Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

Yesterday was super exciting and exhausting as we finally got to meet and take home our new Great Dane puppy! His registered AKC name will be Echo v. Evans Hijack My Heart, but we are calling him Jack. His mother Annie is a champion, and his father Humphrey is only  points away from being a champion as well. We’re hoping that Jack will follow in their footsteps. In the meantime, we are enjoying his adorable puppy self. Eve has wanted to do nothing other than snuggle him since before we even got him! She was so excited when he fell asleep in her lap last night, that I just had to take a picture. It seemed to be the perfect picture to use for both the Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge and the Pals Paper Arts Challenge.

I did it in My Digital Studio, of course, while the puppy is sleeping beneath my legs. One more good thing about My Digital Studio — no small pieces for the puppy to chew on! This is an 8″x8″ page. I figure it’s never too early to start on the scrapbook!

If you are in the Los Angeles area and would like one-on-one lessons in My Digital Studio, please contact me for more information.

I was so lucky to have had three amazing roommates at the Leadership Convention! They were all three from Wisconsin, and though we had been “friends” online for quite a while, I had never met them in person. It didn’t matter. By the end of our first afternoon together, we might as well have been friends since childhood! In keeping up with Stampin’ Up tradition, each of them made gifts for me as well.

Lyssa made a fabulous monogram luggage tag, which I immeadiately put on my awesome Leadership bag. It has the Statement of the Heart on the back. She also made a gorgeous card with yummy chocolate in it, but I don’t have a picture of it right now.

Staci made this great mini scrapbook. I haven’t put pictures in it yet, but it will be a fabulous memento of Leadership!

Shelley filled this super cute Fancy Favor bag with chocolate, and also made this adorable pin with the Build-a-Bear stamp set.

Barbara was not one of our roommates, but since she lives in Phoenix she went out of her way to make welcome gifts for each of us!

Thank you to everyone for their wonderful gifts!

Whoo-hoo! I’m certified! (No, no, not certifiable, that would be entirely different.) I am pleased to report that I am officially certified in Stampin’ Up’s My Digital Studio papercrafting software. What does that mean? Well, it means that I have successly completed the webinars and quizzes from Stampin’ Up, as well as created projects in each of the different My Digital Studio design types. This includes cards, scrapbook pages, calendars, and multimedia projects.

This software is fantastic. It uses the same great artwork, colors, and accessory images found in Stampin’ Up’s current product line, but you never have to worry about running out! You can print your creations at home, send them to Stampin’ Up’s professional print service, or simply keep them as digital art. Imagine a digital frame constantly rotaing through your beautiful scrapbook pages! Stampin’ Up’s printer has specially calibrated their inks to be exact matches to Stampin’ Up’s colors. This means you can create “hybrid” pages, and add matching embellishments.

I am pleased to offer a complimentary  one-on-one My Digital Studio class to anyone who purchases the software from me. Interested in seeing it first? I’ve got it on my laptop, and I’m happy to show you this exceptional software!

More information about My Digital Studio is available on my Stampin’ Up Website. And don’t forget, My Digital Studio is part of the Holiday Gift Giving Guide. This means you can choose one FREE Décor Elements (up to a $16.95 value) if you purchase it by January 4th.

Want it cheaper? Through November 30, get 50 percent off My Digital Studio^™ when you host a $400 workshop! Plus, get any one item from the Holiday 2009 Mini Catalog for just $10 when you host a $250 workshop. Contact me today to schedule your workshop!

I mentioned a few posts ago how fun it was to be able to take My Digtal Studio with anywhere since it is on my laptop. Not only that, but I can even begin to scrapbook things before the trip is over! You have to love digital technology! I used this week’s Saturday Sketch Challenge from Stamping 411 to create a scrapbook page while I am still at the American Association of School Librarians conference! This week’s sketch:

Right across from the Convention Center in Charlotte is a beautiful green, with these amazing statues of books. My friend and colleague, Elisabeth and I wanted a picture in front of this. Luckily a kindly librarian passing by took a picture of us together.

It is amazing to me that I can still be at an event, and be actively creating a scrapbook about it. Every time I use My Digital Studio, I like it more and more!

I found yet another great plus to using Stampin’ Up’s My Digital Studio. You can take it anywhere! I am currently in Charlotte, North Carolina for the American Association of School Librarians conference. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have brought any stamping stuff with me, because it is too hard to figure out what I want to do, and how much to bring, and what if I don’t have time, etc, etc. But not this time! Nope! I simply loaded My Digital Studio on my laptop, and I can relax in the evenings by playing with it and creating a few pages! (I love that when you purchase MDS you are licensed to install it on two computers in the same home, so I can install it on both my desktop and laptop computer without a problem.)

I had some spare time this morning before I have to head out to the conference sessions, so I put together a scrapbook page for this week’s Pals Paper Arts Color Challenge. The colors are:

I used some pictures from last December, of my Dad and Eve building a hot air balloon out of her Mega Fort Builder set. I substituted Tempting Turquoise for the Taken with Teal, because the background paper I wanted to use was not available in Taken with Teal.  I’m very happy with the way it came out, and I may use it as one of the pages of the calender I am making for my parents for Hanukkah. (Another great feature of MDS — you can import pages from one project to another! It saves time and effort, no duplicating work!)

Happy Stampin’, whether it is real or virtual!

I am so fortunate to be working with a wonderful woman in the library this year! She is amazing, and really went above and beyond to make the library a festive place for Halloween. The students loved it all month, and yesterday was a fantastic Halloween celebration. I used My Digital Studio to whip a quick scrapbook page commemorating how great it was. If you look closely at the top right hand corner of the picture, you can see some of the 100 witches’ hats that were hanging from the ceiling.

I’m going to print this out and give it to her on Monday. Have I mentioned how much I’m loving My Digital Studio? Don’t worry, I’ll keep telling you!

You know what I love about My Digital Studio? Well, I’ll tell you… I love that not only can I make amazing scrapbook pages, not only can I make fabulous cards, but I can make a huge assortment of other digital items as well. Case in point, I made a super cute flyer for my Halloween buddy at work!

I told you last week how we are doing buddies at work, leaving fun little treats for each other. Well, I knew I couldn’t stamp anything for her (or she would know it was me), but I sure could print something on the computer! So I put this together in about 10 minutes, printed it out, and left it on her desk with one of those little pumpkins. So cute and easy!

I love My Digital Studio! I’ll have more great projects to show you soon!

There are seven new digital downloads available, just released today! They can be used in My Digital Studio, and also in Photoshop or any other digital scrapbooking software that imports JPGs and PNGs. I can’t wait to make some fun Halloween pages with these!

118114 Cast A Spell Designer Series paper - digital download $4.95

118115 Night & Day Designer Series paper - digital download $4.95

118124 Medallion stamp brush set - digital download $1.95

118126 Circle Circus stamp brush set - digital download $5.95

118116 School Days II stamp brush set - digital download $9.95

118121 Great Moments II stamp brush set - digital download $9.95

118122 Pumpkin Patch stamp brush set - digital download $5.95

You can order these online, and immediately download them and have fun! I’d love to see what you create!

Whoo-hoo! There are three great Big Shot dies on sale this week!!

Flower Burst Embosslits Die * Regularly $11.95 * This week only $5.99

Three Tier Pop-Up Cake Die * Regular Price $39.95 * This week only: $25.49

Perfect Setting Stampin’ Up! Bigz Xl Die
Regular Price $42.95
This week only: $25.99
A perfect event needs a perfect setting. We’ve got you covered with our Perfect Setting Bigz XL die. With it, you can create cupcake holders and napkin rings from card stock, Designer Series paper, or other material. The cupcake holder is designed to hold a standard-size cupcake. This design is part of Shelli’s Signature Collection.
■ Can cut through multiple sheets of card stock, Texture Cuts wood sheets, window sheets, Décor Elements sheets, and more
■ Use with Sizzix Big Shot machine and extended cutting pads
■ Die size: 6″ x 13-3/4″

Order these before the great deals end on October 18th!

Welcome to Stampin’ Addicts first ever Blog Carnival! It features Stampin’ Up’s new digital crafting software, My Digital Studio. Because this is a blog carnival, you can choose any of the participants to go to next! A full list is at the bottom of this post, or you can visit Stampin’ Addicts for more information.

There are many things that I love about My Digital Studio. First, I love that it is on my own computer, and not stored on the Internet somewhere, so I don’t need Internet access to use it. Second, I love that it works on both PCs and Macs. Third, I love that it comes licensed to install on two computers in the same home, which means that I can legally put it on both my laptop and my desktop computer. Fourth, I love that it comes with pre-made templates by Stampin’ Up’s fabulous designers that are easy to use and easy to modify as well. Today I’m going to show you two projects where I easily modified pre-made templates.

I have been working on putting together a scrapbook of my daughter Eve’s year in kindergarten. I let her pick which designer kit she wanted, and she chose to use Sunny Day. It’s beautiful and versatile, and has been working out great! Here is a page I did of her working in woodshop. I did not modify the page at all, other than to insert the two pictures and add the journaling.

For Halloween I started with that exact same layout, since I wanted the Pumpkin Pie background paper. As you can see, however, I removed quite a few stamps and embellishments, changed colors of other parts, and added in new embellishments and stamps. But I stuck with the same basic colors (other than black) that are in the whole album. And it was so easy!

Next, I wanted to try a card. Yesterday was my in-laws anniversary, but they are on vacation so I couldn’t mail them a traditional card. I wanted to make a digital card that I could email them. There are quite a few pre-made cards to choose from, so I picked this Christmas card because I liked the layout and the colors.

I deleted the holly and used the oval punch to cover up the Christmas greeting in the middle. Then I used a stamp from Together Forever in the oval, and Baroque Motifs on the bottom half. I finished it with a little red heart punch. I am so pleased with how it came out!

Whether you feel like designing from scratch, using a template, or somewhere in between, My Digital Studio truly is your digital papercrafting solution!

Thanks for visiting this part of the Blog Carnival. Be sure and take a look at these other fabulous blogs:

DMDezigns/Dawnmarie: My Digital Studio – The Birdseye Overview
HowManyCats?!/Comeka: Digitize Your Sketch Library with MDS
Willysgirl/Sarah: MDS Xmas and Extras
Hollylogic/Holly: MDS as a Design Tool (or How Not to Slice Up All Your Brushed Gold)
Lyssa: Playing with Stamps You Don’t Own
Lilysinkpad/Sara: Simply Scrappin’ Kits Go Digi
JulieA/Julie: Wanna Little Music with Your Slideshow?
lovetostampandscrap/Cheryl: Creating a Calendar to Beat All Calendars
Melina Stamps!/Melina: Man-Scrapping with MDS
BroncoMom/Joyce: Build Your Own DSP
Britiney: Clever Album Covers – A Piece of (Cup)Cake
S1itcher46/Kim: Hybridizing and Cataloging Collections
Kelli: Side-by-Side Test: Is it Actual or Is It MDS?
Scrapbookmama/Ellie: Keeping the Spotlight on Your (Adorable!) Subjects