In Color comparison... and tutorial to add the new colours to My Digital Studio

Let’s talk colour again today, shall we? In Colors to be precise. 

I have now come full circle and fallen in love with the In Colors. My full set of ink pads and cardstock arrived yesterday and I realised that they are “dirty” colours, which appeals to me (I still mourn the loss of Summer Starfruit).

But every year there are comparisons with existing and old colours, with people wondering why SU has come out with something so similar to X, Y or Z. 

The reason, of course, is fashion. Trends come and go and these colours are bang on trend. Yes, Mint Macaron (have you been practising your French accents?) may be similar to Sage Shadow from the past, but it’s not exactly the same. If you’re not the pedantic sort, are happy with “nearly the same” and still have your old Sage Shadow ink pad, go ahead and use it; it will probably work pretty well with Mint Macaron cardstock and go quite nicely with the other new colours. 

But if, like me, you’re a pedant, “nearly the same” won’t be good enough and your Sage Shadow ink pad will be long gone. 

If you still have all your old ink pads, though, and want to compare, I’ve done a handy chart, so you can see where these new colours differ from previous shades. Please bear in mind that these are screen colours which will vary according to your monitor. 

And while we’re on the subject of colour, several people have asked me how to get the new colours into My Digital Studio. As you are probably aware, MDS has been discontinued and will no longer be updated, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop using it. 

(In the interests of honesty, I didn’t know how to get the new colours into MDS either, but a quick email to Demonstrator Support put me on the right lines.) 

So, here’s how to get the new In Colors into your version of MDS. You can’t name them (or, if you can, I haven’t worked out how!) but you can save them into Favourites, so you can access them easily. I plan to delete them as they retire, so that I never have more than 10 favourites in there, which should enable me to work out which is which quite easily. 

• Take a screen grab of the In Colors from the PDF of the catalogue (this will be available to customers on 2nd June) and save it into the relevant pictures folder
• In a new MDS project, drag this image onto the page
• Next, drag a punch shape onto the project and click Match Color
• Select Watermelon Wonder, as shown in the below image, and click OK

1. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

• Click Color Fill and you’ll see the Preview panel (above, left) is Watermelon Wonder - at the bottom right, you have the option to Add to Favorites
• Repeat for the remaining four In Colors
• Now, when you want to access these colours, click Color Fill and then, at the top right, click Favorites; your five new colours should be there (see pic, above right)
• Also, you can discover the RGB values of any of the colours, for instance for use in another programme, such as Photoshop. Simply select your colour and then, along the top, click RGB to see the values. 

My Digital Monday: my feet!

We haven’t had a My Digital Monday for a while. If I’m honest, I haven’t really done much digital scrapbooking for a while. Ok, if I’m being REALLY honest, I have only done one page this month.  But I am using My Digital Studio for lots of other things, so I am still keeping my hand in. 

Here’s the page I created a couple of weeks ago which I was reminded about at Stampin’ Up!® Regional Training recently, layout CASEd from somewhere but I’ve forgotten where. 

I had to chuckle to myself when Charlotte from the European head office was talking about Project Life and how you can document anything you like. She said she’d even seen a page somebody had created about their feet. I knew it wasn’t my page, as I hadn’t shared it with anyone, but it did at least make me feel that it wasn’t quite such a weird topic for a scrapbook page after all, even if Charlotte wouldn’t necessarily agree!

My feet are a cause for concern right now as in just a few weeks’ time, I am taking part in the Pink Ribbonwalk at Chatsworth with three members of my Stampin’ Up!® team. It’s a 10-mile walk, which normally would be a bit of a stretch for me but not beyond the realms of possibility. A week in the Lake District, however, has resulted in a painful foot (suspected plantar fasciitis if you need further facts). I’m having physio, doing my exercises and taking it steady, but I’m really concerned about giving it a 10-mile hammering. 

Wish me luck – and, if you’re so inclined, please sponsor me at www.justgiving.com/helenstamps. We’re raising money for Breast Cancer Care, a worthy cause, I’m sure you’ll agree. 

My Digital Monday birthday card

It’s My Digital Monday again and here’s a birthday card I made using some of the new items I’ve downloaded for My Digital Studio recently. The DSP is Sweet Sorbet and comes from the SAB digital collection which I earned free when I ordered supplies for a forthcoming class (yes, demonstrators get Sale-a-Bration freebies, too!). 

The candle stamp isn’t included with the original software but it was only £1.50 to add it on. Take a look in my online store at the digital downloads available. The larger collections are several pounds, but there are some for mere pence… and some are even free! If you already use design software, do check out our downloads anyway, as they can be used in other programmes. Download a free or very cheap one to try out if you’re not convinced. 

For this card, I started with one of the card templates provided with the software and then pretty much pulled it apart. I think all that’s left are the two dotted lines!

I practised colouring in a stamp with different colours, just as you would do with a real stamp and markers. This couldn’t be easier in MDS, especially as, unlike with real stamps and markers, you can hit “undo” if you make a mistake! You can change the size of your “brush” so you can colour detailed areas so you can achieve perfection… which, with my card blown up to fill my computer screen, I can see that I haven’t! Just spotted two little bits that aren’t coloured as I intended. 

This strip is made up of two stamps; you can repeat images and then line them up perfectly… easier than using a Stamp-a-ma-jig! 

For the greeting, I “coloured” the letter i (which was actually a small candle) with Very Vanilla so it didn’t show up on the background, then replaced it with one of the candles from the main image. You can crop stamped images, too, so you can just show the area that you want. 

I personally wouldn't print this card out to send as I still prefer real cardstock for birthday cards, but this would be great to send as an e-card if you're running late.

Colours used: Pool Party, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Calypso Coral, Baked Brown Sugar, Bermuda Bay

MDS: Sale-a-Bration Sweet Sorbet scrapbook page

It’s My Digital Monday and here’s another 12x12 scrapbook page I created in My Digital Studio. Soon I’ll have enough to justify getting them printed. 

For this page I had fun with the new Sale-a-Bration Digital Ensemble called One Big Sale-A-Bration 2014. This is a free download with a £45 spend and is packed with features. You get:

• See Ya Later stamp brush set
• Petal Parade stamp brush set
• You’re Lovely stamp brush set
• Decorative Dots stamp brush
• Banner Blast stamp brush set
• Sweet Sorbet DSP patterns
• 14-piece Sweet Sorbet accessory pack

Yes, it’s a pretty comprehensive kit!

I was inspired by a scrapbook page I’d pinned on Pinterest ages ago, but mine doesn’t have the same vintage feel - partly because the Sweet Sorbet products are so fresh and clean and partly because vintage looks take a bit longer to create … for me at the moment, anyway. 

I couldn’t find a Word Window punch in my MDS punch collections – somebody please guide me if they’re there! – so created my own using a Whisper White rectangle, with the corners rounded. Then I duplicated it to make sure they were all the same size. I’m pretty pleased with the page, although the temptation to keep going back to tweak things is hard to resist!

My Digital Monday - spaghetti page

I’m still training myself up in My Digital Studio, using other people’s projects as inspiration. Here I’ve copied a page I found on MyDigitalStudio.net, although there was one aspect which I couldn’t quite work out how to do; how did she tilt the main image within the rounded corner box?

I did purchase a banner punch for this project but now I’m not sure if it was there already, as I found a whole new section of punches I didn’t know about! It was only 65p so I’m not losing sleep over it. 

I haven’t put a date on this yet because I haven’t worked it out. The photo says January 2009 but that’s not accurate as it was taken on holiday in the Lake District and we’ve never been in winter. 

MDS Selfies scrapbook page

This digital scrapbook page was sooooooo quick and easy to create. This time I learned how to line up pictures, creating a sense of order that I always find so difficult to achieve in “real”, paper scrapbooking. 

For the page, I started with a Basic Black background, then added one of my favourite Vintage Overlays, a stamp from the Autumn Elements set and a couple of splatters. Pictures, title, journalling… done. 

Supplies: My Digital Studio, basic version, no add-ons