My Digital Studio favor treats!

Pinball Wizard treat box 1

Pinball Wizard treat box

Wow, check out the My Digital Studio favor treats that I just made for our high school marching band banquet! 

The band did music from Tommy by the Who, so I designed these treat boxes using Stampin’ Up! Sweet Treat Cups on top and added one of those silver cake decoration balls as a Pinball… my tribute to Pinball Wizard!  I punched a hole in the letter “O” in Tommy and you can roll the pinball around until you get it in the hole… like this!

Pinball Wizard treat box - score!

Pinball Wizard treat box - score!

 

Favors like this are fun to make, but when you are making about 100 of anything you need to be smart about it.  So check back tomorrow and I can show you how I used My Digital Studio and my Big Shot to save time and make these look so darn cute!

100 of anything is a lot!

100 of anything is a lot!

You can use the same idea to make a cute decoration or game for a holiday table.  Let me know if you want to make these My Digital Studio favor treats!

My Digital Studio holiday hybrid card

Holiday hybrid card

Holiday hybrid card

Presenting a My Digital Studio holiday hybrid card!  If you are still looking to make your holiday cards this year, but are worried that you might be running out of time to get them done, I suggest that you give My Digital Studio a try.   This card was designed with My Digital Studio, the intuitive software from Stampin’ Up! that allows you to do scrapbooking, card-making, flyers and a host of other graphic applications.

I easily designed the card in less than half an hour, and then sent it in to Stampin’ Up! professional printing service.  They came back beautifully printed on both sides, scored in the middle for easy folding and with accompanying envelopes.

While I feel that the drop shadow feature of the software gave the printed card a nice feeling of depth, I wanted to add even more layers.  So, I then took the basic card and added some embellishments to give it a personal touch – I added a piece of Very Vanilla seam binding ribbon , and I tied a couple of Mini Jingle Bells into the ribbon with a piece of Linen Thread.   (I suggest omitting the Jingle Bells if you are mailing the card!).  Lovely!

That brings me to the great advantages of using the professional printing service:

  • Professionally printed cards are guaranteed to print the correct color.  So, they will be color coordinated with all the rest of the Stampin’ Up! product line of papers, inks, and embellishments.  I also could have used Cherry Cobbler ribbon on the card, and it would have matched the Cherry Cobbler red on the front of the card perfectly!
  • The print services are a wonderful time-saver, especially when you are doing large quantities of items such as holiday cards.
  • Having them printed avoids some of the typical problems that we all encounter when printing things at home – such as running out of an ink cartridge in the middle of the project (yes, that just happened to me – but more on that in the next post!).
  • It’s a tremendous convenience to have the cards cut and scored to the proper size – and a bargain when you realize that the envelopes are included, too!

You still have time to get your order in for holiday printing… if you submit it in the next day or so.  So, if you are interested in trying My Digital Studio for your holiday cards, contact me ASAP! 

Now, having said all that, it’s also a great software tool to use for printing your own cards at home.  I can fill you in on how to do that!

You can also click here to see more details about the software, and order it online for immediate download or by DVD!

To learn how to make this card, please sign up for my newsletter mailing list on the right, and I will send you the tutorial with step-by-step directions!  Signing up now will also get you the remaining episodes of my 12 Weeks of Christmas newsletter filled with other card, gift making, and gift wrapping ideas and step-by-step directions for making them.

I hope you like My Digital Studio holiday hybrid card!

Online Extravaganza sale for Stampin’ Up! products

The Online Extravaganza sale is here!  During the end of November, Stampin’ Up! is offering a special sale with 20% – 60% off on selected items purchased online or through me, your friendly demonstrator!  The sale goes through the end of November and includes product items as well as digital downloads for My Digital Studio.

There are two special items offered for 20% off until midnight, Monday November 21… in other words, TODAY ONLY! 

Simply Scored
Simply Scored 122334

1) Simply Scored – use the stylus with this clever device to make smooth and straight scoring lines on paper or cardstock… as close as 1/8″ apart.  Special indicators included to mark your spacing.   Think how easy this would make it to fold paper for your holiday cards, or score multiple lines and make a beautiful rosette!  Item 122334 is reg. $29.95, on sale today only at 20% off at $23.96 plus shipping & handling.

Simply Pressed

Simply Pressed 125152

2) Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps – this set of cookie press designs with a smooth wooden handle lets you stamp one of three darling designs on your cookies!  Makes a great gift!  And if you order it today I will send you a cookie recipe on a recipe card that you can save for yourself, or wrap up and include when you give as a gift!  Item 125152 is reg. $16.95, on sale today only at 20% off, at $13.56 plus shipping & handling.

Click here for a list of the sale items.

Click here or below to access my online store.  You can easily create your online store account, or sign in if you already have one!

Online Extravaganza Sale

Click above for Online Extravaganza Sale

Please contact me if you have any questions – I hope you are able to take advantage of the Online Extravaganza Sale!

My Digital Studio digital and hybrid holiday cards

Many people send out greeting cards as a way to reach out to friends and family at the holidays, and it can be an even more special gesture if you make the cards yourself! 

If you’re on my mailing list, you’ve been getting the 12 Weeks of Christmas special series of emails, where each week I send details about how to make a special item for the holidays.  We’re covering cards right now, and soon will share gifts you can make and then gift wrapping & tag.   If you are not on my mailing list, sign up on the right to start getting great info!

So far the cards featured in the 12 Weeks of Christmas have been hand-made cards, using the Stampin’ Up! series of beautiful rubber stamps and color-coordinated papers, inks, ribbons and embellishments. But not everyone wants to hand-stamp all of their holiday cards (some folks send out 300 cards!).   I have a great solution!  Stampin’ Up!’s digital software, My Digital Studio, can make the task easier while still allowing you to be creative! 

You can make the entire card in My Digital Studio, and have it professionally printed through the Stampin’ Up! Printing service.  You can design your own, or use some pre-designed templates that you can customize to achieve a beautiful result.  Options for your card include adding photo(s) of family or news that you want to share.  Cards will be delivered to your door, scored for easy folding, with an envelope – ready to go! 

You can also make a hybrid card – do part digitally and part by hand-crafting!  Several options:

  • Make a digital card, have it printed, and add ribbon or other embellishments for a personal touch of texture and depth.
  • Create an image to use for the front of your card using MDS, and print multiples per page.  Cut them up and apply to the front of a simple handmade card base, allowing you to have layers of mats on your card for depth and texture.   Add additional color with ink, ribbon or glitter.
  • Make a tag in My Digital Studio and have it printed – it will be delivered already cut to the correct size.  Then apply it to the front of a handmade card.  Embellish if desired!

The great thing about using My Digital Studio and the professional printing service is that Stampin’ Up! guarantees the colors to be true, and your results will therefore match the cardstock and embellishments from the rest of the Stampin’ Up! line.  No more mismatches!

Contact me if you have any questions about My Digital Studio.  I’ll be posting some classes soon! 

Carol G

PS Click on the button on the far right, or go to www.mydigitalstudio.net on November 4-7 for some free downloads – you can use them for My Digital Studio or other digital applications.

I’m back! Did you miss me?

Well, the last time I posted was when I was returning from the Stampin’ Up! convention in Utah.  I took a little time with the family, and then got sucked right into marching band stuff with my daughter!  I chaperoned band camp, which occured during Hurricane Irene, leaving us stuck at camp with 89 teenagers and no power for three days.  The kids were terrific, the staff and fellow chaperones were terrific, but boy was I glad to get home and get a shower!

Then upon arrival home I got busy helping to sew flags for the marching band color guard.  The show this year is Tommy, and we made three different flags… all with difficult circles and silver lame fabric.  The eleven flags that I made had nine appliques EACH and took a ton of time to sew.  Truly a labor of love!  Check out the Pinball flags below.

Pinball flags

Here are the eleven Pinball Wizard flags I made!

So, suffice it to say, I have been a bit distracted from scrapbooking and card-making… but gee, I have about two thousand pictures from the trip to Utah, and marching band so far, that are calling to be scrapbooked!  I’ll keep you posted! and share some fun stuff as I go along.

NJ Crop Weekend beckons on August 6-7

Home again!  My flight back from Convention was re-routed to Detroit to refuel – apparently we were full and they could not put enough fuel to fly the plane all the way to New Jersey.  But someone explained it is not necessarily a dig on our weight – it takes more fuel to keep the plane aloft when it is hot, and they were having record temperatures!  So I didn’t get home until 2:20am and I apologize – I didn’t get to post yesterday due to travel!

I had a wonderful time at Convention – can’t wait to share some of the great things I have learned!  The next travel event on the calendar is the NJ Crop Weekend in Basking Ridge, Saturday & Sunday August 6 & 7.  As many people have vacations planned, we still have room at the inn!  Would you like to come and join us?  Click here or check out http://www.njcropweekends.com/

The good news is that I will only be driving to Basking Ridge (it’s less than an hour from my house!).  No planes!

Picture me having fun at convention!

No seriously… here are pictures of me having fun at at convention!  This is one of the General Sessions where they addressed all 3,500 of the attendees.  They had big screens set up so that everyone could see!  And check out the bling on my lanyard – we get pins for various stuff we do, and the colored strip shows if we have won something from the prize patrol.

Carol at Convention

Carol at Convention during the General Session.

Carol and friends at convention

Here I am on the right, with my friends Kari and Jen

Lost in the maze – surrounded by card and scrapbook layouts!

Three of my demonstrator friends went in and have not been seen for hours!  Take a look at the walls of samples that are on display for us here at the Stampin’ Up! Convention.  It is absolutely overwhelming! 

Stampin' Up! sample boards at convention 2011

Sample boards at the 2011 Stampin' Up! convention

I’ll show you more when I can get the pictures sorted out.  They are keeping us really busy every day!  I can’t wait for the morning – I will be taking an upper level class on using My Digital Studio.

Oh and by the way – we finally found those three demos.  They came out of the maze when their cameras could not hold any more pictures!

Denver airport mountains had nothing on us here!

Hey fellow Good Guys,

Just a quick follow up!  Remember a few days ago I said that the Denver airport had no mountains in view?  Here’s what I meant!  This is the view out the window of the Denver airport, when the atmospheric conditions were such that you couldn’t see the mountains in the distance.  Nothing like the clarity of the view here in SLC!

Denver Airport

So where are the mountains?!

Convention starts with a bang!

Hello Good Guys!

Here I am back in Salt Lake City, with tired feet and a sore back but a smile on my face.  We had the first day of the Stampin’ Up! Convention today.  So far we:

– registered and received a great tote bag full of free stamp sets and goodies

– took a tour of the Stampin’ Up! home office and distribution center

– got all 3,300 demonstrators together for a session of fun games

– saw a bunch of great demonstrations from top-notch folks (I took pictures!) with more to come tomorrow.

I look forward to pulling some of the pictures out of the camera over the next few days and sharing them with you… as well as learning some great new stuff to share when I get home!