MDS Monday #10

This week's theme for the MDS Monday Challenge was an Easter project. I just finished an Easter card - which I've had printed at Stampin' Up. It's my first time sending something off to their printers, so I'm pretty excited to get it back. Hopefully I ordered it in enough time to get the cards sent out for Easter.

Anyway, since I already did an Easter card, I wanted to do an Easter page. I still haven't scrapped last year's Easter photos. Actually - now that I've said that, I realize I haven't scrapped ANY Easter photos. Hmmm...guess I'd better get a move on.

I was inspired by the stamp set Easter Blossoms which has the saying, "Sending Springtime Smiles". I didn't need the word "sending" but I liked the rest. I also knew I wanted to use the Chocolate Bunny stamp and the Greenhouse Gala DSP paper. Here's what I came up with:

I found the layout idea online and although I changed the elements around about 100 times (each), I stuck with the original layout. The page turned out completely different from what I had in mind originally, but that's what I like about digi scrapping. I can add and delete to my heart's content without wasting a thing. Although - I should set a time limit on myself. I have a tendency to spend too long on a page, which would explain why I'm so behind on my scrapping, haha!

I used the drop shadow technique to give some color to my branches and I must say - it's a pretty cool effect. It took a little time, but not nearly as much as I thought it would. I'll definitely be using this technique more often. :)

Head on over to the UDI blog to see what the talented divas have in store for us this week!

MDS Monday #8

Our challenge this week was to have some "Pun Fun". I really struggled with this at first - I had no idea what to do. Then, one day I received an email from Tiny Prints (I like to get ideas from their site) and I saw this adorable card:

Immediately, I knew I could create that in MDS. I didn't exactly know how - but I knew it would involve punches. So, I sat down and got to work - but at this point I wasn't creating it for this week's challenge. I just wanted to see if I could do it.

I pulled up my punches and guess what I found? The Blossom Petals Punch. Eureka! It worked like a charm and in no time at all I had bunny ears sprouting from my kids' heads. Simon loves his bunny ears. It's pretty cute to see him get all worked up about it. :)

I didn't want to put a third picture on the card like my sample, so I decided to create a carrot. At first I considered an easter egg, but then I had an idea of how to create a carrot - again, using punches - and I had to give it a shot.

For the carrot, I used the tall heart punch and an oval punch layered to create the top of the carrot (both of which are included in the software). For the black lines, I used the oval punch again and shrunk it down until it was almost nothing. I had to zoom in quite a bit in order to move the lines around, but it wasn't too bad.

I hadn't quite figured out the carrot leaves, but I got distracted and started looking for a stamped greeting. I stumbled across the Cheep Talk stamps and realized that I could use the branch for my leaves. Genius! I copied and pasted my leaves, moved them around to form the carrot top and then used a square punch (filled with white) to cover the leaves I didn't want showing and layered the carrot on top of that. Ta Da!

In the midst of all this tweaking, the greeting, "Somebunny Loves You" came to me and I thought, "Aha! I can use this for MDS Monday". It's funny how things just fall into place :)

Ok, just so you know - I really don't consider myself a genius (my college transcript will confirm that) but sometimes, I amaze myself. MDS is so cool!

And before I forget - I wanted to share with you a video tutorial that showed me how to put my pictures in a punch. The video was posted on MyDigitalStudio.com - which anybody can join - by Heather Summers. She is amazing! She was one of the MDS contest winners and I love to see all the things she shares on this site. Here's her video - it's for Mac users. There is another video for PC users and you can find that on www.MyDigitalStudio.com

Oh - don't forget to check out the other Diva's creations. :)