Invites in bulk from My Digital Studio

My church has a three-year Confirmation program for middle-schoolers, meeting on Wednesday nights for dinner, worship, and then an education/social/service program.  In May, the 8th graders are confirmed - which is their affirmation of baptism.  It's a big event for them - so we hold an Evening of Honor to celebrate.

I get to do the formal invitations for this event but we had a particularly large number of confirmands this year, so I got it in my head that I would get better at Stampin' Up's My Digital Studio.  I have a friend who uses it beautifully - after she prints, she embosses, adds blings, etc and it looks "real"!

I was feeling fairly confident after I did a simple flyer using an MDS template.  (This concert has been another huge reason that you haven't seen much posting on my blog - I'm involved in three of the groups - and it's tonight - so lots and lots of rehearsal time!!)  FYI: I'm not too worried about posting her name as this poster can be found EVERYWHERE - it's going to be an amazing evening!

But I realized how much that I didn't know about My Digital Studio when it came time to make a card that looked "real".  I spent a lot of time watching videos - there are great starting videos on Stampin' Up's official My Digital Studio website.  Another amazing resource is Stamp with Heather - she has done two full video classes full of tips and techniques.  

So after a lot of videos and even more trial and error, I came up with this...

I'm feeling pretty good about it.  The only "real" things are the glitter strip, the punched button and twine, and the one little bling on the cross.  All the other layers are printed.  If you try this, another great technique to add a "real" look is to use an embossing folder, but this is such a large card that I didn't have anything that fit.  The insides are formal and are all personalized like a graduation announcement.
The decorations for the evening are blue and silver so the colors were chosen for me. For the layout, I used the technostamper sketch for this week:

Enough chatter from me...I have everything printed and ready to go - but I still have a few hours of putting them all together!!  

• Stamps: Stampin' Up My Digital Studio Crosses of Hope
• Paper and Ink: My Digital Studio Night of Navy (although I elected not to print at the highest possible quality to conserve a little ink, so it didn't print out as dark as a typical Night of Navy)
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Silver Glitter Paper, Marvy Uchida button punch, misc gem

Technostamper is the fun challenge that lets me add the entries right here on my blog.  Here is what everyone else has done with this sketch...