MDS Blog Hop - Holiday Catalog Inspiration

Wahoo! I was finally able to finish my page! I'm a full day late, but who's counting right? I'm still not sure what was bogging the program down, but hopefully it won't be that painful every time I design a project. You'll notice that we have a new member on the design team - Kimberly Van Diepen; she's very talented. Welcome Kimberly! We're so excited to have you join us!

Now, if you started following the hop yesterday than you'll know that the theme was to use products or samples from the Holiday Catalog as inspiration. I chose to use the Hostess Content Disc Eventful Year. It's a great kit - full of some really fun stuff. I also used the Howlstooth and Scaringbone paper - it was included when I purchased MDS 2+. Love it!

The Eventful Year Disc includes a great overlay as well - it's kind of a splotchy paint look, but against the black DSP (also included in the disc) it looks kind of spooky - like fog, don't you think?  I also used the Spooky Bingo Bits stamp set on my page which was included with MDS 2+.  As I was designing my page I had the idea to add a moon and I kept wishing I had a haunted mansion to set in the background.  I found one in the Spooky Bingo Bits kit, but was bummed out that the images are so small.  Then I remembered - the stamp images are now SVG files which means that I can resize them as large as I want!  So, if you're like me, and you were a little disappointed to see so many older stamps included in MDS 2 - remember that it's because they've been converted to SVG files and that, my friends, is AWESOME!

Despite my system being slow yesterday, I am having fun with all the options in MDS 2.  I was able to recolor my baker's twine and my stitching! I love the new punches too - do you see the grass at the bottom of  my page?  Yeah, that's a punch.  :)

In the Holiday Mini, you don't get much of a preview of what's included in the disc other than the paper, so I thought I'd show you some of the embellishments. I've resized them to fit, some are actually larger than this.  I hope that gives you a good idea though.  If you want this ensemble, make sure to schedule a workshop with me - you're elegible for Hostess Benefits once your workshop orders hit $150. You can also see a bit more of a preview in my online store.

Thanks for stopping by - see you next 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... Welcome!!!

Convention Samples - Round 2!

Alright - it's time for a few more Convention samples!  I had so much fun creating projects with all of the adorable new products.  I'm really grateful for the opportunity.  I had to design a calendar, a board book, 8 cards and 5 scrapbook pages.  I've shown you the projects that made it to the display boards {my book, calendar and a few cards} so today I'll show you the remaining cards.

First up is a card using the Betsy's Blossoms stamp set which is included in the Floral District collection.  This was a really quick card to put together.  To create a two toned bird, I added lighter blue punches behind the wings.  The bird wing from the 2-step bird punch worked perfectly for this.

Card #2 is one of my favorites - another simple one without tons of embellishments, but you could easily add some pearls after it's printed to add a little something extra. That's one really nice feature of MDS - when you open an embellishment it's already true to size so there's no guess work. I think Comfort Cafe is one of my absolute favorite kits. I heard a lot of grumbling about the new In Color Summer Starfruit, but I adore it! Comfort Cafe includes a ton of beautiful paper!

I saw a fun banner where the flags were going both up and down, so I tried it out on this card - I'm pretty pleased with the result.  I found the Birds of a Feather Collection to be really versatile - I can use it for all kinds of layouts.  The speech bubble is a simple outline but I really wanted it filled it.  Simple fix.  I grabbed an oval punch, manipulated it to the correct size, filled it with white and then reduced the opacity.  Voila!  You can see the DSP behind it but it's not competing with my greeting.  

I was a huge fan of the Floral District collection the second I saw it!  It's bright and fun {two of my favorite things} and it makes me happy.  I didn't use it a lot in the Convention projects I designed but I'm absolutely sure that I'll get plenty of use out of it.  The scallop and large circle on this card are filled with DSP and the rest are embellishments from the kit.  Well, except for the buttons.  I pulled those from the Twitterpated kit :)  The lines in the background are from the Hip and Handsome Overlays.  I use overlays all the time.  It's a great way to add interest and texture to my projects.  With this card I wanted a very subtle background, so I applied the overlay, changed the color to white and added a drop shadow.  Super easy technique.  Just play around with the drop shadow until you're happy with the look.

And last but not least, a card I created using the Patio Party Collection.  I had a lot of fun with this kit too - great color combinations and adorable embellishments make it easy to whip up something cute in no time.

Tomorrow I'll post the 5 scrapbook pages I created - see you then!  

Convention Samples - round 1

I still pinch myself when I think that out of the thousands of demonstrators out there, Stampin' Up knows who I am! I was thrilled to be asked to create some MDS samples for Convention this year! The only thing that could have made it better was if I'd actually been able to go to Convention to see my projects on display.  Several of the girls from our hop were able to go, and they graciously took pictures so that I could join in the excitement!  I created 15 samples using the new Digital Content CD's in this year's catalog and over the next few days I'll post all of those so you can see what I was up to during my long absence from the MDS Blog Hop. 

Today we'll start with some pictures of Convention (thanks to my blog hop friends) and the samples that made it to the display boards.

Eek!  I'm on the list!!

Did you happen to notice that Jeanna, Erica, Heather and Holly are on the list too?  So exciting!

Back here in the corner you can see my calendar peeking out.  Before being asked to be a display stamper I had never created a calendar in MDS.  Shocking, I know!  It was a lot of fun to use the calendar options in the Design Center of MDS.  I created a 10x5 calendar  and used downloads from all of the new CD's in the catalog. 

Look close and you can see one of my cards up there in the corner.  It's one of my favorite cards - masculine and simple but lots of fun.  

Here's what the card looks like close up (I left it blank on the inside):

Up next is another card and my attempt at a vintage style design.  I don't do vintage very often - not that I dislike it - it's just not my typical style.

I used the Fan Fair Collection for this one 

Laying down here on the shelf (where no one can see it grrrr...) is a postcard I made.  I combined a couple of ideas I found on Tiny Prints for this one using the Fan Fair Collection.  It's one of my favorite collections!

Here is the front:

And the back. 

By the way, I totally made up this address - so don't send your fan mail there. We don't live in Chantilly - I just love the way it sounds.  ;)

And last but not least, my board book!  I spent hours - and I mean hours! - on this book.  I'm very proud of it and I don't mind saying so.  When I started it, I had a simple format I wanted to follow and I was sure that it would be quick to put together.  Well, I always forget that lots of layers bogs down MDS on my laptop.  I'm pretty sure it's because I'm working on a MacBook Air.  My husband (a super smart computer guy) says that when we upgrade to a MacBook Pro it should fix the problem. For now I just have to deal with it, and when working on a big project like this book every change takes a ridiculously long time.  I'll be honest - I pulled a couple of all-nighters to make sure this book was ready on time, but it was worth it.

I've been collecting kid quotes since Andrew could talk, so I have plenty of material to work with.  I'm sure I'll have at least 2 more volumes in this series of books.  I feel a little like a published author {giggle}.  Except my book isn't in stores... details, details.

A sneak peak at the inside:

Here are the books that were created by my Blog Hop friends!  Aren't they gorgeous?  From left to right its, me, Heather Summers, Erica Shaw, Jeanna Bohanon and Holly VanDyne up front.  Way to go ladies - they look fantastic!

I had hoped that some of my scrapbook pages would make it on display, but I knew ahead of time that not everything would - there simply isn't room.  I'll be posting more projects in the next few days and I'll include a video of my calendar and board book so you can see the entire thing.  

Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my excitement!