Friday, September 9, 2011

My Digital Studio Recipe Pages

I can't resist a good swap.  And while I didn't sign up for 18 swaps at convention this year like I have in the past, I still signed up for plenty.

One of the easiest swaps I did this year was a My Digital Studio 6x6 recipe swap.  Here are two of the recipes I swapped:

Colors: Early Espresso, Pear Pizazz, Cajun Craze.  MDS Kits: Autumn Spice, Vintage Brads

Colors: Early Espresso, More Mustard, Pear Pizazz, Cajun Craze.  MDS Kits: Autumn Spice, Stitching
Are you wondering how I made 6x6 pages when MDS doesn't currently have a 6x6 option?  After picking my background paper, I selected a square punch and resized it to 6x6.  You can resize any punch by dragging a corner, but if you need an exact size, like this use the "resize" tool in the Design Center on the right side of you screen. Love this feature!
That 6x6 square became my canvas and I started filling it with page elements.  When I had it exactly how I wanted it, I deleted the 6x6 square and then clicked on "Select All" (you can do that through the arrange menu, holding the ctrl button on your keyboard and dragging you mouse over the elements you want to select, or my favorite keyboard shortcut - ctrl + A.  Then I grouped them together using the arrange menu or ctrl + G on your keyboard.  This is what it looked like at that point.

Once everything is grouped together, it's easy to move, copy and paste, etc.  So that's what I did - dragged it to the top corner, then copied it and pasted it three times to place one in each corner.  I used the align tools to make sure they were all exactly even.  It looked like this:
After I had that all done, I sent them off to the printer and when they were delivered to my doorstep, I cut them into fours and they were ready to swap.

I know what you are thinking though -- what if you don't need four copies of the same 6x6 page?  Then instead of filling the back ground with a single Designer Series Paper, you would leave it white and fill your 6x6 square instead and just design four different 6x6 squares, one in each corner.  

I hope that all made sense and that maybe you learned something in all of it about My Digital Studio.

8 comments:

Yapha said...

Such great pages!! Thanks for the detailed explanation of how you made them, too!

Shelley Z said...

Love your pages. The recipes sound so yummy!

Sue said...

Sounds yummy! Love the papers you used, too!

Deb B (Debadoo) said...

ok, well now I'm hungry! lol I need to save this and go try it with the great instruction you gave. I did all the stuff, got certified, and don't remember how to do anything in MDS! I have got to make myself sit down and relearn it, cuz it's an amazing tool!

Anonymous said...

The pages look great and the recipes sound yummy! Thanks for the info on how you created them, too. I especially appreciate the "resize" tip; I've tried stretching out the punch and the resize would be easier and more exact. Thanks!

Cindy said...

Love the tips (and the recipes sound yummy - I'm copying them!!!).

Holly/Rubber Redneck said...

Awesome pages!! I love how you made it 6 x 6 great tip!

Sara Mattson-Blume said...

Love it! What great recipes! So glad I have them.