Well, it almost Christmas and I have been super busy at work--retail is CRAZY!!! It's fun to help people find gifts for loved ones and friends, but the days are long and my body is screaming at me every night when I come home! I had great plans for a family picture and fun Christmas card, alas, with grown children in different places and everyone's schedules never matching up, the family picture didn't happen and my Christmas card will be more of a "holiday card" only because it probably will arrive around New Years Day--that's still ok, right? I had each family member take a pic of themselves at their new jobs, I think it came out pretty well. Hopefully next year I can plan my card much better (yeah, right!!!)
I chose a trifold card this year, it gave me room to add larger pics. My computer is getting old so my program becomes as slow as molasses when I add several components so this took me a lot longer than normal. Maybe Santa can bring me a new computer for Christmas!! I just love that I can create my own one-of-a-kind card for Christmas or any other occasion.
With all the holiday craziness going on, I will not be blogging until the first of the year, I am choosing to spend the little free time I have with my family (so excited to have my daughter home for a few weeks!) See you back here on the first of January for the We Create Blog Hop! Enjoy our final MDS Blog Hop of 2014!
We wish for you a very merry Christmas and may you all enjoy the love of your families during this holiday season!
This post has been a long time coming...I felt I needed to share my finds on using this great app and how to get the most out of it using MDS. We are connected with Becky Higgin's Project Life® through our Project Life® by Stampin' Up!® products so I feel like I can share the app as long as I use SU product when possible. There are 2 Project Life by Stampin' Up! kits on the PL app right now, and while we do not receive commission on these kits, I still feel they are a great addition to your collection. While working through all of the options this exciting app offers, I figured a few things out--I can still add some of my great MDS product to the scrapbook pages!! YAY!! I guess great minds think alike, because the fabulous Janet Wakeland added a great video on MDS.net on how to add your MDS product to Dropbox and use them as a photo. I will be sharing how to use your finished projects from the app in MDS, it's very easy and since you will be uploading your page to MDS to print through our fantastic print services anyway, it won't take much more time to "pretty" up your page with a few embellishments, right?
I have a suggestion about Dropbox...the free app only holds a small amount of large photos and MDS digital files, so I have picked a handful of my favorite DSP's and pocket cards on Dropbox and I will probably switch them out when I get something newer and prettier(isn't that how we are?). I hope you will try out the new Project Life App and play with the many fun kits and layouts Becky has added as well as many Stampin' Up! products, it is a blast!! I'm told the Android app is in the working stages, but will be available as soon as they can get it ready.
Head on over through the rest of the blog hop...Julie L. is next!
Lots of craziness going on around here this week, I'll be sure to fill you in soon!
If you have followed my blog at all, you've probably noticed that I love to create beautiful things for my home with MDS. That is actually how I got started using MDS, I had a need and I knew that I could make some of the creative things I had seen all over the internet and Pinterest...enter MDS! For this post, I dug out an old project and updated it for my new home! Although I haven't found the perfect place for this, I have a few ideas that I'm playing around with (that is usually the hardest thing for me, deciding on a place to put something!) I uploaded this project to Walmart and had them create a faux wrapped canvas, it looks just like the real thing, but if you want, you can also upload to other online canvas printers if you so choose. I just love the look of wrapped canvas, very clean and modern.
You may not be able to see the woodgrain background, but it is very similar to our espresso cabinets. Here is the project that I uploaded.
I had originally planned on doing portrait instead of landscape orientation, but I didn't want to change the whole project, so I just turned it the way I wanted it. (This download is meant to be used either way depending on the size of the final project) This would be a great wedding gift and you can customize it to go with the couple's home dec colors (I simply check their registry to see what colors they are using). To make this project you need the Lots of Love and Naturals Composition downloads and of course MDS!
Julie L. is next on the blog hop, check out her and the rest of the girls...they all amaze me with their talent!
Fall is here and the holidays are right around the corner! First up is Halloween, which is my 2nd favorite holiday, right behind Christmas. I love to decorate for fall...the colors are so beautiful and warm and I am getting a little antsy to decorate now (I am still holding out on 'indian summer', I don't want it to get cold too soon). Here is a fun new printable I made for Halloween, fun for little kids and big kids and everyone in between.
Make sure you check out the other Halloween printables on my blog, they are linked to Box.com so they are easy to download and print. This was so easy to make with MDS, my hardest decision is usually what font to use! Go ahead and try the 30-day free trial and give it a shot! I'm sure you could come up with something fabulous!
Time to hop through the rest of the bloggers to see what everyone is working on. Enjoy!
I have been able to see some great fall colors lately (a few weeks early here), I will share some of my photos next week and some new apps I've been playing with, so check back!
Well, I sent my baby off to college! That really makes you feel old! I wanted her to have a journal to write her memories from the great, exciting times in her college life so I turned to MDS. Stampin' Up! has two types of journals, bound and spiral, and I chose the bound journal. It is a soft bound cover and you are able to design the front and the back. Everything on the journal is digital, it is not a hybrid (MDS with added embellishments). I used mostly Hello There digital kit.
Just so you know, she LOVES her journal! I was able to get a few photos before I gave it to her, I am so happy with how it turned out!
If you need help with MDS or ordering print products, please feel free to contact me! I love to help and I know you will be as happy with your print order from Stampin' Up! as I am! Check out all of theprint products Stampin' Up! has to offer.
I know the rest of our bloggers will have great projects to share, make sure you hop through them all (and leave comments, it's nice to hear when people like our stuff!!) If you have some favorite MDS printed items from Stampin' Up!, leave a link in the comments, I'd love to see them!
Here's a pic of the new UVU Wolverine (or as we like to joke, Honey Badger!) Scary, eh?
We sure do miss her, but seriously, she's only about 30 minutes away, I know we'll see her often!
Did you see the great MDS downloads for this month? All of them are fantastic!
Love Story Digital Project Life
Age Awareness Stamp set
Lullaby DSP
Something for Baby Stamp Set
Something for Baby is so adorable! I just had to make a little onesie. I used iron-on transfer in my printer and I re-colored the little stacking toy. Make sure when you use text or word stamps to mirror the image or text for the iron-on. It's a really quick and easy gift, something you could make ahead of time and have a few of them ready to go at a minute's notice.
One suggestion...make sure you follow the directions on the transfer paper, just sayin'! Also, my printer does not have the best color match for my Stampin' Up! colors, I would suggest that you take your transfer paper to a professional copy shop with your image on a flash drive. I get much better images that way.
I can't wait to see what all the girls have created this week, I always seem to have to buy a few more downloads, how about you? It's always great to read the comments so go ahead and leave 'em some love!
My girlie is getting ready to head down to college next week! I'm getting so excited for her, but we are surely going to miss having her around! On to bigger and better things, yay!
Yay! I'm finally done! Sorry to make you wait, it's just been a crazy few days, so last night kind of caught up with me. Well, as you can imagine we have been working on getting settled in our new home and since we now have our Stampin' Up! print services back (Hallelujah!!!) I am ready to finish my "We've moved" announcements. I plan to add a photo to the back, but as of yesterday I've had some landscaping issues and large piles of dirt in my yard as well as electrical cords strung along the front porch to my side window well which has been filling up with water--hence the addition of a small sump pump!! Yikes! Once I get that all fixed, I can actually take a nice pic of my home for the back of my card. I made 2 cards, I can't quite decided which one I like the best (just so you know, that is NOT my address!) Maybe you can help me decide. The main downloads used are Natural Composition Overlay (my fav!), Delightful Digital tape and Back to Black overlay.
The first one is kind of fun and silly and the other one is more modern and stylish. It's hard to believe we've been here for more than a month, I'm actually feeling more settled (still have to work on my stamp room!) I can actually relax a little bit and enjoy the summer. Even though it's in the high 90's it's a drastic change from the 110's in Vegas, and at least it cools down in the evening so we can sit out on the "stoop" and enjoy the neighborhood.
Make sure you visit all the other talented MDS designers and please give a warm welcome to my super-duper creative friend Wendy Weixler who will be joining our blog hop. Yay!
Today is Pioneer Day in Utah, a commemoration of the day the Mormon Pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake valley in 1847, so I'm looking forward to our new neighborhood BBQ and fireworks later this evening! As a descendent of pioneers, I'm forever grateful for the sacrifices that were made so that we could truly have the freedom to worship according to our own conscience.
Well, to say that my summer has been fun so far is not quite accurate. It's definitely been eventful, but fun...well, not yet anyway! I'm excited that Stampin' Up!'s annual convention is one week from today--YIPPEE!! I always look forward to seeing everything that Stampin' Up! has in store but more than that, I so enjoy seeing all the friends I've made over the last 18 years being a demonstrator. This is such a great company to be a part of. I've still been unpacking (and re-packing) boxes and organizing (and re-organizing) my new home. I'm sure you all know where I'm coming from. This first month has been a whirlwind and I am so glad we made this decision, but moving is HARD! No wonder I stayed 20 years in the last house!! Well, with all of the stuff going on here, I realized I hadn't updated my iPhone screen saver in a while, so I made a few that were kinda summer-y (that's what I'm calling them so they fit with the blog hop, don't tell the others-- wink, wink!)
Sorry about the spacing, computer isn't cooperating. Anyway, you can download these and add them to your own iPhone, but it's very easy to make your own with MDS. Choose the custom project option and add the size of your screen (google it!) and then go crazy! You can add whatever you want! Save the project as a .jpg and then email it to your phone. Simple enough? This is what it looks like on my iPhone:
I can't wait to share the fun from convention so check back in or follow me on twitter (@stampinjul), I'll be trying to keep up with all the excitement!
Check out all the rest of the bloggers on our hop, they always have fun projects to share. Julie L. is next.
Time for bed, sleep seems to be alluding me this week, I think some type of pharmaceutical is in my future!
Busy, busy, busy around here! We closed on our home here in Vegas last week and the next day put an offer on a home in Utah...yep, we are under contract! We've experienced miracle after miracle in this process of moving our family back to where we started, we know that we have been guided through this whole journey. We know it is time for us to return, but that doesn't really make it easier to leave. If I pretend I'm not leaving for a little while longer, maybe I'll be able to focus on the job at hand, the job I hate--packing!! I can see why people just hire movers to do it all, I'm getting to that point. Sometimes, I've got to ignore all the boxes and take an MDS break!
Several years ago, I made this fun card with my Stampin' Up! punches and an idea from all over the web, a cute baby card with the guys from the "Street", you know the ones; Oscar, Big Bird, Elmo and Cookie!
Anyway, as I often do, I looked at that card and said to myself, "Hey, I can create that in MDS!" So that's what I did.
It's pretty simple with different punches and a couple of stamps and embellishments. I cropped a few of the punches as well. If you would like to see how this is done, check out this video (it's a different project, but same steps):
This card could be perfect for babies through elementary school (ok, maybe the older kids wouldn't admit to watching Sesame Street, but I know they do!!) If you have questions regarding any of the punch shapes, leave a comment and I will let you know which ones they are.
Time to move along to the next blogger, Julie L., she's always got something fun to share!
I hope you will stick with me through this move. I may not be posting very much for the next 3 to 4 weeks, but once I get settled in, I will get right back to creating!!
