May Card Class

Our May class was all about embossing .... embossing with folders, embossing powders, and dry embossing of sorts.

Celebrating 10!

April 2001 to present - 10 years now that I have been a Stampin' Up Demonstrator. Who knew when I joined, without ever having stamped before, as a Navy wife and mom with young kids looking just to meet new people and wanting to have something crafty to do, that it would last this long. I never really intended to make it a business (they'd call that being a "hobby" demo) and I have welcomed many other 'hobby" Demos to my team in these 10 years, some who stay for a while and move on, and others like me who find ourselves setting a new goal to reach each year (business building). This opportunity is just that - an opportunity for YOU to make it what you want - I have enjoyed every minute of these 10 years! The people I have met along the way, and friendships that have formed are what really keep me wanting to do this for years to come!

On to posting the class projects my stampin friends completed in March .... Using a mix of Sale-a-bration, Occassions Mini and new upcoming Catalog items.

Recycled can flowers

I've seen people making these into pins but I am always so careful not to make things I think might be sharp into a wearable item so I was looking for another way to use these as gifts. I found these really tiny pots in my craft stash and have a least a hundred paper sticks (you know the ones for making candy suckers) .... so here is what I came up with. Using a variety of punches, some old scissors, an embossing folder (which seems to make metal more soft)

Watercoloring with MDS

Back at beginning of February, I started playing around with My Digital Studio to make a card for my mom's birthday .... I loved the flowers from the Elements of Style brush set and was thinking there must be a way to color them softly as if watercolored. I found that the Splatter image from the Extreme Elements was the perfect thing to do the job.

It is BEST to begin whatever MDS watercoloring project you want with the size and rotation of main image exactly as you want it in finished project, however recent updates to the MDS program allow you to do this later.

Starting with main image on blank page/card etc .... start applying Splatter image over each area you want to color - pick a color and change the opacity to suit your desired effect (I used 40% and 43% to create too shades). You will use MANY of these in various sizes and rotations - it is best to start with one size in the color you want and simply copy and paste it into all places want that size and color before moving to next size and color to do the same. Copy and paste becomes your friend in making this go more quickly.

Once your main image has been colored to your satisfaction (it will be hiding behind all the splatters) - bring the main image back to FRONT. Highlight the entire area and 'group' if you want to move the image around and still keep all the color where it belongs. The new update in April for MDS allows you to resize or rotate once grouped.

If you visit Mydigitalstudio.net and search Watercoloring ... you will find some other samples which are wonderful inspirations as well.

Is it February already?

Right after I returned from Leadership I came down with bad cold .... recovered in time to get some stampin done then came down with flu .... I can't wait for winter to end! So here are a few of the projects we've done at my classes recently.