Stampin' Addicts Occasions Mini Blog Hop

Welcome to stop #2 on the Stampin' Addicts Occasions Mini Catalog Blog Hop.  If you're hopping in order, then you've just come from Tanya's Tinkerin' in Ink blog.  Isn't she clever?  I love what she did with that Doily Sizzlet.  If this is your first stop, no worries.  We are linked together in one big loop so you won't miss a thing. If you get lost at any time head on over to the Stampin' Addicts for a complete list of participating bloggers, or just to chat it up!

This Occasions Mini Catalog introduces some brand new things to the Stampin' Up! Big Shot repertoire and I'm excited to share two of those products: Adorning Accents Edgelits Dies and the coordinating Adorning Accents Textured Impressions Embossing Folders.  Edgelits are wafer-thin dies that let you see exactly where you are placing the design before you cut a border on your project. The set in the mini comes with two different designs. The coordinating embossing folders add texture to those borders to make them even fancier. The embossing folder set includes three different designs.  I'm featuring three projects today with these and other products from the catalog. As always, you can click on the picture to get a better look.

The first card features one of the Edgelits fancy borders and the coordinating embossing folder.  I just love this shape and the texture!  The dotted line above that is from the Bordering on Romance set which also coordinates perfectly with the Adorning Accents sets.  You might also notice the new Twitterpated Designer Series Paper and the fabulous 3/8" Pleated Satin Ribbon on the card, also from the mini catalog.  And all three of my projects also feature the Loving Thoughts stamp set from the mini, which has quickly become my go to greeting stamp since I its arrival.  I will provide more details and a different card with the same layout on Monday.

For this one, I used the scalloped Edgelit to make a fancy border on this card box and on the cards inside as well.  You might be thinking to yourself, why would I want this when I have a punch that does the same thing?  If you look closer, you can tell that the scallops are also scalloped on this design which makes it even fancier than what you can get from the punch. The box also features more of the Twitterpated paper and the pleated satin ribbon.  I have more detailed pictures of the box and cards that I will share on Wednesday so you'll definitely want to come back then.

The third Adorning Accents Textured Impressions Embossing Folder doesn't have a matching Edgelit, but embosses a band of small hearts on your project.  Here I used it with the brand new Hearts Framelit dies to make an old school Valentines.  I love the Framelits as much as the Edgelits and I'm sure you will see a lot of them throughout the hop.  The Pleated Satin Ribbon makes another appearance here as well as the Loving Thoughts and Take It To Heart Stamp set. I will share more details of this project on Friday.

I hope you have enjoyed this look at these fabulous new products.  I have loved using them the past few weeks and I know you will love them too!  Thanks for stopping by and be sure to come back next week for a closer look. Next stop on the blog hop is Twila's Stamp a Little Longer with a look at a great Valentines set called P.S. I Love You.  Happy Hopping!

A Very My Digital Studio Christmas: Take Two

I hope to have some more previews from the Occasions mini to show you later in the week.  But for right now, the Christmas Crazies are in full swing around here.  I really need one more day between now and Christmas but since that's NOT going to happen, I'm starting to take things off my list -- like sleep.

I try to send out a hand-stamped Christmas card to all my friends and family at least every other year.  Since they pretty much all got one last year, I decided to cheat a bit this year, and design a traditional photo card instead using My Digital Studio.

Colors: Cherry Cobbler, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Whisper White.  My Digital Studio Kit: Savor the Season

This went together very quickly.  I used the 5x7 postcard to start the project and used one of the photo layouts that My Digital Studio already provides and modified it a titch.  I love that I could include pictures from several of the big events in our lives this year but also a nice family portrait. 

I will admit that I cheated just a bit too.  Instead of using Stampin' Up's fabulous print service, I uploaded it to a big box photo center and ordered 5x7 prints.  That's another great thing about My Digital Studio: for the best prints, you can order direct from Stampin' Up! but you can also print from home or use a different photo service.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you can take time during this busy season to remember the important things in your life too.

A Very My Digital Studio Christmas

I don't want to give too much away because I'm never sure just who will stop by and read my blog, but it is a very merry My Digital Studio Christmas around here.  Today I want to show you some sneak peeks of the album I just finished last night for my parents' Christmas present.  (They don't know what blogs are so I'm pretty sure I'm safe to share.)

First a little back story.  I am the middle child of five siblings -- all are married and have children ranging in age from 15 to not even born yet.  We are scattered from the San Fransisco Bay Area to Houston, Texas and points in between.  Circumstances have kept us from all being in the same place at the same time since my oldest was about six months old. Four of the five of us have been together at different time since then, but there was always someone missing -- that is until this past summer. Finally, everyone was in the same place at the same time for almost three whole days.  Twenty-five of us under one roof and it happened to be mine.  It took a lot of planning and coordinating but it was ALL worth it in the end to see the cousins get acquainted and become friends and to get to hang out with some of my favorite people.

So for Christmas, my parents are getting a scrapbook of the event all neatly put together, printed and bound using My Digital Studio and Stampin' Up!'s print service.  In my humble opinion, this is the only way to create scrapbooks of events or vacations because it makes it so simple and fast. (Fast is relative because it still took me the better part of three days to put together, but if I had done it by hand, it would have taken me weeks.)

Here's a look at some of the pages from the album.  These are two page spreads in an 11"x8-1/2" album.  You can click on them to get a better look:

I used the Noteworthy Hostess Digital Content CD for the entire album.  I did add a few random stamps from Greatest Moments, Fabulous Phrases and other word stamp kits.  I love this kit and it was really easy to work with to create an album. 

You'll notice my pages are very square and symmetrical.  I know that's not everyone's favorite way to scrapbook, but it makes putting together 38 pages very quick and easy.  A tip that I used on this and is a great way to use MDS is to fill a page with various-sized photo boxes and get them lined up just the way you want them before you start adding pictures to the boxes. Trust me, it's much easier to resize and work with photo boxes than it is with the photos themselves.

I can't wait to give it to them Christmas morning.  They will be here with us for the first time in several years.  I know my Dad will love it!  I have a few other Christmas projects in the works with My Digital Studio that I'll be sharing over the next few weeks.  Are you using My Digital Studio for your holiday gifts or cards?  I'd love to hear about it?

Sneak Peek: Occasions Mini Catalog

Maybe it's a little too early for Valentines Day.  But I did get a little time to play this weekend with my new stamps, paper and Big Shot items and I wanted to share.  I'm so excited about all of it, but especially the new Big Shot Framelit Dies that we will be selling starting January 4. These wafer-thin dies make it easy to cut out pre-stamped images, just like punches.  And each set come with six different dies that layer on top of each other.  A papercrafter's dream come true!!!  Here's the first card I made with these this weekend:

Colors: Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White.  Stamps: Take It to Heart and Loving Thoughts.  Big Shot: Hearts Collection Framelits.  Tools: Heat Gun.  Accessories: VersaMark Stamp Pad, Cherry Cobbler Embossing Powder, Vintage Brads, Whisper White 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon.

Take It to Heart and Loving Thoughts are both new stamp sets in the Mini Catalog too.  Take It to Heart coordinates perfectly with the Heart Framelits.  And I know I will be using Loving Thoughts A LOT.  It has 11 sentiments that are just perfect for almost any occasion. This started out as a card for a swap, but then I got the idea to put the ribbon ruffle around the larger heart and well, that's a lot of ribbon for an eight person swap.  It does give the card a little something special though. But now I still have a swap to design with this stamp set.

One of the perks of being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is getting product free for meeting various goals.  I received Take It to Heart free for participating in Stampin' Up's! Worldwide Week of Workshops. I also received the Antique Brads for free for booking workshops during a book-a-thon.  And those weren't the only free things that came in this order.  I love this company!  If you'd like more information on joining Stampin' Up! please contact me, or visit my Demonstrator Website: paula.stampinup.net.

Merry & Bright - Take Two

While I've been frantically finishing up some December classes and special orders, I haven't had time to stamp anything new for about a week.  This weekend I enter full-on swap making mode though because they are due in Maine in 10 days.  Eek!

But I do have another Merry & Bright card to share with you today.  The more I play with this set, the more I love it.  I'm feeling a little bad for all the other stamps that are getting over looked while I played with this one last week.  This is for my simple Christmas Card class I'm doing for a customer tonight.

Colors: Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla.  Stamps: Merry & Bright.  Big Shot: Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder.  Punches: Decorative Label.  Accessories:  Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, Pearl Jewels.

My preorder for the Holiday Mini including some Sale-A-Bration exclusive items arrived yesterday.  I'm head-over-heals in love with some of the new products and can't wait to start showing them to you.  Look for a special sneak peek next week.

Polar Party

I've confessed my love for Christmas Stamps before.  This is one set that immediately caught my attention when I first saw the catalog.  I *know* polar bears and penguins aren't found in nature together, but they are just so darn cute.

Images (c) Stampin' Up 2011

 The first card I made was a simple one featuring the Northern Flurry Embossing folder and our Shimmer White Card Stock.  You can't tell from the picture, but the shimmery card stock is so pretty.  I added the rhinestones for a little more bling too.

Colors: Island Indigo, Shimmer White, Pool Party and Lucky Limeade.  Stamps: Polar Party and Four The Holidays. Big Shot: Northern Flurry Embossing Folder.  Accessories: Black Stazon Ink Pad, Rhinestone Jewels, Island Indigo and Pool Party Ruffled Ribbon.

The second card features the trees from the the set.  They are just so darn cute. I colored them with blender pens to give it more of a water-colored look.  They fit perfectly inside the 2-1/2" circle punch.  And that scallop is actually one of the medallion shapes from the Perfect Pennant die. The card is a "z-fold".

Colors: Old Olive, Blushing Bride, So Saffron, Early Espresso, Whisper White.  Stamps: Polar Party.  Big Shot: Perfect Pennants Die, 3" circle.  Punches: 2-1/2" circle.  Accessories: Black Stazon Ink Pad, Blender Pens, Early Espresso Quilted Satin Ribbon, Rhinestone Jewels.

My preorder from the Occasions Mini Catalog arrives tomorrow!  You know what that means, it won't be long until I'll have some sneak peeks for you!

Sparkly Snow

Sorry for my unintended week off.  Things were a little crazy around here last week.  I had a full schedule Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and planned to use Thursday to get caught up.  But then we had a little "wind event" that day.  And when I say little, I mean big.  And when I say big, I mean the equivalent of a  category 2 hurricane.   We were lucky and only lost several of our roof tiles and some of our fence and were without power for about 10 hours.  Others lost much more so we feel very blessed.  But it sure disrupted our everyday life for a few days.  Then we left town for the weekend to go see our best friends, the Butlers, bless their new baby. Only to come home to another "wind event" warning.  Whew!  What a week!!

So I know you came to see a project, not my excuse for not sharing any last week.  This is a simple card I put together for a customer who asked for a card class for her family and friends this week.  I love to use Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder with White Craft Ink for snowflakes.  It really gives them a lot of shimmer, just like real snow on a cold, sunny day. 

Colors: Not Quite Navy,, Pool Party and Whisper White.  Stamps: Snow Swirled.  Punches: Scallop Oval. Accessories: Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Rhinestone Jewels, Not Quite Navy Taffeta Ribbon.

I'm trying to figure out how it got to be December 5 all ready.  I have one tree up but not decorated yet.  But that is it.  My goal for today and tomorrow is to get the house all decorated for the holidays.  Wish me luck.  And no more wind!