Every year I make calendars for Christmas gifts for parents and grandparents – I make 4 calendars in total and have always made them the traditional scrapbooking way – I purchase the blank calendar and use ‘real’ papers, cardstocks, photos & embellies…I make one and then copy it 3 more times…you can imagine how long that takes!
Well this year I have decided to use My Digital Studio to make my calendars – it is sooo easy and fun and the best bit is that I create one calendar and then send it to Stampin’ Up’s printing facility and 4 copies will be delivered to my door – this is a HUGE time saver for me as I will only spend 1/4 of the time making them…
I decided to start working on my calendar now and plan to do several pages a week to get it ready to go to the printer by the end of October to beat the rush and give me lots of time to mail them overseas as these calendars have to go all the way to England & Spain…this is my first page for January that I just finished…
We had snow in January this year which is a pretty rare event here in Central Texas and so I featured the girls playing in that – it is only the 3rd time they have ever seen snow and they loved it!!! I used a photo of snowy trees in my garden for my page background which is very easy to do and makes a gorgeous backdrop for a page – I will be adding a video tutorial to show you how to create this effect along with other calendar making tips in the next day or so, so be sure to come back to check it out…
My Digital Studio makes it very easy to create your calendars and even has a template that you follow step by step – you create your page like the one above and then the next step is the calendar grid which is already there for you – you simply add any elements that you wish to have…I used my snowy trees photo for mine but you can add stamps, papers, text, embellishments…anything you like…you can also change the text type or color for anything on that grid – I changed January to match a color on my page above…
And when I worked it out, I realised that not only is this going to cost me less in time but it is going to cost me ALOT less in terms of money too – I usually get 4 sets of photos printed out and by the time I have purchased 4 blank calendars plus all the patterned papers, cardstocks, ribbons and embellishments to complete them…well, it adds up to a very pricey project! Additionally all the layers and embellies make the finished calendars heavy which means they cost alot of money to mail internationally – my MDS creations will be much lighter and cheaper to mail too…
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE traditional scrapping and playing with papers etc…but by making my calendars with My Digital Studio I have freed up alot of time to make other cute items to mail off as gifts with them making for some very happy grandparents.
Don’t forget to come back and visit me tomorrow for Tutorial Tuesday where there will be some blog candy up for grabs!!!
Want to know more about My Digital Studio? You can find more about what is included in this wonderful software package that is available for both PC and MAC by clicking HERE…I am a certified My Digital Studio Demonstrator and so if you have any questions about it, please email me and I will be very happy to help.
Want to purchase your very own copy of My Digital Studio? Click HERE and then click on Shop Now in the top right corner and you will find it in the Digital Crafting section…when you purchase it through me via that link I will email you a detailed but easy to follow tutorial enabling you to learn the software easily & quickly so that you can start creating amazing things fast! You will also be subscribed to my new MDS monthly newsletter of tutorials, tips & updates and being an MDS certified demonstrator I can offer you help and support as you need it…
Stampin’ Up! release brand new digital downloads for MDS at least once a month – you can find out what ‘add ons’ are available to purchase by clicking HERE where you will find a list with images of all of them that I continually update – if you already use another digital scrapbooking program you can still download Stampin’ Up!’s digital downloads to use with it…check them out and download them to your PC or MAC for immediate use in the online store that you can find here – click on Shop Now in the top right corner and you will find them in the Digital Crafting section…
Gorgeous Sarah! Using the trees for the background is so striking. Still don’t like snow, but I have to admit this is beautiful! Hope we don’t get it here this year though. Especially on Easter Eve!! lol (I’m about an hour north of you)