Sailing Birthday Card

I can't believe I actually tied a sailors knot!!!  It wasn't that difficult either.  I'm sure it would be easier with rope.  The fuzziness of the Baker's Twine made it a little difficult in making the strings stay where you put them.  And extremely dry hands don't help much at all either!!!  Once I got the knot tied I taped it to the strip.  It was a nice touch to the card.  And a perfect masculine card too!

I don't ever seem to have enough masculine cards so this will help pad my stash of them!  

The sail boat is from the digital download "Sailing."  I love it because I can make this image pretty much any size I want.  Here I shrunk it down quite a bit.  The decorative papers are from the "Nautical Expedition" download.  I LOVE downloads on the paper because I can pick and choose what pages I like and print out as many as I need.  Such a deal!  

And the words are from the "It's Your Birthday" set.  Yup, I actually stamped something on here!  LOL

This was a fun masculine card and I did save it in my software so I can print out more if I need to!

Thank you SO much for stopping by today,
Wanda

Circle Circus Digital Thank You Card

On Sunday I was looking through the ads and I saw this cool looking photo album from one of the local craft stores.  I tore it out of the ad and set aside.  I thought it would make a fun card.  It's now Tuesday and I'm getting around to making the card.  Only because I kept finding that picture I tore out of the paper and it was being moved here and there.  I thought I'd better make the card before I lose the paper or before I forget about it and never make it.  I can't tell you how many times I've done that!!

So my card was done using the "My Digital Studio" software.  I chose the greeting card icon and I was off and running!!  I opened up "Circle Circus" and started picking shapes for the card.  I had already chosen my background color (black) and of course when I chose a shape they are originally in black and it got lost on the background! DUH!!!  I lowered the opacity of the background to about 40% and then I could see the images as I set them on the background.  Once I got the shapes where I liked them I then chose some fun colors. When I was all done I moved the opacity back to 100% and viola, it was done.  And it was fun too!!  I LOVE the black background with the vivid colors on top.  Not an easy thing to achieve with black card stock and stamps. 

This was so much fun to put together! And I just love how it turned out.  It printed out pretty good but I think it would have been prettier had I printed it on a color laser printer.   I did print it on 32# copier paper so it had a look of quality to it.  Glad I did that!!  I cut it to fit a card front and it was done!

Tomorrow I get out the rubber stamps.  I do love digital but nothing beads rubber stamps on a pretty ink pad!!!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Avante-garde Collection Card

In my pre-order of fun things I chose the "Avante-garde Collection DVD".  It has several stamp images and decorative papers in it.  One of the paper found in it is the "Flirtatious" specialty paper.  And the "hello" is also added on by computer.  With everything still being so new (which means I have not paged through the catalog 140 times yet to know the names and recognize the stamp images and words.  When I find out what the set is that the "hello" came from I will add that info at the bottom of this post. 

This paper is so pretty alone and with words.  Plus using it like this you can make as many as you need without running out of paper.  I did print this on Whisper White card stock but normally  I would have done it on 28# or 32# copier paper.  The higher the number for copier paper the better print you will get.  Plus it feels more like the thickness of the decorative paper when you use the better paper.  I did use this in the My Digital Studio software.  Though you can use it in other programs like that as well.  

I like this paper because I can make cards like this for other occasions such as birthdays, Mother's Day, thinking of you and a get well card.  I'm not to sure I would use it for a sympathy card, it's got too much of an upbeat look to it.  Tough if the person were a doily collector then I may consider it!!!  

I just like it when I can make a card quickly and it's pretty.  I could print out these and mount them on a card front and leave the words off.  Then when I need a quick card all I would have to do is take out the words I need, stamp them on and be ready!!!  Don't you just love it when you can do that?  

I will be playing with this DVD a bit more but not yet.  I bought a few other fun sets I want to play with.  There is this snowman one that is SO cute.  Is it too early for a snowman card???  I may hold off on that one until next month when some places do a "Christmas in July" thing.  Maybe!!  Winter here in Minnesota is not a fond memory yet.  It just seems like the ground has finally warmed up.  We had a scorcher last week (fortunately hubby and I were up in Duluth at the time) and we brought back the cool north shore air with us.  So it's been sweater weather cool here.  I'm not sure I'm ready for a snowman yet and I LOVE winter and I LOVE snow!!  

And on that note I will be ending this post.  I'm off to teach at the bead shop! Another of my addictive passions.  *sighs*  We are doing a very pretty flowered bracelet and I will take a photo of it and show you.  I should be able to finish mine in class since I started it at the last class.  It usually takes me two or three classes to finish my work but that's ok, I love beading and I love teaching it to others too!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Sail Away Digital Studio Birthday Card

I'm sitting here laughing at my card!  Ok, not so much the card. I do like how the card turned out.  It's the sun in the background.  It's shining through one of the sails making it look like they are transparent!  I noticed it after I got the card all put together. I didn't reprint because I wanted to show you how easily things can get missed when you are not paying attention.  I was having fun making the card and adding stretched punches to create more waves in the water and having the sun the right size and making sure it is not behind the background, etc.  And I didn't pay attention where the sun was placed.  A quarter inch more to the right and it would have cleared that sail and it would have looked normal!!  All I need to do is go back into the program and move the sun over just a bit and it will be fine.  I am saving my creation on my computer so I can print one up quickly when I need it.  

I had purchased the "Sail Away" digital image last week and just got around to downloading it.  This card was very easy to make and very fun and now a bit funny with that big error on it!  

The words are from the "Teeny Tiny Wishes" set.  I didn't digitally add the wording.  This way I can use this for a masculine Sympathy card if I need to, or a Father's Day card too!  

I can take the card and add some chalks or watercolor crayons to it to give it more shading if I want.  I just like it that I was able to just add a few elements to the card and it was done.  The image on the card printed out larger than the rubber stamp image.  I didn't scale it down to size.  I liked that it took up most of the card and I could have made it a bit bigger if I wanted too.  So, a handy tip for you!  Pay attention to details or you could get the sun shining through transparent sails or other things!!! LOL

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Medallion Card Digital Studio Project

I copied the Simply Sent "Medallion Medley" card.  Well, not exactly.  On the original one the Medallions are embossed.  The background is also textured and has a bit of lightly faded wording in the upper right corner.  Plus it's got an aged look to it too. It's kind of a chalky dirty look but nice!

I just saw the original one today and it is SO much nicer than mine.  But at the time I made this I didn't have the original.  But what I did have was My Digital Studio and the Medallion download!!!  SO I played around with it and I did come up with this.  Like I said it's not exactly like the original but I needed to make a card and this is what I wanted.  It got the job done!

One thing I REALLY like about making digital cards is I don't have to worry about getting the image covered with ink and having it stamp perfectly. These images print out nice and solid!

It was fun playing around with the My Digital Studio.  I don't usually find a lot of time where I can sit and just mess around with it.  Doing that is the best way to learn on it too.  You really can't break it.  You can get lost in it, mixed up and even confused but you can't break it!  See what you can create!

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda