Continuing the rush to finish my Valentine's Day projects, today's project uses one of the Valentine sets from the Occasions Mini catalog.

I believe the Stampin' Up! artists get better with each passing year.  I love the images on this Valentine Defined set.  They work so well together, but they also work so well mixed with other Stampin' Up! sets.  For some reason, I chose Melon Mambo as my base color and ink color.  Then I broke out my Color Coach to help me find which other shades of pink to use on this card.  I think this is the first card I've made using this color combination.  I couldn't have done it without the Color Coach.  If you haven't ordered yours yet, your creativity in selecting colors will mushroom once you have it.  I used the clear stamps on a clear block and positioned both images on the same block, making it easy to position both images exactly where I wanted them before I stamped. 

I used the Heart to Heart punch and punched hearts out of Regal Rose.  Then I inserted the two largest hearts into the Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslit Die and ran it through the Big Shot Die machine.  I also punched the bottom layer of Whisper White using the Pinking Heart Border punch.  I normally would use a layer of Designer Series Paper somewhere on a card with this many layers, but the embossed hearts, pinking heart border and the double ribbon seemed to be enough textures on one card.

Paper:  Melon Mambo, Regal Royal, Whisper White

Ink:      Melon Mambo

Stamp:  Valentine Defined (Occasions Mini Catalog)

Accessories:  Regal Royal Grosgrain Ribbon, Pretty in Pink Satin Ribbon, Corner Rounder, Pinking Heart Border punch, Heart to Heart Extra Large punch, Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslit Die, Dimentionals, small pearl

Color Coach

Here's what Stampin' Up!s Color Coach looks like.  It includes 55 double-sided cards with removable metal post fastener.  On individual color cards, one side shows color, the other side lists  coordinating colors. 

The cards are 2-3/4 x 4-1/2" giving you a good size color swatch to really see how your colors will look together before you pull out all your full-size papers. 

You can order your own Color Coach on-line when you place your Sale-A-Bration order to earn free stamps with every $50 order.  Color Coach - 121620 - US$14.95.

We'll I'm off to my craft room for the rest of the morning.  Remember to sign up for my Stamped Sophisticates blog using your email to receive information on new projects as they are posted.

Stay warm

Vintage Flower Adornment

Time to get serious about Valentine's Day cards.  Kicking it into high gear today because it is a snow day here in Texas...only without the snow.  Icy roads closed most businesses and schools today, so I was able to work on Valentine projects. 

This first project uses one of the new Vintage Flower Adornments from the Occasions Mini.

This card uses one of my favorite sharps -- an oval.  I used the Big Shot and Oval Bigz Die (#114525).  I embossed in Whisper White the Elizabeth stamp.  I also used one of the stamps from Tag til Christmas, embossed the tag shape in whisper white, stamped and embossed the "love you" sentiment from Valentine Defined and punched out the label shape with the Decorative Label punch (#120907), introduced in the Holiday Mini catalog. 

I used a white gel pen to create the faux stitching around the edge of the oval. The card stock colors are Pink Pirouette and Blushing Bride and the striped paper is from the Patterned Designer Series Paper Stack-subtles (#117152).  I love that you can also download these designer papers as background papers in My Digital Studio.  That way, if you need more of one of your favorites, you can print it from My Digital Studio.  I sponged the edges of the striped paper with Blushing Bride ink.

 I pulled a string loose from the edge of a piece of Pretty in Pink satin ribbon, unraveled it,  and tied it in the middle with a 3/8" wide piece of Pretty in Pink satin ribbon.  The Vintage Flower Adornments from the Occasions Mini is attached with a glue dot.  Hint:  I find that heating the glue dots slightly with my heat embossing tool helps them stick better over time.



Vintage Flowers Adornment (#12187)9 - set of 24, 8 each of 3 colors.  Very Vanilla, Rose Red, and Baja Breeze



This is a second version of the card above.  I added three pearls to the side and kept the ribbon a bit simpler.





 I couldn't end the day without doing something in My Digital Studio.  This is a mixed media card designed and printed at home with My Digital Studio.  Then I added the ribbon and printed more butterflies the same size as the one I printed  on the card, cut it out, attached it with glue and bent the wings up to add dimension to the card. 
Colors:  Cherry Cobbler, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive and Whisper White. 
Stamp set:  Image is a Sale-A-Bration stamp set called Bliss, however, I used digital content from the Sale-A-Bration CD which includes all of the new images available in the Sale-A-Bration Mini Brochure, called So Much to Sale-A Brate Digital Content CD (#123681); another free pick during Sale-A-Bration.  Pick your free Sale-A-Bration set when you spend $50.

I love that I can now use this card template in My Digital Studio with any sentiment and change the colors as I see fit. Printed on my home printer on Whisper White card stock, this now becomes a 15 minute card anytime I need a greeting card.  (Now I need to do one that is more masculine and I'll be all set!)

More My Digital Studio Downloads
After introducing a record number of new My Digital Studio Downloads in January 2011, Stampin' Up! introduced another set of new downloads for my digital studio February 1, 2011.  Included in this set of downloads are two set of scrapbook templates, including:



8 X 8" designer template; 24 pages including a front and back cover design.  Also includes 13 Designer Series Paper patters, a 24-piece stamp brush set, and 33 embellishments.  Originally built to easily scrap your Jan 2011 Leadership experience, these pages make a great starting point for  for creating your own pages using these pages as a starting point (#124447 - $14.95).  Add a matching patterned paper, stamp brushes and embellishment digital download (#124446) -- below-- to highlight your time at Leadership, or modify for your own use.



Also just added, this cute Love Birds Digital Kit.  (#124443)

Digital downloads are available instantly after purchasing them for use in My Digital Studio.  Or select the download version compatible with other software.  Visit Stampin' Up! online anytime to see the newest My Digital Studio downloads available.  



Happy Snow Day!

 - Donna Ross



Creating with My Digital Studio

As I was catching up on Facebook posts by family members, I ran across photos of my grand niece and nephew that were so cute, that instead of working on traditional cards in my craft room, I  fired up My Digital Studio software and quickly put together this page.

I'm about to send my mom a box of magazines, books, and Valentine's Day gifts and I printed an 8-1/2 X 11 copy of this page onto photo paper to include.  I know she will be tickled to receive this.

I started with one of the scrapbook templates available as a download, one of the thousands of digital designs for books, pages, cards and more available on My Digital Studio!  The software has tools for cropping photos and for customizing the colors, embellishments and text in the template I used to start my page.



My Digital Studio software - #118108 - US$79.95


My Digital Studio software is easy-to-use software that lets you use Stampin' Up!'s exclusive artwork, designs and colors to create an assortment of printed, projects on either your home printer or you can have them professionally printed.  Click this link to learn more about this PC and Mac compatible software and rates for professional printing.

Two of the newest downloads include the Valentine Defined Stamp Brush Digital Download and Pretty in Pink Patterns Designer Series Paper.  This is an adorable eight-piece stamp brush set with the perfect mix of Valentine's Day imagery and words to create all your valentine and love projects.  This download also includes a 4-1/4" X 5-1/2 greeting card designer template.  Look for Valentine Defined Digital Download - 124026 and Pretty in Pink Designer Series Paper - Digital Download #124033.



Valentine Defined Stamp Brush Set - Digital Download - #124026



Pretty in Pink Designer Series Digital Downloads -- #124033.  This is available in several additional color as separate downloads.

Hope you enjoyed today's project in My Digital Studio.  Let me know if you have questions.

- Donna