The Miracle of MDS ~ Free downloads and NEW downloads

My Digital Studio is one of the most AWESOME tools... Lately it's been saving me lots of time! We had a surprise retirement party for my mother in law.. (dont mind the photoshop drawing on my picture). I buzzed out the names to protect private info. :D

So ~ before I go any further.. Do you own My Digital Studio? There is a FREE upgrade for all users of the software and NEW downloads available. Click Here to go get your FREE downloads and upgrade your program.

So here is a {marked up} copy of the invitation. I designed the original copy in my digital studio, 4 to a sheet. Took it to the print shop and had them do color printing on my SHIMMER WHITE CARDSTOCK.

Oh yea, this baby sparkles! Then, I cut my layers and stuck it together. Easy peasy simple! I think from start to finish, including the 2 hours out to go get them printed, it took me about 4 hours. So this week, after the party I asked if she would like matching thank you notes.. (who wouldn't) :D

Here's what I came up with. Again, it doesnt get any easier than this to put together, and they look so polished! Someone at the print shop asked me if I do wedding invitations.. I guess... now I do! :D

Helpful MDS Links:

• Join the MDS community online at http://mydigitalstudio.net
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• Dont have MDS? Click here to purchase it now!
• Latest Digital Downloads (pdf)
  
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Enough information for you?!? :D There's so much to share when it comes to my digital studio. I hope you have time to check it out!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have some time to stamp4fun!

Rubbah hugs,
Selene~

Easter Blooms Class!

Another GORGEOUS Class is on the schedule!

The beautiful spring blossoms on the Springtime Vintage DP are an amazing backdrop for these four lovely cards! Add in the color blocking technique and you have a match made in heaven! The coordinating two-pocket portfolio will bring the whole set together in a stunning spring-time gift set!

Two Morning Sessions!
Tuesday and Friday April 5th and 8th at 9:30AM
Friday, April 8th at 6:30
Cost: $30 and includes a roll of sticky strip with the class fee.
Want to skip the portfolio? $25 for just the cards.. :D
Location: Selene's Stamp Pad

Something new*** FREE instructions for my customers who make a $50 purchase through my online website! Email me after you have made your purchase, and I will forward you the directions. If you would like a supply list in order to place your order, just email me.

Please note, this class is not available for purchase to other Stampin' Up! demonstrators. If you are a demonstrator and are interested in offering this class to your customers, please email me @ e.selene@verizon.net :D

Woo hoo, it's going to be a fun month of classes!

Rubbah hugs,
Selene Kempton

Bring on the Cake Class!

This fun, bright and colorful birthday set gives you so many options! The coordinating Birthday Box will hold up to twelve cards and envelopes, so come along and and have some fun!

At this class you will make all 12 cards shown, plus the box! (specify the box color in pink or blue, you decide, when you sign up for the class).

Cost: $30 for 12 cards and the box, $25 for just the 12 cards.
Location: Selene's Stampin' Pad
Times and Dates:
Tuesday, March 15th at 9:30AM and 6:30 PM
Thursday, March 17th at 6:30 PM
Friday, March 18th at 9:30AM

Something new*** FREE instructions for my customers who make a $50 purchase through my online website! Email me after you have made your purchase, and I will forward you the directions. If you would like a supply list in order to place your order, just email me.

Please note, this class is not available for purchase to other Stampin' Up! demonstrators. If you are a demonstrator and are interested in offering this class to your customers, please email me @ e.selene@verizon.net :D

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Rubbah hugs,
Selene Kempton

Mojo Monday ~ Simple Friendship

Well, it's been quite the week! We pick the best dates in my family for parties it seems. LOL With my poor daughter in the hospital last week, the craft fair and family party on Saturday, I'm still tuckered out! My daughter Alexis is doing much better. Thanks so much for all the well wishes.

Today, I'm headed over to the school with her to volunteer in her classroom. :D I really love that my stamping job allows me to be there for these things. I don't want to miss anything!

Well ~ I had time for a quick mojo card this morning. So I love everything about this card! I did get a little carried away with the flourishes.. but what can ya do? :D

Base: 8 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Layer 2: artichoke 5 x 3 3/4"
Layer 3 crumb cake 4 7/8" x 3 5/8"
Layer 4: designer paper, same size as layer 3, but cut in half from corner to corner.
Instead of layer 5, I added a pleated ribbon.
Layer 6: Artichoke 3" circle cut with the big shot
Layer 7: Very Vanilla 2 1/2" circle punch
Layer 8 and 9: stamped and hand cut butterfly, cut out of very vanilla matching cardstock.

After cutting all the paper, I stamped my butterfly on scratch paper and cut her out. :D I also stamped the flower at the same time.. I used blender pens and scribbled on the top of my stamp set with a baja blue marker, and picked that up with a blender pen to add color to my flower..

I added a strip of delicate self adhesive pearls and added one larger pearl at the top.

Looking at the sketch (oops) i think i missed a layer on the left, but I think this is so pretty, I don't want to go and change it now! :D I do love a good sketch challenge and love them as a jumping off point for designing.

I had fun making this one! I hope that you have a wonderful week... I'm still trying to catch up on rest, but I suppose there's no rest for the weary! :D

Have a great week!
Rubbah hugs,
Selene Kempton

Saturday Sketch Challenge 193

Good Evening Friends!

Boy has it been a CRAZY week here! My little one was in the hospital for an overnight with pneumonia on Wednesday. I didn't sleep and am still walking around half asleep..

I have a craft fair in the morning and a "party" tomorrow night that I'm on the hook for 72 favors that are started, but not complete and I just want to go to bed! :D

I did take a few minutes out to put together this quick card.. that's right, it was REALLY quick... but I've had this card in my head all week! My friends Chris and Jo were here on Sunday, and Chris is working on a scrapbook for her daughter's wedding.. The poppy gerber dasies were in all the pictures, and this week, she ordered a bunch of coordinating products to do the album.. That's where I got the colors.. At the craft fair tomorrow, i'll be selling some of these cool vases and matching cards.. they are really fun!

So how about measurements..
Base: 5 1/4" x 10 1/2", scored and folded in half at 5 1/4"
Layer 2: 4 3/4" Square poppy parade cardstock
Layer 3: 4 5/8" Square Whisper White
Layer 4: 3 1/4" Square Poppy Cardstock
Layer 5: 3 1/8" Whisper white..

For the pearls in the top left hand corner... I colored them with a sharpie then applied them to my card.

I wish I had more to share in the way of details tonight, but my brain is not behaving! :D

Wishing you health and happiness this week.. I hope you have a chance to play along with Stamping 411 this week. I'll be looking to see what you did with this sketch!

God's Little Lamb ~ Petal Cone Basket and Bleaching Technique

I saw these in a few places online. I have no idea the ingenious stamper that was the ORIGINAL designer for this. but when my girlfriend Pam was at the house on Friday, to make petal cones for her granddaughters baptism, I said "give me a minute to try something I saw online"..

If this was your original idea, can you email me and I'll change my post to give you credit! :D For my local gals, if they have a project in mind, and make a purchase to make a project, when the goodies get here we roll up our sleeves together.

I've been doing favors all week for two different parties and invitations. It's so fun and rewarding to see how special it makes people feel when they finish their artwork that is worthy of a gallery! (in my humble opinion!).

Okay ~~~ Where to start.. I guess, I'll tell you about the handle first.. I took a regular 8 1/2" x 11" piece of matching cardstock, and punched the 8 1/2" end to make the handles. After doing a few of these you'll need a break, but I'm surprised how sturdy the handles really are! I punched holes on either side of my basket and ran a brad to attach the handle.... The best part of this punch is, when you punch one 8 1/2" strip, you have a regular piece of paper and dont need to cut in order to start the next strip.. it goes really quick.. I did them while catching up on my favorite soap in front of the tv.. :D

The base of the basket is two petal cone cut outs.. From where the petal folds, I measured down two inches and scored.. **note ~ this is a little tricky, you have to turn your project and essentially score twice to make it come together.. Then you cut at 3 inches.. There is a little tab left over at the bottom, and you need to slice upward to make the base.. I hope that's clear.. maybe i'll need to "do" a tutorial for it. If you google this petal cone basket, i'm sure you'll find a bunch of posts on it. So ~ we made a little less than 40 of these on Friday morning.

This set is ANOTHER set that I'll never part with, and when my friend Pam told me what she wanted for favors for her granddaughters christening... I knew what set I wanted to pull out! The invites had a lamb on them and referred to God's Little Lamb.. Isn't that the coolest?? So I embossed this lamb, and the post yesterday explains about the process for that.. Next I took some ordinary house bleach, and put it in a glass bowl on top of some paper towels. I used an aqua painter and picked up the bleach to bleach out the "fluffy part" of the lamb.. So it's on pink paper, but the lamb is white. This was our "scratch" sample, so on this one we also bleached the little heart necklace and the face of the lamb to color it in, but pirouette is such a light color pink, we decided that we would just leave it and run a blush blossom marker for the face, not color the necklace and drop a JEWEL self adhesive bling on top..

We saved all the leftover pieces from the die cuts and shredded them to make "Easter" grass in the bottom of the basket. They are so beautiful! I originally thought I should cut the paper banner a bit shorter, but the more I looked at it, I think I like the extra long, ribbon like banner that is also cut from the same die. Pam is a kindergarten teacher and kept the "ice cream" looking pink tops for her students.. she'll be making ice cream with them as the weather gets nicer.. Best of all... when you make it with paper, there's no calories!

This Sunday, my friend Jo and her friend Chris were at the house.. Of course we made a card, and I had an idea to take this idea to the elegant side... So I made one with craft paper..

We colored the image for this one with a marker and added dazzling diamonds to the flower.. A little seam binding and this basket is ready to go.. it's a really quick project and they make GORGEOUS favors, especially this time of year!

If you are local to me and would like to see how to assemble one, pop on by this week... I'm making 72 more for a part this weekend.. :D

Happy Wednesday!

Rubbah hugs,
Selene Kempton

Pirouette Pink Baptism Card ~ Embossing 101

On a personal note... My six year old, who's like talking to someone my age said "mommy, can you believe today is already March 1st! It won't be long before we're in Alaska!" I had a little chuckle that my sweet daughter is sounding so grown up and feeling a little like that my Dora the Explorer loving pumpkin is growing up before my eyes... :( I'd love her to stay little forever...

Anyway, speaking of babies, my AWESOME, wonderful, cool, sister in law of the year, Amy sent me a text late Friday night that she needed a baptism card. (Saturday AM) for a mutual friend/stamper. Up to my elbows in party favors this week, I took about 20 minutes to make this card then ran it upstairs to my mother in law (who is also the coolest ever).

Measurements:
Base: Pink Pirouette 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", scored and folded in half at 4 1/4"
Layer 2: Whisper White 5 1/8" x 3 7/8"
Layer 3: Pink Pirouette 5 x 3 3/4"
Layer 4: 3 1/8" x 2 1/8" (whisper white)
Layer 5: Pink Pirouette 3 x 2"

The baptism sentiment comes from a retired set that I'm hoarding.. tee hee... but the cross and the "God bless you" sentiment comes from a wonderful set that I don't get to use nearly enough called crosses of hope.

Step by step... First I stuck my layer 2 and 3 together with snail adhesive. Many of you who stamp with me know that I'm addicted to using the multipurpose "green tube" glue, but when I'm not sure how a card is going to come together, I use snail to see where it's gonna go! :D That way the layers can still come apart..

Step 2: Using the tulip embossing folder from the stampin up occasions mini catalog, i embossed both layer 2 and 3 at the same time with my big shot.

Step 3: Next, I pulled out my versamark pad, silver embossing powder, my buddy and my pal.. :D The embossing buddy is an inexpensive tool that removes static electric from my cardstock with one quick swipe. I used versamark to stamp my card (sticky) then poured the embossing powder on top. ***TIP*** Here's where I like to take a paint brush and remove unwanted flecks of embossing powder from my cardstock. Then I heat with a heat gun just until the powder melts.. (note* if you over heat it, you'll scorch your paper).. I embossed the inside of my card at the same time (shown here).

Step 4: Next I made a bow, using my friend Lee Conrey's incredible bow maker. She actually GAVE me one of these as a gift! Look at the stunning double bow gorgeousness! I took a piece of ribbon 6" long and used snail adhesive to attach it to the back of layers 2, 3 and 4 (which I attached).. I may have skipped that step... :D

Step 5: I attached the silver embossed top pirouette layer with dimensionals, and the big beautiful bow with glue a few dots... (the wonder of the world that will stick even the toughest of ribbons)!

And that's about it... So this card is for little Brielle. I hope you enjoyed reading about the process.. I think it took me longer to type it all out than it did to make the card.. Although dry embossing with the big shot, and heat embossing are very easy processes, they will always be a wow for me!

Would you like your own big shot? or do you have a big shot and want that folder?? Well, I know I don't always mention it, but I do have a store that you can shop 24/7 from the office or in your jammies. Click here to visit my demonstrator site and place an order if you're feeling inspired to. Just click "shop now" in the upper right to go directly to my storefront.

I can't WAIT to show you the cool favors I made on Friday with one of my best friends, Pam. Her granddaughters baptism is this weekend and I helped her with favors. They came out so cute! I'll post that tomorrow in the morning.. I can't be blogging ALL day or I wont get anything done after all!

Also ~ if you're in the area on Saturday, I'll be doing the band booster's craft fair at Dracut High School. Come on by and enter my raffle for a $25 gift certificate to my classes or products!

That's all for today! Hope you have an awesome day!

Rubbah hugs,
Selene Kempton