Hello. I've got another instalment today of my 'How To Make A Photobook Using MDS' video tutorial series. In part 2 we look at how to add some DSP into a photo box and how to search for and add embellishments. We also quickly add text to a text box. Hope it comes in handy if you'd like to give MDS and digital creating a go.
My Sydney holiday photobook arrived in the post today and it looks terrific. Great to see it all printed and ready to enjoy.
I've had a few queries on how to make a photobook using My Digital Studio by Stampin' Up so I've put together a short video showing a few tips and tricks for how to get started using the photo template options.
Hope it comes in handy. I'll have another one shortly on how to add things to pretty it up, and how to adjust the layouts to suit.
My 2014 card making classes kicked off last night. It was lovely to get back into some card making with stamps and inks. Space left next Thursday if you're hoping to catch a class this month. Check dates and details here. March classes are filling fast so get in touch if you'd like a seat at the table for one of those too.
Wow now this must be a record for me I think in recent years. I've actually FINISHED a scrapbooking project in less than a fortnight! I loved the photos we took on our recent holiday to Sydney so made a digital photobook using MDS. Here's a peek at a few of the pages.
For the final page in the album I added in 4 circle punches, then used the photo fill function to add our faces. I asked each person in the family to say something about the holiday - favourite part, thoughts and so on. A nice way to finish off the album and include all of our voices I think.
Now - if I can get a 48 page photobook out of a 3 day holiday to Sydney - I wonder how long it'd be if we went on a longer trip overseas!!! Ha ha.
I uploaded it all to Snapfish last night and my book should be on its way in a week or so. I can't wait to see what it looks like.
In other out of character news, I'm also up to date in my "Our 2014 Life" album. So glad I decided to go digital this year. I'm way better at finding time to foof about on my laptop creating it seems! And it is so much fun. MDS makes it ridiculously easy too.
A warm day in Melbourne today and I'm parked in front of the fan on my laptop in scrapbooking heaven. I've been working on my digital photobook album 'Our 2014 Life' and have gotten lots done today.
I'm using our digital program MDS: My Digital Studio. I selected the Saleabration Digital pack as one of my Saleabration freebies so I've got a few new digital papers and embellishments to play with. My scrapbooking style is very simple and the program is so easy to use - it doesn't take long to whack a few pages together.
Here's a few new pages to share. A front cover for the album. (Although I might replace the pic of me and John if I take a nicer one before I get it printed! The height difference between us is a bit too big when we're standing for a pic.) I kept lots of white space in my cover.
And a 1st page before we get into the double spreads with a pic of each of us and a little summary of what we're up to at the start of this year - ages, jobs or grades, hobbies. (I've blurred a few details for blogging.)
We're just back from a few days on holiday in Sydney so I did a page about that too. We took lots of pics on holiday so I decided to make a photo book of the holiday separately since I'm on a bit of a scrapbooking roll at the moment. Just picked out some of my favourite shots for this album.
If you'd like to try a little digital creating using MDS, you can download either the free 30 day trial or the full program ($24.95) right here. My Digital Studio Software
If you've already got the program, you can find our huge range of extra downloads right here: MDS Digital Downloads
There are new downloads added every week.
I hope you're staying cool this week if you're in one of the hotter parts of the planet. Done any scrapbooking this year?? I always feel fabulous when I'm getting stuck into some scrapbooking. Makes my heart sing to jot down stories and do something with our photos. Don't you just love a good hobby.
Had fun colouring the 'create' stamp using colours to match the Zoob construction materials the kids have been playing with. So easy to colour digitally - and if you make a mistake there's that handy undo button. My favourite.
I've been working on a few more January MDS pages of my digital 'Our 2014 Life' album this week while resting in between decluttering jobs. We got a skip for a couple of days this week so have been doing 'decluttering on steroids' - all hands on deck. Cleaned out heaps of junk from the garage and under the house - and quite a bit from inside the house too. Aaaah - I do love a good clean out.
A bit of trivia: I've been aiming to do a week to a layout roughly and was doing Monday to Sunday. Just inserted a 5 day week and am swapping to Saturday to Friday for the rest of the album. I quite often fluff about on the computer on a Saturday morning so that way I can upload all the photos from the week and get the layout done - I think that timing will work better for this project.
Here's another page. If I've done enough pages by the end of June I might get it printed then and make it 2 albums for the year. I don't think I'm patient enough to wait until the end of the year.
Going digital for my Project Life style album this year prompted me to have a think about how I'm backing up my computers. Or rather - how they're not really backed up. I had an external hard drive so sat down the other night and copied lots of laptop files onto that - then left it in a silly spot and Jack knocked it off the table. Bye bye back up. I replaced it and have copied both machines onto that and put it in a safe place! Plus I decided to go with Crashplan as an online back up. It'd take a gazillion years and all our internet allowance to back everything up and I've got lots of stuff on both the laptop and desktop so I've picked out some key folders for that to back up online. Including of course my MDS projects! Much happier now that things are a bit more organised in my digital world. Have you backed up your photos or files lately? Here's your little reminder if you need to go look after that. :-)
Happy scrapbooking! I've cleaned up my craft desk too and have a snazzy little organiser thing that I can't wait to show you. It is covered with brand spanking new products though so I'll have to wait til after the 28th!
Hot, hot, hot in this neck of the woods. I'm parked in front of the fan today with my laptop doing some MDS creating. January usually means a sudden urge to scrapbook for me. What about you?
I have decided to have a go at a digital scrapbook this year to record a few 2014 family snippets - project life style. I'm using MDS and will get it printed into a book at the end of the year. Here's my start.
I've popped the black border on so it doesn't blend into the blog background but the actual page has just a large white border to the edge of the page. Want to keep it pretty clean and simple.
To begin I just selected Photobooks, 12 x 12, then the Photo Only option. I selected the rounded corner option and just picked the one page I was after, and removed the rest. I'm saving each page as a separate JPEG file and can just sit down at the end of the year and drop them all into a photobook. In previous years I've printed individual photos and slipped them into pocket page style plastics with some journalling cards - but they take up so much space. Trying digital this year and we'll see how we go. Which reminds me - good time for a mental health announcement .....
****** DON'T FORGET TO BACK UP YOUR PHOTOS, FILES, MDS PROJECTS ********
I've made use of the blur button on my photo software to blur a few faces of family and friends and some details ready for blog sharing. So don't adjust your glasses - ha ha.
I really liked some of the elements in the Love This MDS Class Kit so I bought that one. The video class was terrific. I picked up a few new tips on working with MDS while I was watching it, and now I have all the stamps and elements to use in my projects.
Here's some of the things in the Love This MDS Class Kit.
I hope to be back over the year with some more layouts from my "Our 2014 Life" album. I do often have a tendency to fizz out during the year so lots of my scrapbooks have January, February, March, August, December - ha ha. Can you relate? But I'm not too fussed. Whatever I get done is a little snippet that would otherwise have been relegated to my very unreliable memory. I'm happy with whatever I get done. What's that quote? Don't let the perfect get in the way of the pretty good. Something like that.
Happy scrapbooking if you're a picture and story recorder and hope you are staying cool if you're in the heatwave areas of the country.
Cheers, Sue
PS. New catalogue time and Saleabration 2014 is JUST around the corner. I've got free copies here to post. Give me a holler if you'd like one in your mail box. Lots of snazzy things.
One more PS. I'm having a bit of technical difficulties with my voicemail messages and have somehow managed to delete at least 3 in the last month without hearing them. If that's you - shoot me through a text, it seems I'm voicemail challenged! :-)
I love creating with MDS - right from my cosy couch with my laptop. This morning I wanted to use one of my favourite old family photos. This one is of my dad when he was a boy with my nana and pa, and his sisters.
The background is Always Artichoke Script, and I've added lots of bits and pieces from one of my favourite kits - Downtown Grunge. (This kit comes preloaded with MDS.) I've also used stamps and embellishments from the Family History kit, and lots of stitching and transparent tape.
It is so much fun creating with MDS. No mess on the table, lots of colours and stamps and embellishments to play with and my absolute favourite bit - the undo button. Makes it so easy to experiment and try different things, and you can just click undo if it doesn't work out how you'd envisaged. Would be nice to have one of those for life wouldn't it.
MDS Class - Melbourne
Want to find out a bit more about MDS? I'm holding an introductory session in my lounge room in June. Grab a cuppa and a comfy seat on the couch (if you're one of the first here, otherwise a not quite so comfy seat on a chair - wink) and I'll step you through a little MDS tour on my TV screen.
Saturday June 15th
Class being rescheduled. New date coming soon.
2.00 - 3.00pm
Entry Fee $10.
Note: This class is free for my customers and class regulars.
We'll take a look at:
* how to use the included templates
* designing a custom project
* an intro to some of the features and fabulousness.
If you've been a bit curious about MDS and would like to know more, this is a great way to discover more about it. If that date doesn't suit, keep an eye out for dates in later months.
I've been enjoying a little creating time this morning - right from the comfort of my cosy bed. Me, a cuppa and my laptop plus some new MDS downloads and I can scrapbook a layout in just 5 or 10 minutes. Aaah. Here's today's effort using the Morning Post Alphabet template. All I had to do was drop in a photo from our farm visit last weekend, add some journaling and crop a little.
Actually I might have to duck back in and recolour those As in AWAITS as they're a bit faint against the dirt pile. Keep an eye out for a video soon on how to do that.
Speaking of scrapbooking and memory keeping - there's a couple of specials on this month you might be interested in.
25% off Selected My Digital Studio Content
From now until June 15th you can get 25 percent off select My Digital Studio content.
Includes: ALL ensemble, calendar, photobook and swatchbook digital content.
Just head along to my online store and download your free trial of MDS - our digital creating software. Or get the full version with heaps of content for $24.95.
There's lots more digital downloads there to browse through if you'd like to add to your collection, and some are 25% off until June 15.
Online Store - Click here then find the SHOP NOW button.
Our new This and That range - out now. A funky journal, washi tape, a very cool rotary stamp, designer stickers and patterned paper. All you need to capture little bits of this and that.
Products available separately or get them all as a bundle and get 15% off. These products will be available in June and in the new catalogue, but the bundle discount is only available until May 31st.
This and That Bundle $55.88 until May 31st. (A bundle with all 5 of the products listed below)
Or available separately.
This and That Epic Day Designer Stickers $8.95
3 pack of Washi Tape $8.95
Very cool Remember This and That Rotary Stamp $9.95
(I can't wait to get this rotary stamp - I think it'll be super handy for scrapbooking.)
This and That Epic Day DSP $18.95
This and That Epic Day Journal $18.95
Here's a little video to show you a bit more about the new This and That range.
There's so many new and exciting things happening with Stampin' Up at the moment that I've created a 'What's New?' tab up on the menu bar at the top here. Click on that for a quick snapshot of all the exciting new announcements from Stampin' Up land.
COME JOIN THE TEAM
Interested in building a home based craft business or building up your personal stash at great value?? If you're keen to join in all the excitement and would like to join a fun, friendly, dynamic, fast growing team - don't forget you get an additional $65 of products in your starter kit if you join before May 30th.
That's $295 of products for just $169. (Anything that you'd like from the current range.)
My team is called Think Ink and we're spread all over Australia. We're just about to break through the magic 100 number. Perhaps you'll be our 100th team member?
Hello hello - May is here and we're celebrating paper paper paper. Free DSP on offer for customers and free DSP if you join in May. (Details here.)
To kick off paper month in style, how about a blog hop. I'm part of the Art With Heart team and there are lots of talented scrapbookers in the crew led by Claire Daly. Our blog hop today has 11 stops so you'll have lots of inspiration along the way for ways to use your Stampin' Up DSP in your scrapbooking. Waving a hi if you've arrived from Alisha's blog and let's get moving if you're kicking off from here.
Now I'm a very simple scrapbooker - a photo, some paper, a story. For this layout I've just gone with a word actually that I hear when I see this photo of Hannah.
A sparkle in the eye, sparkly dress and shoes, a sparkly smile. I look at this photo and see a bright, happy girl, and must be a mum thing but I almost get a lump in the throat seeing how fast she is growing up. I want to hang on to my little girl, but am excited to watch her mature too.
The DSP is the gorgeous Paisley Petals. It has some bold eyecatching designs but I've used the more muted tones on the reverse for my page. (The beauty of double sided paper.)
I've matted with coordinating colours - Always Artichoke and Not Quite Navy, plus Early Espresso for the photo.
My base is a scrapbooking favourite - Crumb Cake.
My letters (Simple Letters Alphabet die pg 159) were cut from the silver glimmer paper.
They got a bit lost on the page ......
.... so I grabbed out an aquapainter and my Not Quite Navy reinker and painted on a few layers of colour to coordinate with my papers.
Aaaaah, that's better.
Some of our delicate little pearls and Baroque Motifs to snazz up the base layer a little.
Ready to pop in the album. Now I don't know about you but I'm very excited about this blog hop and can't wait to zip round the sites and get some scrapbooking ideas. I've got a nice stash of my favourite DSPs and I just know the girls will get me all inspired to get it out and get creating.
Next stop in the hop is the very talented scrapbooker Kathryn Ruddick using one of my favourite packs of paper. Have fun!
And get in touch if you'd like to take advantage of our May paper specials.
Cheers, Sue
Just in case you're visiting another day - here's the direct link to each of the hop posts:
One of my gazillion resolutions for this year is to enter some of the terrific challenges that are around so kicking off today with the Just Add Ink challenge #104: Back To School Theme.
Back to school means back into the routine of readers. I've gotten back into the habit of having a bit of quiet time on the couch with the kids before bed with a pile of books too.
I came across a quote as part of a scrapbooking course I'm doing and knew straight away I wanted to do a layout with it. Dug through my photo files on the weekend to find pics of the kids and I reading together and set to work.
I've used lots of the designs from a pack of the Beau Chateau DSP, along with the big circle die and some punches. Another resolution is to use more of my stash of patterned paper this year. I have rather a habit of 'saving' it.
Here's a closer look at the Emilie Buchwald quote: Children become readers on the laps of their parents.
Timeless Type alphabet for the letters, with some Soft Suede sponging so they'd show up better. The lined pieces of paper I've punched to write the rest of the quote on are from the Beau Chateau pack as well. Handy for journalling!
Included some pics of some of our favourite books and our loungeroom book basket.
I loved this frame from the DSP so kept it showing behind my focal photo. Love those soft blue scroll/flourish images too.
I've been doing a bit of digital scrapbooking lately and it was lovely to sit down and do a paper one - isn't it just so nice to play around with all the different designs of paper and different shapes.
Yay, now I can tick off a few of my resolutions - to enter a challenge, to do some more scrapbooking of things that are important to me like our love of books, and to use more of my papers.
Happy stamping, and happy scrapbooking, (and happy New Year's Resolutioning!)