"Hot off the Press!"……… and ………

"This just in!"………

(and other exclamations like that, lol)

We've just learned this morning that Stampin' Up! is beginning their "formerly-scheduled-for-May-only " scrapping-related 30%-savings sales TWO DAYS EARLY!  Yes, that's right, May's big 30%-off sale starts TODAY!  

So that means you have 2 extra days (today and tomorrow ) to take advantage of these super-special 30% discounts (including stamp sets, My Digital Studio print items [yes, 30% off lots of those, too – WOW!], as well as digital download bundles) – and you'll be able to start working with those products even that much earlier. (Even this weekend, in the case of the digital downloads.) 

And here's the really KEWL thing:  you'll still be able to take advantage of April's Sneak Peek promotion  AND pick up those last items from your Occasions Mini Catalog wishlist before THOSE opportunities expire tomorrow (Saturday), as well.

But there's no time to dilly-dally if you want to take advantage of all of this at once…… just jump online and order your goodies right from your computer, and they'll deliver right to your door. And as always, if your order combines to reach $150 in product, you'll get to choose free product (called Stampin' Rewards) – which is equivilent to hostess benefits if ordering through me directly.

Oh, and there's one more thing:  If you've been thinking about acquiring the My Digital Studio software AND are open to showing your friends the Stampin' Up! product line, you'll be happy to learn that the MDS demonstrator starter kit is ALSO on sale for 30% off!

Please note that even though the prices at my online store may not show the discounted prices at first, the discounted price should show up once you place that item into your shopping bag. 

Questions?  Call me at the number shown at the top of this page – and then help yourself to a bundle of savings!

Shop online here

View the April  sneak peek special

View May's 30%-off products (remember May's special begins today – April 29!)

To learn about being a demonstrator (30%-off MDS starter kit)

 


So hey!  I wasn't too sure it was gonna happen, but I've finally reached a space in my schedule where I can stick in this class I've talked about – so if you've got a couple hours to spare between now and Easter, I'll prep the "stuff" and let's DO it!

So here's how it's gonna go:  Pick either tomorrow (Friday) evening (between 6:30 pm and 10:00) – or Saturday morning (between 9 and let's say about 1:00), and come make *up to 4* of these adorable treat holders for somebunny special!  Everything's included – except the candy and your SNAIL adhesive (don't forget to bring your SNAIL, btw) – for just $10 (that's "total", not "each").  

Or get your class totally FREE with a $20 product order placed that day. 

So grab a friend and let's hop to it!  I know it's last-minute, but call me up quick and let me know when you're coming, and I'll get your supplies prepared. And YOU'll have something darling to share come Easter morning! 

Stampin' Up!® just released their latest update to My Digital Studio (our digital designing software), and added a bunch of oft-requested new features!  

Now, one of MY biggest wishes has long been the ability to resize a grouped batch of elements.  And hurray! Now you CAN!  Look at these 3 identical flowers – each one a different size……

With this brand-new My Digital Studio feature, this was a piece of cake to construct:  I simply designed the flower once (2 leaves and the main flower – from the same stamp brush set, and a circle punch which was filled with brown and layered behind the yellow flower to make the brown highlights).  And then I "grouped" those 4 elements of that first flower and copy/pasted it 2 more times to give me three flowers altogether.

Ok.  So far, pretty routine, right?  

But THEN, here's where it really got cool:  Instead of having to resize and adjust each and every single element individually (meaning 4 elements per flower times 3 flowers for a total of 12 resize/reposition actions), I simply grabbed each still-grouped flower by the corner of it's brand-new selection box and stretched (or shrank) it to the size I wanted! Hot dog!  I'm so excited about the possibilities of this new capability!

Just think……. need a title with alphabet letters half or twice their native size?  Now you can just set your title letter by letter in its native size – then group the whole title, grab its corner selection handle and stretch!  Oh my gosh, when I think of the hours I've spent resizing each and every letter one by one and making certain each one was precisely the same size as its neighbor while still remaining in alignment……..!  (Yes, I do have a bit of OCD in me, lol.)

But get this!………..This is only ONE of the awesome new enhancements you'll find in this free MDS update!

So if you've got My Digital Studio installed (and updated beyond the very first update Stampin' Up! ever published – "way back when"), all you have to do right now is open up your MDS software, click on the "help" tab, and then download and install this newest update.  It's FREE!  

On the other hand if you've NEVER updated your MDS software yet, then you'll need to follow the instructions outlined at www.MyDigitalStudio.net – under the RESOURCES tab – to accomplish your first update.  But THEN you'll be able to grab all future updates (including THIS one) at the Help tab within your software.

So what are you WAITING for?!?  Go update your MDS and start exploring what creative new things you can do with it – even easier than ever!  :-) 

ETA:  Oh!  In my excitement and gushing about being able to change the SIZE of a grouped item, I completely forgot to mention you can also ROTATE the grouped elements, too!  So in my sample, the 3 flowers COULD have easily been facing in 3 different directions.

I finally had time (er, well, TOOK time, actually) to play around with one of my Beveled Windowpanes the other day.  I know that Stampin' Up!® usually shows these as an embellishment for a card, but that seems mighty "lumpy" to me.  So I wanted to go in a different direction – something I could wear….. that would be a little more visible.

This pendant is actually several layers.  The main piece, of course, is one of the Beveled Windowpanes from page 28 of the Occasions Mini Catalog.  (These things are AWESOME, btw……. only averaging $.66 each, in a pkg of 12!)

Behind the acrylic windowpane is a layer of Window Sheet, upon which I put the "Dream" rub-on (yes, it's also Stampin' Up!, although retired).  Looking back, I probably could just as well have put the Rub-on directly on the DSP, and completely skipped the window sheet, though.

Self-adhesive Pearls create a frame around the front edge of the windowpane.

Ok.  So working backwards again, behind the window sheet are a layer of Pink Pirouette cardstock, a (striped) piece of Designer Series Paper (Springtime Vintage – also from the Occasions Mini), and a flower carefully cut from the same DSP.

Then I wrapped Pretty in Pink Satin ribbon around to the back, attaching a loop at the top as well, and added another layer of the striped DSP to finish off the back side.

After taking this picture I have since added a piece of light pink rat tail cord, and I have a new necklace that makes me think SPRING!!!

If you'd like to make one of these, too, you can get most of the supplies at my online store.  And don't forget that we're still in the Sale-a-Bration season, so you'll get a free SAB reward with every $50 order!  But only through the end of March, though, so don't dawdle!

A quick reminder that I've still got room for more stampers at each of my 3 Card Classes this weekend!  Click here to:

• Confirm that you're on the attendance list if you've already registered, or
• To GET registered for the session of your choice REAL QUICK……. ('cuz online registration will probably be shutting down pretty soon).

If that happens, however, that doesn't necessarily mean registration is closed; it just means you'll need to contact me directly by phone (number is at top of page) and sign up via that approach.  Friday night, btw, is the most likely to fill; I am aware of some others "thinking about" that session; they just haven't officially committed yet.  But both Friday and Saturday morning sessions still have lots of room…… so come join us!!!  🙂

Here's that link again to register – for the next few hours, anyway:  http://StamptheRock.eventbrite.com

PS:  If you're reading this from a feed, visit my actual blog to see my phone number at the top of the page:  www.StamptheRock.com

Sometime last month I was invited to lead a 6-week after-school enrichment class for an elementary school here on Whidbey, and I readily agreed.  The class began early in February, and although it turned out that the group I have is smaller than we'd expected, the 3 girls in my class have all been absolutely *delightful* to work with! 

We started out our early sessions by making some cards (Valentines), and then they wanted to do a box, and I think we'll finish up with some type of a mini album in which they can share about themselves.

Unfortunately, Old Man Winter got in the way of our class this past week, though, as the day we were supposed to meet ended up being a snow day and there wasn't any school at all.  (Did you hear my sigh of relief at not having to drive there, too?  I'm the world's biggest chicken when it comes to driving in the snow, and this school is an hour away in GOOD weather!) But anyway, the week prior, the girls had started making this box.  I knew from the outset that it would turn into a 2-session project because I'd had another card for them to make that same day before even starting on their boxes – and I've learned quickly that that "one hour" goes mighty doggone fast!

Anyway, their basic box construction is pretty much done, and whenever the weather permits us to meet again, we'll continue making the flowers to decorate the top.  I'd already given them the first steps of the flowers to do as "homework", so the prep work should be done, and that'll save us all some class time.

So this is what their finished boxes will look like.  If you don't recognize the Designer Paper, it's because it's from a collection that had been a Sale-a-Bration choice in a prior year (so I have tons of it left around here still, lol).  The boxes are 3-1/2" square – so they COULD accommodate a set of mini (3" x 3") cards and matching envelopes.  But we'll just call it a Treasure Box, however, and let the girls put whatever they want to inside their boxes.  🙂

I totally can't believe another two weeks have gone by since last I've blogged.  So what's UP with that, anyway? 

It's certainly not that I haven't had anything to show; afterall, I've had plenty of events to prepare projects for in the last couple of months.  But I think it's a combination of things.  My old computer was just getting too choked up to work with without banging my head against the wall – so every computer-related task had become a dreaded chore, and my new computer wasn't fully set up and ready to go yet, either.  AND then there's been the Photoshop Elements hurdle.  Gag.  Seem it works totally different on my new Windows 7 computer than it did on my old Vista system, so getting my photos ready to post has been a nightmare. 

WHY in the world would that be, you ask?  I haven't the faintest idea!  But the program looks and behaves entirely different – with some options located in completely different places, or under different tabs, while other features (a couple of my most frequently-used, of course) I haven't located yet at all!  So who knows?!?  But suffice it to say that considering how long it took me to learn Photoshop Elements the FIRST time around, I haven't been very keen on starting up another long learning curve, I guess.

But with all this snow on the ground here on Whidbey Island I'm obviously not going anywhere any time soon, nor doing any stampin' events in the immediate future, so I figured I'd make an effort last night to figure out *something* with PhotoShop Elements so I could post at least this one project.  I never did find some of the features I was most accustomed to using, so the picture's a little more washed out than I'd like, but hopefully you can use your imagination to think BRIGHT and COLORFUL here…….

 
This is a package wrap that came about while I was looking for something a bit unique a few weeks ago.  I was looking for a wrapping paper/card combo….. and for various reasons that probably no one but myself will ever know (or care) about, it was important to me to use red, white and blue.  And I surely wanted it to say "fun", 'cuz this was for a rather special young man for his first birthday!

Well, a number of hours later, here were the results.  I'd gone through all my Real Red, Pacific Point and Bashful Blue cardstocks and Designer papers – whether current or not….. and punched or die cut a big pile of assorted size circles – some of which I'd added texture to with an embossing folder and the Big Shot. 

I was rather surprised that the most time-consuming part (and yes, I'm talking "hours" here) was attaching the circles.  Not so much the physical adhering, but getting the layout just right.  I fussed over sizes……. I fussed over colors…… and patterns……. and textures…… so that in reality that "random" pattern that appears in the picture was anything BUT random, lol!

But ultimately I was smiling, and so happy with the results I had a hard time packing it all up to send away!

As for the card, first of all it's oversized.  Not quite a full 5-1/5 x 8-1/2, but something close to that.  I knew from the beginning that it would include Stampin' Up!'s "Simple Birthday Thanks" which I stamped onto the different colors of cardstock and then paper-pieced together, and I had this idea to die cut a "1" (from the "Simple Numbers" die), and turn it into a candle.  (The flame, btw, is from the 2-step Bird Punch.).

The letters for the word "ONE" were cut with the "Billboard" Decorative Strip die (again, a Big Shot die), and I punched out the red "sprinkles" from Red Glimmer Paper with the Crop-a-Dile.

Now, that took care of the front of the card, but I also wanted to preserve the appearance of the circles design from the wrapping paper since I figured that would be torn apart and trashed in short order, and I'd just spent so many hours creating it!  

So I made "pages" inside the card, and the first page echoed the wrapping paper collage, while the blue words inside were cut from striped DSP with the "Basic Birthday" Decorative Strip Die.  The red letters were also die cut – using  "Timeless Type Junior Alphabet Medium Sizzlet" dies. (BTW, I find that particular set of numbers and letters particularly useful.  At roughly an inch square, they're just the right size for lots of projects without being too big or too small.)

So in spite of how unexpectedly looooong this project took me to design and assemble, it was sure a lot of fun to make! 

But thank goodness for my Big Shot and punches!  This project absolutely couldn't have happened without 'em!

Just taking a moment's break from my streak of 10 events in 11 days to share an absolutely awesome announcement:  there's a brand-new MDS catalog available! 

If you've been an MDS fan for any period of time like I have, and have been downloading tons of new digital art files as they come out, by now you may be feeling like you're drowning in options.  I know *I* sure do, 'cuz my memory's so bad I can't remember what I've purchased and downloaded and have available on which computer, vs. what I've just THOUGHT about downloading (and therefore don't really have available). 

And who in the world can remember the name of that stamp brush set the particular image you want is in anyway?!?  (The new "search" feature helps somewhat, but still…….)

Well, ANNOUNCING:  a brand-new full-color MDS catalog! 

It's a multi-page (70+ at this time) PDF document that not only includes all the images that come in the initial boxed MDS program, but all the downloads that have become available (and are still available at my online store) - through the end of last month!  (The newest images….. those that have been released just this month…… can be found in the newest images section of my online store.) 

And in addition to the color images, you'll also get charts that show information about each download, including a check-box you can mark when you purchase each one – hopefully to end the double-purchasing of the exact same thing!  (Yes, I'm guilty of that…. several times over – grrrrrr!) 

But perhaps best of all, Stampin' Up! says this catalog will get updated monthly!  So I intend to just go in and print the most recent pages and add them to my 3-ring binder reference book. It'll be a dream to have this by my side when working with MDS!

Woo Hoo!  I LOVE getting organized!  (Or anything that at least gives me hope that SOMEDAY I might get organized, lol!) 

So go check it out.  You'll find it at  www.MyDigitalStudio.net – in the "resources" section.  Wait!  What?!?  You're not a member yet?!?  Well, get thee on over there right now and get signed up to see what you've been missing!  There's some real magic goin' on with My Digital Studio these days!

But if for some reason you're not into gorgeous creative work and don't want to join www.MyDigitalStudio.net, then click the link over to the right (at www.StamptheRock.com , that is) and see it there.