Stampin' Addicts MDS2 Blog Hop

Welcome to stop number three on the Stampin' Addicts MDS2 Blog Hop.  If you are hopping in order than you just came from Yapha Mason's blog. Designing in spreads is one of my favorite new features.  If this is your first stop on the hop, don't worry.  All the blogs are linked together in a circle so you won't miss a thing. If you get lost or want to chat about what you've seen, head on over to  Stampin' Addicts.

I get to show you how I used the custom-size feature on some fun projects.  And since Christmas is right around the corner, I thought I'd give you some ideas on how to use the custom-size feature to make some gifts for someone you love.  And if you come back next Monday, I'll share with you more details about how to make the projects I'm sharing with you.

Are you wondering why you would ever need to do a custom size when Stampin' Up! has a wide variety of print products to choose from?  Those size and projects are great for cards, albums and scrapbook pages.  But with custom-sizes, a whole world of possibilities opens up to you.

For my first project, I had a little help from my favorite warehouse store.  Several professional print shops are now offering a print on canvas feature.  I have been looking for some "art" to go on the wall in my dining room.  With MDS2 I was able to customize a 12x16 layout and then upload it to this photo center to get my very own piece of canvas art.  First what I designed in MDS2:

I just picked it up from the photo center yesterday and I just love the way it turned out (the picture turned out a little warmer than it really is, but you get the idea):

I knew my in laws would love to have this same picture of my boys, but I didn't just want to give it to them in a boring frame (and no way was a parting with my canvas. I love it too much!).  So my second project was inspired by something I saw at a craft store about six weeks ago. Unfortunately, the store is about 30 miles from my house and I just haven't made it back, so I did what all good crafters do: I improvised!  (Come back on Monday to hear all about that improvisation).   To start with, I needed a 7"x10" photo (another improvise because I thought I really needed a 8"x10" photo).  This is what I came up with in MDS2:

You can see it is pretty similar to the one above.  I let my husband pick out the words to go on it since they are his parents and changed up the flourishes and accents.  And I wanted the picture to be black and white.  I sent it off to a local one hour print shop.  Then I went to work prepping a piece of wood to mount the picture too.  (I promise there is a great story behind the wood, but again, you'll have to come back on Monday to read all about it).  After I adhered it to the wood and applied the finish to it, I took some ribbon and other embellishment and my mixed media/hybrid project turned out like this:

So let your imagination run wild with the custom sizes.  I was surprised how easy it was to work on the larger projects, especially with the SVG digital stamp files in MDS2.

If you haven't already decided to come back on Monday, how about I sweeten the pot?  Come back on Monday for your chance to win an MDS Content CD from last year's Sale-A-Bration.  If you are new to MDS, these are files you won't have already.  And don't forget to take advantage of the free downloads Stampin' Up! is offering through Monday as well!

And now you are off to the next stop, Heidi's Runningwscissorsstamper blog to get a fresh look at converting templates.  Enjoy!