MDS Blog Hop - Postcards!

I really had a lot of fun with this challenge.  In fact, I had so many ideas that it was hard to narrow it down!  In the end I decided to create a Halloween invite.  A friend and I were talking recently about how much we love Halloween and are looking forward to it.  Then an idea was born: let's have a party!  If you know me well, you know that I am a terrible procrastinator and I'm always late for something. I do try to be more responsible than that, really I do.  Maybe there is some truth to the saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks".  Being aware of this flaw in myself, I decided I'd better hurry and design a party invitation so that we could take advantage of the 31% off sale for printing.  Which reminds me - I have some fantastic news for you! Drum roll please...

The 31% off sale will be extended an extra 14 DAYS!!!  Tell me you aren't squealing with excitement right now.  I know I was when I got the news - right in the middle of Ikea.  It's true. I have no shame.

So without further ado, here is my postcard invitation (front and back).  We'll see if my friend approves and then send it off to be printed and - for the first time in a very long time - I will be ahead of the game!

My favorite part of this invitation is the little blue monster in the middle.  I found a great invitation on Tiny Prints and thought to myself - with all the cool new features in MDS 2 I'll bet I can make that monster!  I'm not making this up - that's really what I thought.  

I used the owl punch for the body, bird wings for the horns, half circles for the shoes, triangle for the teeth and then using the line tool I drew a mouth.  Using the freeform tool I drew some arms and voila! A monster was born.  IT'S ALIVE!!  hee hee - sorry, I couldn't resist.  I'd like to make the other two monsters at some point, just to see if I can do it, but I was in a hurry to finish so I'll have to try it later.  

The rest of the images came from the Spooky Bingo Bits stamp set, which I absolutely love!  I recolored the eyeballs and teeth and added different colored circle punches behind the green monster for spots.  

Oh, and one more thing: Stampin' Up release an update yesterday and fixed several problems! I'm happy to report that the program is running MUCH faster and smoothly now. I don't have to wait 30 seconds for a color change anymore!  So if you've been waiting for the bugs to be worked out before you purchase MDS 2 or try the Free Trial, don't wait any longer.  It's awesome!  

I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the hop - I know I look forward to it each week.  

1. Jeanna Bohanon 

2.Rochelle Gould

3.  Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc 
5.Amber Meadows

6. Terri Mongeon

7. Aly Schilling

8. Cindy Schuster

9. Erica Shaw

10. Heather Summers

11. Holly VanDyne
12. Kimberly Van Diepen

MDS Blog Hop - Halloween Party!

Good morning!  Are you glad it's Friday yet?  I know I am - can't wait for the weekend.

This week I was the lucky person to choose a challenge for the blog hop and I decided on Halloween Party.  I left it open to include anything that you might use for a party; decorations, favors - whatever!  I'm pretty excited to see what the rest of the team has come up with.

I finished my designs yesterday, but didn't have the time to run to Kinko's and get them printed - so sad :(  I was really looking forward to showing you my mantle, all decorated with MDS goodies. But...I will print them before the month is out, so I'll just have to do another post with the finished product.  For now I'll just show you the files I created.  (It's going to be a long post!)

First, I started with some Halloween Subway Art.  Have you noticed how popular Subway Art is? It's all over the place!   There are some great free downloads from lots of fun sites, but I've wanted to make my own in MDS.  When I saw the stamp set Midnight Musings I knew it would be perfect for this project - here's what I came up with:

Next, I needed a banner for my mantle.  I thought about making it a hybrid project and adding some ribbon or something to the pennants, but then I looked around my house - noticed all the junk lying around and the layer of dust on my blinds - and realized I'd be lucky just to get the banner printed and hung by this weekend.  So, I did the whole thing digitally.  I really like how it turned out.  It will say Fright Night once it's all put together.

I had one extra pennant, so I decided it would be perfect to go in the middle of the words Fright Night, so that's what I'm doing with the pennant that has the tree.  I just have to say, aren't those spiders creepy?  Ugh.  I'm shuddering right now.  The only reason I put them on my adorable banner is for my oldest son, who thinks spiders are cool.  I knew he'd love it.  Maybe if I keep looking at it then I'll lose my fear of spiders...

And last, but not least, I copied this idea straight from the girls at Eighteen25.  Have you seen their site?  Amazing!  So much inspiration on that one little site.  They featured these adorable soap bottles and tags the other day (I borrowed their picture) and I thought they would make great party gifts.  Or maybe just a gift for a friend?  Either way, I'd love to get them.  Who doesn't love Bath & Body soaps?!  My kids definitely love them so I certainly wouldn't hesitate to give them out at a kids party.  It's more useful than a bagful of dollar store toys, right?

I decided to make mine to match the rest of the decor that I'd already created and I couldn't help myself - I just had to add some ribbon and patterned paper!  Everything was really easy to create using the Spooky Treats kit - it comes with all kinds of stuff to create fun party favors and decorations.  You'll love it!

Products I used:

Spooky Treats Designer Template	Bold Branches stamp set	Midnight Musings	Jack of All Trades stamp set
Simple Letters Punch	Petite Pennants Punch	Taffeta Ribbon	1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon

Whew, that was a long post!  Thanks for sticking with me :)  Now, hop along and see what the rest of the design team has created.

InLinkz.com

1. Jeanna Bohanon
2. Rochelle Gould 

3. Mandy Grant

4. Julie Leblanc 

5. Amber Meadows (that's me!)

6. Terri Mongeon

7. Aly Schilling

8. Cindy Schuster

9. Erica Shaw

10. Heather Summers

11. Alesha Walls

12. Holly VanDyne

MDS Monday - Halloween!

It is officially October and for me, the holiday season has begun!  I'm still working to get all my Halloween decorations out, but hopefully it'll all be done today :)  Maybe I should have taken my son's advice and started a month ago!

In the spirit of the holidays, we're creating Halloween projects today.  I decided to scrapbook a picture from a few years ago - it was taken at a Halloween party at my mom's house.  She surprised us all and dressed up as a clown - I loved it!  It brought back memories of when I was a kid.  I remember one year in particular; my brother and I came home from school to find the front door locked.  My mom made us stay outside for a few minutes (I think she was finishing up her costume) and when she opened the door we were shocked to see a witch standing in front of us!  That's one thing I've always loved about my mom - the way she always tried to surprise us with something.  Little or big, it didn't matter - I loved it all!

Here are the supplies I used:

Jack of All Trades stamp set	Calendar Numbers	Vintage Overlay	Polystitched Ribbon
Pompom Trim	My Digital Studio software

InLinkz.com

I also used the 2010 In Color patterned paper and the set, Eat Drink and Be Scary - which is included in the MDS software.

I hope you have fun looking at the designs from the rest of our team.  Happy Halloween!