Paper Craft Crew Challenge MDS Card

It is time for the Paper Craft Crew challenge.  This is my card for this week.

Of course, I used My Digital Studio to make this card.  I used the Freeform Tool to color the flower and love how it turned out.

The sentiment is a good one.  If we all treated ourselves better, we would feel better, don't you think?

My Digital Studio Update: I actually have a few bits of GOOD news concerning My Digital Studio this morning.  Stampin’ Up! made the following announcements on it’s Demonstrator website this morning: While Stampin’ Up! previously announced that the MDS product line would be unavailable after Sunday, May 31, 2015, it is excited to let you know that all of its MDS items will be included in the upcoming Retired List promotion from April 21-June 2, 2015.  Digital downloads, software, and print products will all be discounted by 30 percent and are guaranteed to be available through the end of the promotion (MDS software discs are available while supplies last). Click here to see a list of products, including promotional prices for each item. New Dates Stampin’ Up! has extended the availability date for MyDigitalStudio.net, the digital download manager, and its MDS YouTube, Facebook, and Pinterest pages through midnight, June 9, 2015. Demonstrators and customers may call Demonstrator Support for assistance with MDS until Demonstrator Support closes at 7:00 PM (MT) on Tuesday, June 9. Project Life The Let’s Get Away Digital Project Life Card Collection by Stampin’ Up! from the occasions catalog was posted on the ProjectLife.com website yesterday and is currently available for 20 percent off.  For the foreseeable future, all Digital Project Life card collections will be made available through the ProjectLife.com store.  (There are both Project Life by Stampin’ Up! and Project Life digital downloads at that site.)  I’ve never tried to download something from this site, but I plan on buying the Let’s Get Away download, so I’ll let you know what I find out.  I did notice that the download only includes the card collection, no stamp brushes.  However, there are other Project Life by Stampin’ Up! stamp brushes on that site, so it looks promising for an ongoing resource for digital downloads! Future Updates While Stampin’ Up! will not sell MDS after June 2, 2015 or offer support for MDS after June 9, 2015, it is working on a solution for you to continue to be able to use your digital downloads and order print products. Stay tuned for updates. Stampin’ Up! hopes you enjoy the Retired List promotion—and that the extended deadlines will be helpful to both demonstrators and customers as it phases out the MDS product line. So, that’s a little encouraging!  I’ll keep you updated as I learn more information.

MDS Monday Disney Style

This is my layout for this week's MDS Monday sketch.  It's a fun linear layout featuring lots of photo and background papers.  Epcot was really fun and I especially enjoyed the International Flower and Gardens Festival.  The topiaries of the Disney characters were really fun! 

I had a hard time deciding on what to do with the boxes without pictures.  I put different patterns in them but really didn't like that.  So I went through most of my stamps on MDS and found several different stamps that I thought fit with the layout.  It's funny.  With MDS, I seem to use the images in the Designer Kit Embellishments and don't take the time to look at all the different stamps I have.  I learned a lesson today to look at my stamps more often.

Make sure you check out the other great layouts on the MDS Monday Blog.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

We're getting ready for the Big Storm this week!  Temps have been dropping for the past couple of days.  Tonight it is supposed to dip into the teens with the high only 32 tomorrow.  Snow and ice are predicted to start in the early evening and last 2-3 days.  I have already canceled my Stamp Club for Tuesday and I am hoping I will be able to have everyone come on Thursday.  Tomorrow I will be bundled up to go play bridge and then take my mom to her doctor's appointment before the storm hits.

I wanted to share the Valentine's that I sent to the grandkids last week.

I printed off these wrappers and wrapped boxes of candy that I got at the Dollar Store

I used the Mini Treat Die to make little bags that I filled with candy.

More Dollar Store finds - Valentine pencils.  I used the smaller panel of the Mini Treat Die to make these cute little pencil holders.

We had a pretty quiet Valentine's.  Sonny and I went out for breakfast and then to the grocery store.  Later that evening, we went over to Marianne and Greg's so I could help Marianne get ready for her first workshop.  We took a break and went out for Italian food.

I got some GREAT news today!  Remember this sketch I did for MDS Monday's 100th Sketch Challenge?  Well, I was notified on Sunday that I was a WINNER!!  They picked two top winners and I was told in my email that mine was chosen by a landslide!  So excited!  I win a MDS download (value $9.95).  I had a whole list that I had to decide between.  I have so many of the downloads that sometimes I have a hard time finding ones I don't have!!  But I decided on a punch and several embellishments that I didn't have yet.  Check out the other winners here.

How do you like my new Blog Banner?  I had fun designing a new one on Sunday.

MDS Monday 100th Challenge - from the West to the East

(NOTE:  This is a double page challenge)

I had time this week and decided to do another MDS Monday's sketch challenge for #100.  This time I used some of the pictures that Ashley and I took in 2006 on one of our cross country trips.  She finished her Residency at Fort Lewis in Washington state and the Army sent her to Washington DC.  So we packed the car, grabbed her cat, Taco, and headed east!  (And a few months later, Sonny and I took almost the same route as we moved from Washington state to North Carolina.)  Three years earlier, she and I had made the trip from Texas to Washington (and Sonny and I followed about six months later.)  And in another three years, she would be leaving DC, headed back to Texas and of course, I made that trip with her also!  So in six years, we hit the majority of the states in our cross country journeys. Now we just have to do the middle states (but hopefully, for fun and no more moving!!)

For this challenge, I used a Double Page Sketch from last December.  (Check out my previous sketch here when I was a guest designer.)

I wish my blog page was wider so I could put the two pages side by side so you could see how the map goes from page to page.

I used stamps and papers from various travel kits - World Traveler and Travel Journal.  I also recently downloaded the kit, Nifty Fifty which features the map of the US plus individual state outlines as a stamp and as punches!  I just did not have room to put all the states (or unfortunately, all the pictures) that we visited on this page!!  I used the dotted line from Compilation of Recipes to chart our journal from the west coast to the east coast.

This was such a fun page to make and brought back so many happy memories which is what scrapbooking is all about!!

Here is the sketch I used for this page.


There is a Blog Hop on the website for MDS Monday that you can follow along to see the designer's sketches HERE.

Paper Crew Card Sketch 131

How is your day going?  It's Wednesday which means it's once again time for the challenge at Paper Craft Crew.  I'm excited to share this week's sketch and my take on it using My Digital Studio.  Come and visit and have a look.

I love this color combo!

MDS Monday 100th Sketch Challenge!

Remember I blogged last week that I was going through old pictures and strolling down memory lane?!!  Well, one of the reasons is I wanted to find some great pictures to do a My Digital Studio challenge over at MDS Monday.  This is their 100th Sketch Challenge and they are giving away prizes!!  When I ran across these pictures taken several years ago (Cassidy is now a teenager!!), I knew they were the ones I wanted to use.  I remember this day so well.  We were in Tucson visiting Jeff and his family and we were babysitting.  It was a beautiful sunny day so Sonny and Cassidy found some bubbles and he taught her how to blow them.  She was so excited!

(Click on picture above to make it larger)

The challenge is running for two weeks and it started last week.  To enter the challenge, you select any of the past 99 sketches, create a new project, and link it to their website.  They have set up a Pinterest Board with all the past sketches.  That was the hard part!!  Which one do I choose?  But I knew I wanted a sketch that I could do the picture progression above.

The background paper is from World Traveler and I found the polka dot stamp in Beautiful Today and made it a watermark color.  I found this font that I love called Pea Ellie Bellie!  Don't miss the girl and boy sitting at the top blowing bubbles (from Storytime).   I found some stitching I liked in Family Fun and the Project Life Banner which I colored Lost Lagoon

I even made my own bubbles!!  I used a Circle Punch and color filled it with DSP from Watercolor Wonder and made them different sizes.  (Don't forget to add a drop shadow for extra dimension.)   I also used a few brads for my bubbles! Then it just had to have a little shine added.  To create the reflection,  I used the Freeform tool and moved the anchors around on the circle shape to get the shape for the shine.

So, the sketch that I used was # 65.  How do you think I did?  Would I win a prize??  It doesn't matter.  I just enjoy MDS so much!!

 

Make sure you go to the MDS Monday web site and check out the other sketches.

MDS Monday Challenge

I have enjoyed not having to go anywhere for the past couple of days.  Tuesday I didn't even get dressed except to put on some soft warm lounging pj's.  I spent the day making a few cards and working on my New Zealand scrapbook on MDS.  Same thing for Wednesday except I did get dressed in sweats!  Don't you love days like that???  I remember when I quit working.  At the time, I was not involved in playing bridge, doing cards, etc.  I really don't know what I did during the day after quitting work - I think play computer games and read - but I do remember that I wore sweat pants and sweat shirts almost every day. Sonny called them my uniform.  I was sorta depressed at the time and missing my job but also enjoying the freedom of being able to do anything I wanted during the day.  That probably lasted about 3-4 months before I got a part time job and joined a few groups to do crafts, play bridge, go to coffee's, etc.  Now I wonder how I ever had time to work!!

Here is my take on the sketch for MDS Monday.

This week I dug into my pictures from our trip(s) to Hawaii several years ago.  I love the bright colors in this layout.  I used the kit Paradise Found.  Instead of the flag banner that is in the sketch, I decided to create my own lei across the page.  I used an alphabet punch for "Hawaii" and paper filled it with the same paper that I used for the background - just using different shades of the orange and yellow at the top of the page.

I hope you will take the time to check out the pages the MDS Monday Design Team made.

Here is the sketch that Cindy challenged us with:




And here is what is included in the Paradise Found kit:

You Brighten My Day for Paper Craft Crew Challenge

Since it's Wednesday, I'm over on the Paper Craft Crew Blog for their weekly challenge.

Can you believe I actually made a real card for the challenge this week???  I didn't use My Digital Studio - shocker!!

The card base is Coastal Cabana (what am I going to do when that color retires??)  I paper pierced little holes all around the Whisper White card stock.  On a scrap of white, I stamped several hearts from the You Brighten My Day stamp set (Sale-a-Bration set) in Coastal Cabana and Real Red and punched them out.  I used the Circles Framelits to cut the red and white circles.  I tied the Coastal Cabana twine and a bit of the Gold Bakers Twine around the card.  I used the Little Letters Framelits to cut "YOU" out of Real Red Glitter paper and popped them up with dimensionals.  The finishing touch is the gold and pink sequins on the card.

Here is the sketch for the week:

I hope that you enjoyed my Design Team card for this week's Paper Craft Crew sketch challenge. Take a minute to go over to the blog and check out the other designers projects and enter yours in the gallery.  Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit today!  Enjoy your Wednesday!!   I hope to be talking to Ashley later in the day to find out how her vacation on her Rock Boat Cruise went.  They left on Saturday and arrive back in Ft. Lauderdale later today.  I know she had a blast!

Paper Craft Crew Challenge #127

This is my card for the Paper Craft Players sketch challenge this week:

This is a retired stamp set that I never purchased.  That is one of the reasons why I love MDS so much.  I can find stamps - retired and current - in the program and don't have to make room for them on my shelf in my craft room!!

Check out the other design team members cards using the sketch HERE

Use the sketch and create your own card!

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Merry Christmas - MDS Style!

Each month, as well as having great 3D projects, Craft Project Central has a card sketch challenge.  You know, I love sketch challenges!  This month's card sketch is below and here is my card I created using My Digital Studio.

My card uses elements from the Hello December Project Life download!!

For every ten cards submitted, they pick one winner of a free month subscription on Craft Project Central! The winner(s) will get to select the month of their choice!  *If the project designers submit a card for your inspiration, they won’t be in the winner random-selection pool, but their cards will count towards the “for every 10 cards submitted winner total”.

For more information, go to Craft Project Central HERE.

Paper Craft Crew Challenge

Wednesday was the date for the Paper Craft Crew Challenge.  I did my card a few days ago but forgot to post it yesterday!  Oh well, what's the saying?  A day late and a dollar short?

This was the sketch:

And here is my interpretation of the sketch:

I used the MDS Beautiful Today.  This is one of my most favorite kits for MDS.  I just love the soft colors and the watercolor washes that are in it.  Also the download features a video tutorial that teaches you how to align and space objects.  By following along the tutorial, you can create your own Daily Affirmations Journal.  For $14.95, this is great bargain!

We got some good news today.  Ashley called this morning to tell us she is on the list to be promoted to LT Colonel next summer!!  We are so proud of her.  Last year's promotion list did not include many girls on it at all.  She was not eligible last year so we had our fingers crossed this year for her.

MDS Monday Challenge

I decided to do another MDS sketch challenge using one of my New Zealand layouts.  At this rate, I may get my book put together by Christmas!!  I am hoping to concentrate more on my New Zealand scrapbook after convention and all that craziness is over.

The sketch on MDS Monday was a little challenging to me. Here it is:

 I started out scrapbooking  pictures from our Alabama cruise but didn't like what I came up with.  Plus, my computer froze up and I lost the pae I had been working on anyway!  So I started over and this time pulled up these pictures from New Zealand.  We stopped off in Otorohanga for a quick breakfast on our way to Rotorura so the girls could go Zorbing.  Their pastry case was a dream come true!  So many choices of so many different pastries and breakfast items.  I settled on a donut that was filled was delicious cream.  It was not round like our donuts but looked like an eclair.  It was heaven!

                                                                                                                                                                     For this page I used paper and elements from the Sweet Shoppe download except for the word bubble which is from Seriously Teen.  

Hope you like it!   Check out the rest of the sketches at MDS Monday.                                                                                                                                                                                                    

This & That Paper Craft Crew Challenge

I forgot to share my MDS card I made this week for Paper Craft Crew's sketch challenge.  Probably because I was on the ball last week and did a couple of sketches at one time and then forgot I had done them!  Anyway, this is for challenge #99!!

The elements for this card are from the This and That Epic Day download.  I love to use just one download - paper, elements, stamps, etc. to make a project.  That way I am assured that it will all coordinate nicely.

I am playing Hand and Foot Friday at the Mooresville Bowling Alley.  We have started meeting there and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the place is.  We order our lunch there and there is a large and varied menu to choose from.  Tomorrow night is our Newcomers annual Bingo night.  This is the only fundraiser we do all year and it is a lot of fun.  Sonny doesn't agree with me and I am having to drag him along!  He's a good sport and won't complain too much!  My mom and Angela are coming also.

Paper Craft Crew Challenge #98

Well, summertime is here!  It has really been hot with not much relief in sight.  Of course, I could be in Texas where it is really HOT!!  Enjoy that heat, Ashley!  I think instead of going to the Y tomorrow, I will just exercise in the neighborhood pool instead.

I am hoping to get a few swaps done tomorrow and Friday as well as finalize my cards for club next week.  I haven't had much time this week to get anything done with bridge on Monday and mahjongg today.  Plus I got a new Kindle Fire HDX this week and Sonny got a Kindle reader (for Father's Day) so I have been learning how to use both of them and download books for us.  Ashley and I weren't too sure if Sonny would like the Kindle but he has finished reading one of the books that I downloaded for him on Sunday.  So I guess he is handling the digital age ok!

Here is the card I made for Paper Craft Crew Challenge sketch #98.

Make sure you check out the other designer's cards HERE.

Here is the sketch if you would like to make your own card using it:

Craft Project Central Challenge

I made this card earlier today for the sketch challenge (#36) at Craft Project Central.  It's a fun sketch.

I used the MDS download from Project Life.  You don't have to just use Project Life for scrapbooking .... see this great card I made with it!

For every ten cards submitted for the sketch challenge, Craft Project Central will choose one winner who will receive a FREE one-month subscription to the site.  That would be a great prize and would give you access to the month's project tutorials.

Paper Craft Crew Challenge 95- using MDS

Here is my card for the Paper Craft Crew Challenge this week.

 This is the sketch we were to follow:

Make sure you stop by the blog and check out the other cards.  And why not create one following the sketch?

Challenge 94

For the Paper Craft Crew challenge this week, I definitely stepped out of my box!  I still used My Digital Studio to create the card but it is not my usual style.  I found a stamp set that I had downloaded that had these cool brush strokes and just randomly "stamped" them on the square card.  I kinda like the result!  What do you think?

Check out the rest of the challenge cards HERE.

Craft Project Central Card Sketch

Each month Craft Project Central hosts a monthly Card Sketch Challenge.  For every ten cards submitted, one winner is picked for a free month subscription on Craft Project Central!  The winner(s) will get to select the month of their choice!  So if they have 15 submissions this month they will randomly pick one winner from all submissions*.  If they have 40 submissions they will randomly pick four winners from all submissions, and so on! They really want to give away some free subscriptions, so please do join the challenge!!

(**If a project designer submits a card for the inspiration, they won’t be in the winner random-selection pool, but their cards will count towards the “for every 10 cards submitted winner total”.)

This month Christy Fulk is the designer and creater for the sketch challenge.

Here is the sketch:

 And here is my card using My Digital Studio and that great DSP, Kaleidescope!

Collage Art

NOTE:  New items have been added to CLEARANCE!!

Yesterday was a rough day for me!  I didn't get to bed until 2 a.m. with plans to sleep in.  But I woke up around 8:30 and the room was spinning.  Darn!  That old vertigo got me again.  I haven't had it in several years.  I didn't do anything most of the morning - felt nauseated, weak and just blah!  I didn't feel like eating but finally got a piece of toast down around noon.  I had to get to feeling better 'cause I had some gals coming over at 2:30 to make a collage art piece and I didn't want to disappoint.  I finally took a pill for motion sickness that Ashley had given me several years ago.  It did the trick!  So we got our art piece done and had fun doing it.  They loved it.  We are planning on doing one in early June for 4th of July if you are interested.

After the gals left, I took a nap and then sweet talked Sonny into going out to eat!  When I got back home, I had a message on the home phone but couldn't get our phone to work - no service.  I had forgotten my cell phone when we went out to eat and when I checked it, I had a message from Marianne to call her. Evidently my family was trying desperately to get in touch with me to let me know my cousin, Bobby, had died of an apparent heart attack.  What a shock!  He was just 49 years old and the sweetest kid you'd meet.  He has had a hard life but had gotten himself back on track after being into drugs big time in his 20's. His sisters are taking it real hard of course.  Their family has had a tough few years.  Their mother died last year and their father has died since I moved back to NC.  Now it's just the two sisters, Jane and Candy, left.  My sisters and particularly, my brother, are also taking it hard.  Jane, Candy and Bobby lived down the street from us when they were growing up and they were real close to Marianne, Angela and Lee as they were all 2-3 years apart in age.  I was 12-15 years older and gone from home when they were all growing up.  Just goes to show that you never know when your time is up so you need to live your life to the fullest while you can.

I participated in the Paper Craft Challenge this month and made this card with MDS.

Paper Craft Challenge MDS

Well, what did you think of the Retiring Stamps and Accessories?  I lost a bunch of dies, embossing folders and ribbon but didn't do too bad on my stamps.  I'm going to pull them today and make a count.  Several that I lost were ones I received free from Stampin' Up and really weren't used a lot anyway so it wasn't so bad.  I am going to start sharing some cards this week made with the retiring stamps.  There are only 5-6 stamp sets that have sold out completely so there is still time to order a retired set.  And with free shipping all week, it is a great deal!  I ended up putting 3 orders in on Monday and still missed out on getting the In-Color reinkers and card stock because they sold out so quickly.

Don't forget the weekly specials - with free shipping, they are a good deal too!

We had a very nice and quiet Easter.  We went to church with Mom and after church, we brought her back to our house for the day. Angela had to work so she didn't arrive until after 4 pm.   I spent most of the day in the kitchen getting our Easter meal ready,.  I almost forgot to make Sonny's special cherry jello salad and the deviled eggs!  Luckily, he reminded me about his salad early enough so it was mostly congealed by the time we ate!  And I remembered the eggs around 2 and got them made in time.  The weather was nice but just a bit cool.  But by the time we finished our meal, it was warm enough to sit out on the deck with our sweaters on and listen to the birds chirping.  Mom really enjoyed that.  I wish we could put our bird feeders back up but the squirrels got to be such a nuisance that we took them down a couple of years ago.  But I did see a beautiful bright blue bird in the trees yesterday.  And this morning while eating breakfast, I saw a bird bringing materials into a bird house that I have sitting on the railing of the deck.  Maybe I'll be seeing and hearing baby birds soon!

I made my card for the Paper Craft Challenge late last night and didn't get it turned in in time to be featured on the site.  But here it is anyway.  You can check out what the other members did with the sketch HERE.

Sonny and I enjoy playing trivia and we discovered a small bar in Mooresville that does a live trivia every Tuesday night.  We went last week and had a good time although we didn't do so good on the trivia questions.  But we went again last night and did terrible!  They do 4 rounds of questions and you assign points to each category.  The 3rd round we didn't get ANY questions correct.  A lot of the questions seem to be targeted to the younger generation.  Here are a few of the questions - see if you can get them right!  (answers at bottom of post)

1. Name all the members of the singing group, New Kids on the Block (5 of them)
2. What team drafted John Elway right out of college?
3. What is the name of this shot - vodka, triple sec and lime juice?
4. When a car has been "chopped" what is lowered?
5. Where did Dwaye Wade (NBA) go to college?

These are just 5 of the 20 questions we had.  Lucky for us, they give bonus points if you "like" them on Facebook, if you "check in" on Facebook.  At half time, they ask a bonus question and if you get it right you get additional points.  We thought we had this one!  Q:  What is the highest rated animated series - Lion King, Frozen, Cars - we answered Lion King BUT it was Frozen!!  Then at the end, you can bet up to 30 points for the bonus question.  Stan Lee created all but one of these comic books - Spiderman, Hulk, Wolverine, Beast - which one did he not create?  We guessed Wolverine and got it right!!  So we ended up tied for 3rd.

OK - give up on the answers????

Answers:
1.  Donny Wahlberg (only one I knew), Jonathan Knight, Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood
2.  Baltimore Ravens
3.  Kamikaze
4.  the roof
5.  Marquette