Loving My Options: Traditional Crafting and Digital Designing

Anyone who knows me knows that I love planning a party!  I love getting into all of the details.  I’ve been known to spend months preparing everything from the invitations to the favors, decorations, and thank you notes. 

My sister is pregnant with her first baby (it’s a girl), so of course I was very excited to host a baby shower for her.  The only problem I faced was that I was sooo busy!  It felt like everything between Halloween and New Years was a big blur. And then starting with leadership, I was traveling throughout most of January, and the shower needed to be the first Saturday of February.  I knew that the only way I was going to be able to pull this event off in a way I could be proud, was by creating it using My Digital Studio.

First came the invitation--MDS allowed me to fairly quickly work up a few options that my sister could choose from. I knew that whichever one she chose would set the feeling and style for the entire event.

My sister loved the Sweet Pea collection so much when it was available in the 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog so that was the option she ended up picking.  That is one of the great benefits of MDS; you can continue to use the traditional products that you fell in love with when they were available in a mini catalog or Idea Book & Catalog. 

The next step after the invitations were printed and the envelopes hand-stamped and in the mail, was to work on the other elements of the shower. 

Now, I’m one who loves to create using stamps and paper, but I don’t always have long, uninterrupted time at home to create.  January was a perfect example of this (Thanksgiving was too--I had our family picture taken and created our holiday card all in less than 24 hours while we were staying at my parents’ house!). So I took advantage of my time in airports, airplanes, and hotel rooms and designed the entire baby shower in My Digital Studio!

My sister’s favorite paper in the Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Stack was the pink and white herringbone print so I used that throughout all of the shower decorations and carried through the Sweet Pea Stitched Felt pieces too. 

Custom Drink Labels	Labels for Buffet Table	Rings around Napkins/Silverware
Labels for Favor Bags	Thank You Notes

Taking this approach is especially nice because you can do multiples so quickly!  Notice that I filled every inch of the page; don’t waste any white space!  Since you are printing a full page anyway, you can use these scraps to wrap things like water bottles and dress up candy dishes, etc.

Another thing I loved about using My Digital Studio for this shower was that I could stick with one punch shape (Decorative Label Punch), but change the scale depending on what I was designing for.  I love the consistent look that it gave.

Dressed Up Beverages

As I assembled everything, I added ribbon and Sweet Pea Stitched Felt pieces that I still had on hand to dress up dishes, utensils, food, and to add some texture and added interest to the printed MDS pieces.

Scraps Decorating Candy Jars and Sandwiches

Sweet Pea Sugar Cookies and Cupcakes 

Great party tip: Take your Stampin’ Up! product to your bakery to get a perfect color and design match!

Handcrafted Baby Banner Using Herringbone Print Designer Series Paper, Big Shot, Chip Board, and Glitter

Baby Advice Jar

Favor Bags

Gift of Thank You Notes

So – that’s my My Digital Studio baby shower!  My last shower gift to my sister will be an MDS album that captures her memories and photos from her baby shower. 

And the week after the baby shower, you could find me stamping Valentines the good old fashioned way--and I loved it!  There is a time and a place for both stamping and My Digital Studio – I hope that you find the opportunity to enjoy both like I do.

Guest Blogger: Amy Swartz, Vice President of Sales