

LOL, I meant to schedule this post for Momday, but instead, I've posted it today (Saturday.)  Oops.

Wow, the weeks are rolling by fast, aren't they?  May is always an incredibly busy month for me,  but at lease MDS is making it quick to scrapbook!  Don't get me wrong, I love traditional scrapbooking too, but this is definitely a fast way to get up to date, so you don't feel guilty about all those photos on your computer.

I also tried printing out a photobook with Snapfish - have to say, they did a great job.  It was especially easy with the photobooks I've done in MDS, I just uploaded the pages as .jpeg files, and dropped them into black Snapfish pages.  I tried a soft cover 8 x 8 inch size, as it wasn't very expensive.  It would make a beautiful Mother's Day gift.  Here are some photos to show you how they look:

I've also been doing some challenges in a Facebook group called Simply My Digital Studio run by Heather Summers and Kimberly Van Diepen.  It's a lot of fun!  This week's challenge was a sketch:

And here's what I made:

I used MDS, Hello World Kit, and Fan Fair (for the frame)

What do you think?

Also, there's a fabulous promotion at the moment (Just in time for International Scrapbooking Day):

 Can't go wrong, really!
Contact me, or click here to go shopping!

Hopefully I'll be doing video tutorials soon, so watch this space!

MDS Mondays Sweet Boys Page

I'm going to try to do a post with an MDS project, or tutorial, every Monday, if I can.  
As I haven't mastered the art of video tutorials yet, this is heavy on photographs.

I realise there will be beginners who are new to MDS looking for information - I'm happy to help (not that I'm an expert myself, yet!).  I also highly recommend the training videos at mydigitalstudio.net .  I've found them really helpful.

Here's today's project:

 It's a CASE of my previous layout from here.

 I'll show you how I made it, step by step.

 Supply List MDS Downloads
Background
   Crumb cake textured card stock
Embellishments
    Designer Kits -A Split Second - grid; - flag (re-colored) 
   Designer Kits - Family Fun Photobook -- stitching 5
    Designer Kits - Afternoon Daydream  - button 2
    Antique Brads - brad 4
Stamps
    Designer Kits - Days to Remember overlay
    Designer Kits- Fan Fair - ruler,
   Designer Kit -Comfort Cafe - sweet,
Punches
    Basics/Scallop Circle Punch,
DSP
    Designer Series Paper - Designer Kits - A Split Second
 
       

1.  Start, as always, by opening MDS and clicking new project.  Choose Photobook and Individual pages.

 Then select 12 x 12 square,  pick Create Your Own, and choose a name to save your project.

And here is your blank canvas.  Let's get rid of the unsightly page bleed area shall we?

Just click on view in the menu bar, and click on either "Page bleed area'" or "Remove Page Bleed."  Both work, I don't know why.

Next go to the design centre on the right hand side, and click on Background papers, to see the drop down menu.

I decided to go with a textured crumb cake card stock.

  

So now my scrapbook page  has started.  I like the look of sponging around the outside, so I used an overlay (digital stamp).   Back to the Design Centre on the right, click Stamps to reveal the drop down menu.  Click Add Stamps to see a list of all the stamps you have.  

To help me find what I was after I typed "overlay" in the search box and scrolled through the results.

Once applied, it looked like this:

Very grungy, but I was after something more subtle.

That's better!

 I changed the colour of the stamp from the default black to Soft Suede by selecting Change Colour over in the Design Centre.

While I was in the stamp section of the design centre, I picked the ruler stamp from Fan Fair.  

I changed the colour to while, and changed the opacity to 50% because I wanted a "stamped off" look.

 Now to make the pretty DSP strips with the torn edges.  Start by clicking the "Photo" tab over in the Design Centre.  Yes, I said "photo."  You'll see why!

Stretch your photo box into a skinny rectangle, then go to the resource pallette on the left, click background papers, and select the one you like.  I picked DSP from the  A Split  Second kit.  Click and drag the DSP into the photo box.  To create the torn edge, you right click on the DSP, and select "Rip edges" from the menu.  

You'll get to pick which edge is torn, and how much.  Cool!

I did the same thing again with another strip of DSP, and made sure to add a drop shadow.

Then, I added two more photo boxes, and added my photographs.  I added a white mat, and a drop shadow to both.  

I added the flag embellishment (I recoloured it red), and placed a stamp (the word "sweet"), coloured white, and resized to fit inside it.  I also added some stitching there for texture.  The grid paper is another embellishment.

Then for the journalling!

I clicked on the "Freeform" button, and selected Line.  

I  made the line turn 90 degrees, then clicked "ok."

I then moved the line to where I wanted my text to go.  It looks black, but we can fix that later.

I opened a text box, typed my journalling, then selected the text and the line together and right clicked.  From the pop up menu I selected Attach to Shape.

To get rid of the black line, I made the opacity 0.  Magic!

All I needed to do then was to adjust my font and size, so it was exactly the way I wanted it.  

That's the page done, apart from a couple more embellishments to balance the page.

I do intend on figuring out how to use my video camera one day!  Maybe I should get my kids to teach me?

It wasn't until I typed this tutorial out that I realised there are actually quite a few techniques in here, and it might be a little complicated.  I'll try to stick to just one or two techniques in future!  Let me know if you'd like to know more about something I've written about here.  I might have glossed over something for the sake of brevity.

As always, if you'd like to download MDS as a free 30 day trial (or heck, why not just buy it!  You know you'll love it!)  you can get it from my online store HERE