A Gal with Brains

Not my normal "style" (okay... do I really have a style lol?) but I really enjoy colouring Betty's images.

Quirky, fun, vintage, steampunk, ghouls, zombies, cute themes... they all make me smile. And so does the group. Generous, fun, friendly, helpful and supportive. So this image is "A Gal with Brains" and was a freebie for us to colour and use for the May challenge (given a day early ;-)). Any type of project/colouring but must have lavender, black and white somewhere within the project.

MDS Monday Challenge... again :-)

MDSM110

They've created a monster.  I don't know why I didn't "play" before but I've been going thru all the past blog posts and videos at MDS Monday and soaking up as much as possible.  My fingers are also worn out "googling" how-to's lol.

The design team awarded "me" with MDS Monday "Master" for last week's page?!  Sigh.  I'm glowing.  Thank you!

MDSM109 Linear Checkboard

The new challenge at MDS Monday is this sketch -

I literally "threw" a quick page together this morning in about a 1/2 hour.  Problem with me is 1) I want to use everything... including the kitchen sink and 2) I don't have very many photos [pout].  Oh well, if I keep doing this, I'll probably be using the same photos over and over lol.

I think I will go back and re-visit this sketch and maybe find a new photo as I'm not really happy with the colour choices but I did have fun throwing punches on the page and fillin' them (and I really didn't want to keep using my go-to "neutrals" and Downtown Grunge lol).  This one was so much easier than the Linear "checkerboard".  I wonder if I can find a digital download of that polka dot ribbon used on the sketch?  Off to see.

So here is my new play with the sketch and "Tie it Up With a Bow" challenge.

MDS (My Digital Studio)

Well, sadly, this program's "home" is going the way of the Dodo bird.  Stampin' Up is retiring this product and will no longer be offering support (or print services) for it.  But... that doesn't mean it can't still be played with [grin].

I have loved this program for awhile but been very tentative in my use (mostly playing with posters, photo-manipulation and FB cover photos).  I've been a "closet follower" (lurker lol) of several FB groups and blogs who challenge, encourage and help (yes they do) users of this program.  I saw this week's sketch on MDS Monday and it intrigued me.  I really wanted to do something like that and there were some gorgeous, tempting design samples that got my fingers itchy.  Problem is, I really don't have a lot of current photos (other than my furbabies, papercrafts and copic colouring lol).  But had a scant few photos from my son in Europe so... they became the guinea pig.

So, I'm not sure I really know what I was doing/or did and there is tons of room for improvement as I would've liked to incorporate more (like stamp letters instead of plain text) but I kept it pretty simple (it took me a couple hours of manipulation and sighing as my stuff would move/disappear/mutate lol) and hope 1) I'll learn more and be braver (this is only the second page I've ever attempted) 2) others will feel free to offer advice/points of what I could've/should've done and 3) that the MDS Monday blog and/or FB groups will continue as this is such a valuable and helpful group of ladies!

So here's my submission, bravely put out there for all to see.

~Shelley