Three Little Owls--Digital Redux

Does this card look familiar?  Well, it should--you saw it here first.  While that was all paper, this is all digital...thanks to My Digital Studio.  More details on that below.

First, as promised, here's a little info about the changes going on in this creative corner.  Just before I got Dakota (who's still adorable), I moved to a new state...and that means that Kiran and my creative corners are now farther apart!  Not to worry, we can still do our Stampin' Saturdays, but those will require more planning and a longer drive.

To cope with this change, we're now using our blog not only to share with you, but to show each other our latest creations...and explain how we made them.  Though we're sad to be apart, we're really excited for this excuse to spruce up our digital creative corner, and this means we'll have lots more to share with you, our readers!

I'm visiting my parents this week, so I'm without my usual stamping supplies.  However, since Kiran has challenged me to use My Digital Studio more, I decided this is the perfect time to practice.  I got started by recreating my favorite card of the summer, which used the new Two-Step Owl punch from the 2010-11 Idea Book and Catalog.  I really love that Stampin' Up! releases new downloads for My Digital Studio so that the program stays up to date with current catalog offerings...like this punch for a mere 95 cents.

I tried to recreate the earlier card as much as possible--same colors, same layers, same positions.  Another great advantage to My Digital Studio is that while some colors may have retired, they'll never be entirely gone--so I'll always have a supply of Creamy Caramel and Close to Cocoa for these owls.  I also learned a few things as I recreated this card digitally.  Hey Kiran, did you know all this?

• Grouping is your friend!  As soon as I got an owl looking right, I selected all his pieces and grouped them together, so I could move the entire thing (rather than piece by piece) and didn't have to worry about the layers becoming undone.  I could still ungroup at any point, to adjust wings and other little details.
• Drop shadows are dimmensionals!  If you look at the first card I made, you'll see that the middle owl is "flying" and thus was lifted off the card.  At first, I had no idea how to make that happen digitally, but after some experimenting with the drop shadow, I think I've recreated the idea, at the very least.
• Patterns are NOT one size fits all!  To create those bellies/vests on each of the owls, I wanted something as close as possible to the paper I had used, but the options didn't look very good.  But you can fix that!  TIP: After you select the fill paper, double click on the filled image and you'll get a screen that shows you your shape against the background paper--so you can "punch" any section of the paper you like.  In the bottom left corner of that window, there are zoom in and out buttons, and I used these to zoom out, making the patterns smaller and thus more appropriate for the vests.

Since I think I will use this one as a thank you card, my finishing touch was the stamp from "Thank You Kindly" in Night of Navy.  I'd love to hear how you think the digital card compares to the original paper version.  Some things were easier to do with actual paper (like lining up those branches), but other things were much easier digitally (moving the pupils of the eyes exactly where I wanted them).  I'm going to keep experimenting, and sharing my discoveries with you.

Cheers!
~Melanie