A Little Lincoln for Today

I've been working more on my scrapbook of the Washington DC trip. However, as I have gotten bigger it has just gotten to hard to carry my computer with me on the bus each day (it isn't the lightest thing in the world) so the going has been much slower.

Here is a layout that I've finished for our visit to the Lincoln Memorial:

Here are some of the fun things that I did with this page:

Once again I used the Night and Day DSP with the opacity set low so that a background color could be seen through the design. I really love the antique look that this technique gives. Also, you can use one layer of the DSP over multiple "color blocks" of scrapbook paper so that the design flows from one color to the next.

I added the long stamp from Vintage Vogue to the top of my big picture of the Lincoln Memorial in pacific point and also lowered the opacity on this. It gave the picture a softer edge, bringing in the antique theme.

The new dotted scalloped ribbon punch is also a lot of fun, so I added this to both pages to draw them together. I gave them a white shadow- perhaps not the color a real shadow would be, but it really made the outline pop.

Lastly, I have a confession to make. I love the corduroy buttons, but they don't make them in Pacific Point, and I really wanted to add a blue one to the flower in the upper right hand corner. So, I used an outside program (gasp!) to alter the color to a desired shade and then added the embellishment using the "Browse other..." button.

I'm so thankful that SU made it possible to use their downloads in other programs, making changes like this feasible. However, I personally only use other programs to touch-up my pictures and make small changes like this to embellishments. Everything else is SO much EASIER to do right in the My Digital Studio software!

Fall is in the Air (2)

As promised, here is my "real" version of my pumpkin card. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

I used the oval and circle die-cut for the body of the pumpkin, and edged them in chocolate chip ink. Next, I stamped the leaves and saying from the "Day of Gratitude" stamp set on vanilla cardstock. This set is from the new Holiday Mini Catty- if you haven't checked it out yet you should take a look, there are some great things in there! I punched out the saying with the new decorative label punch and cut out the leaves. The "stem" of the pumpkin was formed from the rounded tab punch, and also serves as the hinge for the card... see how it opens!

The finishing touch was adding a nip of ribbon to stand in for the vine and.... WA-LA we have a nice fall card! Makes me think of pretty fall colors already :)

Fall is in the Air

I love the smell of fall. Now, I've been told many times that what I'm smelling is the leaves falling off the tree and starting to decay... but I don't care. Don't ruin it for me- when the air starts to smell of fall it makes me happy!

I'm not sure why I like fall so much. Perhaps it is the pretty colors- the red, oranges, and yellows are everywhere making all the trees and plants look purdy. Then again, perhaps it is the decorations- grapevine wreaths, cornstalks, and pumpkins. Who knows- truth is, for whatever reason, or perhaps many reasons, fall is just my favorite season (even if it does lead into the dreaded winter).

So in honor of fall I created this digital card in MDS, which I hope to soon make a paper version of- once I steal some supplies from my mother :)

Enjoy, and check back later for the "paper" version.