Sunday, August 25, 2013

Happy Flowers!

MDS continues to delight me with the ability to change colours and sizes, and the card below is an example of what can be done.


The cardstock is Melon Mambo, as is the narrow border on the card front. The flowers are from the Summer Happiness kit, and have tiny pearls in the flower centres. The green scalloped ribbon is from the Back to School kit and the label, which has been re-coloured, is from the Spring Fever kit.

 The sentiment is from Make A Wish, and re-coloured in Melon Mambo and Lucky Limeade. The striped DSP is from the In Color Playful Patterns 2010-2012 and the DSP behind the flowers is from the Gingham Garden collection, the latter reduced in opacity so the flowers can be more easily visible.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Create a Card Front in MDS

I have been helping a friend get started with My Digital Studio, and thought it might be helpful to add these basic instructions to the blog, hoping others may find it useful.

CREATE A CARD FRONT:

Open up your MDS.

When the main screen comes up with New Project Options, click on CUSTOM

Up the top, change the Inches to Millimeters

Change the WIDTH to 90mm

Change the LENGTH to 135mm

Click on CREATE PROJECT

Name the Project CARD FRONTS PORTRAIT

Click on SAVE

****** From now on, you can SAVE your work as you progress, holding down your keyboard key CTRL -left bottom on your keyboard - and whilst holding it down, press on the keyboard letter S. Yes, S for SAVE! It is a good habit, to save your work every few minutes.

You can also later repeat the CUSTOM process above, reversing the width and height measurements and naming the project CARD FRONTS LANDSCAPE, to make cards that are wider than taller.

Now, to add some background DSP.

Go to the left hand side of MDS, and up the top where it says Resource Palette, click on the end icon...see image below, red arrow...




Click where it says  ADD AS PAGE LAYER.

Click on BROWSE

This will bring up all your folders of DSP.

You will see, listed, Cardstock and Designer Series Paper. There may be a + sign in front of Designer Series Paper, and also Designer Kits, when you want to check them out later, if so, click on it to expand the list. 

When you see the DSP group you want, we are using Cottage Wall this time, highlight it with your mouse, and click on OPEN, down the bottom right hand side. Now that you can see that whole folder of DSP on your left hand side, you can scroll up or down to see all the colours of it.

Find one you like, then Click and Drag it across to your blank card front. See the little grey corners, and some more of them in between? They are called NODES, and you use them to RE-SIZE. 

Choose one of the NODES, then CLICK and DRAG on it until your DSP covers the card front. You will have to click and drag on one or more of the others, too.

Here is an image, covering what is written above:


Now, once you have dragged the Cottage Wall pink Pattern 2 DSP over all your card front, go back to the Cottage Wall DSP on your left side, and Click and Drag the green pattern of it, No. 9, over onto your pink card front. 

Re-size the green DSP to about an inch deep and the full width of your card front, by clicking and dragging on the nodes. Position the green DSP on the lower third of your card front.

Go to the DESIGN CENTER on the right side of your MDS program, and click on PUNCHES. You may have to scroll up or down, to find PUNCHES. Once you have clicked on it, you will see up the top, ADD A PUNCH. Click on that, then click on the CIRCLE PUNCH, and down the bottom, click on APPLY. Wait a few seconds and then click on CLOSE.

Your card front should now look something like this!



Now, while the nodes on your circle are visible, click on one and enlarge your circle big enough so you will be able to later add a sentiment. If you lose the nodes, don't worry, just click on the circle again and they will return. Seeing the nodes, simply means that particular item has been 'selected', so you can work on it.

Now, move your mouse pointer over the circle. You will see a four-way arrow 'thingy'; this means that you can now MOVE the circle and re-position it in the upper centre of your card front. Try doing that.

Good job!! Now, the circle should still be showing the nodes, so go over to your DESIGN CENTER again and click on COLOR FILL. Find Very Vanilla and click on it, then on OK. Your circle will now be filled with Very Vanilla.

Click on your circle to 'select' it, nodes should be showing again. Go across again to the DESIGN CENTER and click on MAT. Drag the slider to 6. 

Then, where it says COLOR and a black square is showing, click on the black square and click on Old Olive and click OK, then click on OK again.

You should be back to your card front, with a vanilla circle, surrounded by an Old Olive border. Got that? Great! Things should now look something like the photo below.



Whilst the circle is selected...nodes showing...go to your DESIGN CENTER again and click on Drop Shadow and then on OK. See how it makes the circle 'stand out'?

Now you are ready to add a sentiment! Back over to the Design Center, find where it says STAMPS, [ you might have to scroll down to find it ]... click on STAMPS and then click on ADD STAMP, up the top.

Whoo....too much choice, eh? Scroll down the left hand side until you find Delightful Dozen and click on that title. All the stamps in that set will now be displayed, with an image beside them. Click on Delightful Dozen Happy Birthday, then click on APPLY, give it a few seconds, and then CLOSE.

What you will see now, is a BIG, black greeting. No panic! Just click on one of the nodes and drag it in until it is small enough to fit within your vanilla circle. Place your four-way arrow thingy over it, click and drag until the sentiment fits nicely in your circle. Breathe out!!!

Now, with the sentiment highlighted, showing the nodes, go to your Design Center again, click on CHANGE COLOR and click on Rich Razzleberry and then OK. Select your sentiment again by clicking on it, then back to Design Center and click on Drop Shadow and OK. Your card front should now be looking like this....or better!




All this might sound a huge amount of work and just about now you might be thinking, this is too hard! Don't worry. In a day or so, it will feel as natural as breathing, and you won't even have to think about what to do. It WILL be worth it!!!

Now, we just need to add some decoration to the lower part of the card. Let's check out the Global Search option. The icon for Global Search is down the right hand corner, just past Zoom and the + and - signs and looks a bit like a little frying pan with handle.

Click on Global Search icon and then in the search bar, type in Cottage Garden. We are looking for some flowers that come with the Cottage Garden Collection. Scroll through those displayed and choose Cottage Garden Flower 1, click on it then click on INSERT, wait a few seconds, then click on CLOSE.

You will have a large black flower on your card front. Don't like it like that??? LOL....well, change it! Click on the flower so you have your little nodes showing.
Make it a little smaller, by dragging on the corner node. You want it to fit inside the width of your green DSP.

Go to the right, in your Design Center, and click on Change Color. I selected Very Vanilla. Now, back to the Design Center and click on Drop Shadow and then on OK. Click somewhere on your black blank space, to de-select the nodes.

Now, a new trick! Right-click on your Vanilla flower, and then click on COPY. Right click somewhere on your green DSP, and click on PASTE. Right-click and then click on PASTE again!

You should now have three Vanilla flowers, mostly on top of each other. Click on each one and drag them across your green DSP, until you have them where you would like them.

Here is your finished card. All your own work! Now you have mastered some basic skills, you can build on what you have learned, to make some gorgeous creations! We will come back to this basic card later on to add some more techniques, so don't worry that it is a little plain for now. Give yourself a pat on the back for getting this far, and remember - it will get easier, as you become more familiar with various techniques!



ADDING MORE DETAILS.

Want to learn some more techniques? Let's dress the card up a little more. Go back to your Global Search and enter Cottage Garden in the search area. Click on Cottage Garden 3, then on INSERT, wait a few seconds and then click on CLOSE. 
More big black flowers on your pretty card?We are now going to learn how to CROP because we really only want one of those three flowers. 

Making sure your nodes are still showing on your black flowers, go to your Design Center, and click on CROP. This will bring up a box, where you see your three black flowers displayed. 

Take your mouse and at the top of the smallest black flower, click-and-drag so that the entire small flower is highlighted, and a little room to spare around the edges. Then click on OK. Big improvement. Now you only have ONE black flower on your pretty card!

We can now change the colour. Click in your Design Center, on the Change Color icon, and when the colour choices are displayed, click on Rich Razzleberry and then on OK.

Making sure the nodes are showing on your flower, click on Drop Shadow, and then on OK.

Now, we can do what we did before...copy and paste. Remember how? Yes, right-click on the flower and then click on COPY. Right click on the card front somewhere and then click on PASTE. Do this right-click and PASTE twice. You should have three Razzleberry coloured little flowers, huddled in a group.

Click-and-drag each one down into the centre of each Vanilla flower. SAVE your work.

Here is an image of the updated card front. Does it look a little more interesting? 


You can later add some dimension by adhering a pearl in the centre of each little flower. Now, you can print out your card front and assemble it on your cardstock. 




















Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Woodwork


Thanks to MDS, I am making so much more progress, with my late husband's album. Col was always very keen on working with wood, and it was interesting, in later years, to do family history research and learn that the previous seven generations also were carpenters, or were skilled in that area. Col was very proud to learn that his grandson, Tim, had chosen carpentry as a profession.