So today is May 31st.

The day that MDS (and all its related elements) was *supposed* to sail away into the sunset. Well, not sail away as in "quit working", but the last day for the software and digital downloads to be available for purchase or download, and the last day to upload completed projects for printing or to get support for your software.

But we MDS fans have been handed a tiny bit of a reprieve: the "last day" for availability has been extended to June 2nd (note that's only a whole whopping 2 days, lol), and support will be available until June 9th.

Hopefully you're all "set" and ready for the transition, but if not, you've still got 2 more days to purchase or update your software…. and purchase, download and save your digital images. And don't forget that everything's available for 30% off as it's closing out! Here's the list of included elements if you'd still like to grab something.

You can read more nitty-gritty details in this lengthy newsletter I sent to MDS fans a couple months ago.

MDS & Digital Project Life

In the meantime, I've since learned (through personal experience) a couple of other tips I'd like to pass along regarding using Digital Project Life by Stampin' Up! – with MDS. If there's ANY chance that that's something you might ever like to do someday, I urge you to do these things right now:

• Purchase and download the Simply Life photo templates. While not "official" Project Life page templates, they're very similar and I'm finding they work just fine. (And OH SO MUCH EASIER than messing around with Photoshop Elements to try to create a page!) Also at 30% off right now, you can get your Simply Life photo templates very inexpensively right here.
• Then go here to purchase any of the Project Life by Stampin' Up! digital card sets you might like to have. May I recommend the beautiful and versatile black & white "Love Story" set???  Wedding theme or not, you'll find plenty of uses for it, I'm sure!
• And THEN download your digital cards in "other" format! The reason for doing that is that your Simply Life layout templates are set up to accept "photos" in their photo boxes. But if you download the digital cards the usual way for Windows or Mac, they will install as "embellishments"….. and you won't be able to just click and drag them into your photo boxes. But instead, when you download them with the "other" option, you can create a folder on your hard drive wherever you wish, and store the images there exactly as if they were photos; then to use them you'll just navigate to that "photo" folder (from within MDS), and treat the images as any ol' photo by clicking and dragging them into place on your page. Slick as a whistle! Now, since it doesn't cost you any more than a couple of minutes, I *also* recommend you download them for Windows or Mac, too…. just because you're probably used to that, and the "stamp" images will still work as usual. But by also choosing to download as "other" you can click & drag to place your "cards" and make your Project Life scrappin' go lickety-split!
• And finally, to continue scrapping with Digital Project Life, I think that going forward, the future Stampin' Up! card sets will be available in digital format at ProjectLife.com. (Becky Higgins' site.)

Moving on from MDS

And when the time comes that you're ready to move on from MDS for whatever reason, remember that MyMemories is offering a transition special for THEIR software, which supposedly is very similar. I have no personal experience with MyMemories because I'm opting to stay with MDS at least for a while longer, but you can read all about the MyMemories transition offer here.

So here's to digital designing for some time to come! I STILL believe there's a market for simple digital design, and think MDS had everything going for it and was without a doubt the EASIEST and BEST system for digital scrapping and design out there….. except it was just a touch ahead of the marketplace. Sadly, the public hadn't quite caught up to it yet. Darn.