Saturday, 13 April 2013

Goodbye Watercolour Pencils!

As my luck would have it, the same day my watercolour pencils (which I finally ordered, after them being on my wishlist for 5 years) arrived, Stampin' Up! announced that due to problems with their supplier, watercolour pencils and crayons were being discontinued.


 Sad, isn't it?



So I made a card.

The End.

Wednesday, 10 April 2013

New Download Day!

Each week, Stampin' Up! releases new digital downloads to use with MDS - I have to confess, I've already purchased some of this week's downloads, I couldn't resist!


Preferred Price:  $3.50
Regular Price:$3.89
To Purchase from my online store click HERE


Preferred Price:  $13.95
Regular Price:  $15.50
To purchase from my online store, Click HERE

Preferred Price:  $4.50
Regular Price:$5.00
To Purchase from my online store, Click HERE

Notice the different prices?  You get a discount for purchasing through a Demonstrator's website.

I had to giggle when I saw the "For Mom" templates, especially this one:


SO TRUE!!!!




Sunday, 7 April 2013

Hail to the King, Baby.

Name that movie!  (answer at the end of the post*) 

I've been paying with the "You Rule" Stamp set (page 8 of the Seasonal Mini; 129261 wood $37.95 or 129264 in clear $29.95).

It makes awesome birthday cards, for anyone.  I love that the new large rhinestones (129324 $8.95, page 8 of the Mini) fit this stamp beautifully.  Here are three different samples I've come up with.

I messed up the watermark on this photo!  But I embossed the crown with  platinum  embossing powder, then cut it out with my paper snips.  I punched out a circle with the 2.5" circle punch, which I ran through the chevron embossing folder.

This one has a pennant made with the pennant punch, as well as the Happy birthday from Bring On the Cake. 

This one uses the Itty Bitty Banner framelits for the little flags.

*Of course, if you are a tragic fan of the Evil Dead movies from the nineties like me, you'll know Bruce Campbell says that line at the end of Army of Darkness.


You can find out more about the movie at IMDB here.  If you search YouTube for "Hail to the King, Baby" you'll find the scene - which is awesome, but be warned if you are watching with little ones around, it has zombies and violence.  


Friday, 5 April 2013

MDS Tutorial - How to Use a Template







Tutorial Time!

I've already shown you some of my scrapbooking attemps with MDS, here and here. 

Now I'm going to show you how to make one, step by step.

First:  Assuming you have downloaded the free MDS Trial, or purchased the full MDS (for the extremely reasonable price  of $ 24.95  from my online shop HERE!), go to the little green MDS icon on your desktop, and click it to open MDS.

When you open it, you will see something like this:


Click on the Designer Templates, and you'll see this:


Scroll down to see all the different templates.  I'm using the Vintage Overlay template today.





Click Next, then it takes you to this screen:




Click Next again (this screen is useful if you are doing a multipage photobook and you want to re arrange the pages).




Click insert photographs individually.




Now name your project so you can find it again once it is saved.

And you are ready to drag and drop your photo (I already had some there on my browser) or double-click to add your photo.  See that grey border and barcode thingie?  That's the Page Bleed area.  It doesn't show up on your finished project, so you don't need to do anything with it. You can get get rid of it, if you want to.   Here's how:




 Click View up in the top menu bar, select Bleed Area, and from the next menu, select Remove Bleed Area.  Hey presto!

You're done!

Now, back to the page:  highlight the placeholder text and either delete it if you don't want it there, or overtype it with what you want.





Here's what my page looks like now:



I could save this now, and call it good.    OR.......I could change it up a bit, personalise it some more.


To change the colour on the word "together" I selected it, and the design centre Text list on the right popped open.



This is how you change the colour, font, size of text on your page.  Fun, huh?


I clicked on the "Change Colour" icon and up popped the Stampin' Up! pallette of all their colours, past and present (isn't that COOL?  Your favourite colour NEVER retires in MDS!)


I picked Real Red, to match the centre of the flowers.


Then, I thought I'd add another flower at the top right of the photo.  When I selected one of the original flowers, I noticed that the centre and the petals of the flower are seperate digital layers.  To copy, move etc this flower, I selected both the flower layers and then clicked Arrange on the top menu.




I selected Group from the drop down menu, and both layers are now flattenened into one layer, and can be resized, moved, copied, etc easilly.

 Here's my finished project!

Don't forget to save your project.  Before you can print it, you'll need to save as a .JPG file by following the prompt when you press the "SHARE" icon from the Design Centre Menu.


This is a 12 x 12 template, which you could print at home if you resized it (I'll show you how in another tutorial), or if you download it onto a USB and took it to a printing place (or uploaded it to an online printing place like Snapfish).  I've found that whenever I print a project on my home printer, I get better results if I have exported it as a .jpeg file first

I'll be back soon with another step-by-step project.




Colour Refresh! Big News!



These discontinued colours are being sold out as stocks last, so don't delay placing your order - for re-inkers, ribbon, cardstock or inkpads if your favourite is being discontinued!

Click on the "Shop Now" button to go to my online store.

Stampin" Up!  has made a video explaining the colour refresh:







Thursday, 4 April 2013

Important Announcement!


Watercolor Pencils and Crayons Discontinued

4 April 2013 Due to unforeseen problems with our supplier for Watercolor Wonder Crayons and Watercolor Pencils, we have decided to discontinue these two products.
The following items are only available while supplies last. Get 'em before they're gone!
  • 101879: Watercolor Pencils
  • 119802: Subtles Collection Watercolor Wonder Crayons
  • 119803: Regals Collection Watercolor Wonder Crayons
  • 119804: Brights Collection Watercolor Wonder Crayons
  • 119805: Neutrals Collection Watercolor Wonder Crayons
Go to my online store HERE to order yours today!


Some sent with Love, love...?

Hmm, not my best title!

I've had some fun with the Sent With Love set - the papers are so fun, and the colour combo is at once fresh and yet has a retro vibe, I think.

Here's what I've made so far:


Did you notice the hostess stamp set I used that goes nicely with the postage theme?

Ugh, I can't find my PSE9 disc (to load it onto my new laptop), so I haven't been able to watermark or resize all my photos yet!  Bear with me!
Did you know you can also purchase the Sent with Love kit as an MDS Digital Download?  Fun!  I am planning a project showing how to make the same project traditionally, and digitally.  Watch this space!




Getting closer....

It's nearly that time of year, where the retirement list comes out.  That means the in-colours we've loved the past 2 years are leav...