davebrethauer

Ornaments of Joy

Last month I made a last minute trip to Molbaks to check out some new houseplants reminded me of the beauty of simple ornaments hanging from evergreen branches. The displays at their store are always so tastefully done - and it inspired me to come up with a simple ornament scene on the front of a card.

I used the Vanilla Bean cardstock in our Moroccan pattern and the Thistle Cardstock in our Sicily pattern to punch out two 1 1/2 inch circles.

I stitched a line onto the card with white thread - and then placed each circle at the bottom of the thread to make it look as if an ornament was hanging from it. In place of an ornament cap, a diamond jewel sticker was placed at the top of each circle.

D1417 - Pine Branch was stamped in Versamagic Oasis Green ink (a great coordinating ink for the Thistle color of cardstock).

And the word "joy" completes the look. I used a Design Adhesive sticker and some silver glitter to make the "joy" really sparkle. Brushing the edges of the cardstock with some of the Oasis Green ink breaks up all of the white on white.

If you have a tape gun (I have a Scotch ATG 714) then you can get the glitter border around the edges of your card quite easily. Just run a line of adhesive around the edges of your layer and sprinkle with glitter!

 

2010 Paper for Schools - WINNERS!

Thanks everybody for being patient as we sifted through emails applying for our school paper donation. It went so well, that we are considering doing this nationally every year! 

We had a very tough time figuring out who we would send paper to - and the staff here at Memory Box went to great pains to try and decide which schools would get our paper donation. Of course, we wish we could send paper to everyone! Thank you to everyone who took the time to nominate a school - we had parents, aunts and uncles, teachers, grandparents, community members and principals apply.

We chose the following four schools to send paper to, and I am sharing an excerpt from the email that nominated them (listed in no particular order!):

from Shannon for the Little Wound School in South Dakota...

Every morning when these elementary students at Little Wound School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in western South Dakota wake up early to come to school, they take a stand for a brighter future for themselves, their families, and their community.  Art has an important role in that.  It connects them to their culture.  It gives them an opportunity to work through emotions associated with the challenging lives they lead.  It gives them hope and heart.  Art is an integral part of the curriculum in grades K-5 and also our after-school activities. As a school, we don’t have a lot of money for art supplies.  A big shipment of MemoryBox paper would go a long way in providing materials to nurture the creativity, heart, and hope of our wakanyeja—our children.  

from Sarah for Jefferson Whittier Elementary School in Pontiac, Michigan...

We are an inner city school of 700 K – 6 students. Our community suffers from what I last heard to be a 50% unemployment rate. Every child receives free lunch and breakfast. As teachers in a low income school we have to purchase a large amount of school supplies out of our own pockets. We even pick up shoes, coats, and other clothing for the students in need.  Sounds pretty bleak but we have an awesome group of kids who lack a lot in life but NOT TALENT. Paper for drawing, illustrating, painting, making books, making projects, the list could go on and on, would be so appreciated and valuable to us!!!

from Leann for the Augusta School in Augusta, Wisconsin...

When school resumed this past year mold was found in the Augusta school and students weren't able to attend classes in that building until it was all cleaned up. But all the hard working teachers who spend money out of their own pockets for supplies had ALL their things thrown away. 

and finally from Heather for La Mesa Elementary School in Monterey, California

As with all schools nationwide, La Mesa Elementary has seen a huge reduction in funding.  Several staff positions can no longer be afforded...art being one of them.  Our La Mesa PTA holds many fundraisers each year that help to pay for teachers that otherwise cannot be afforded.  Luckily, this year is no different!  Through our successful fundraisers we have been able to pay for a full time art teacher (as well as a science and music teacher).  However, other areas have had to suffer to provide the students with the teachers, and supplies are often short.  We make due with what we have (nature offers much inspiration as we live in a very temperate climate).  

A donation of your beautiful paper would be such a blessing to the already struggling art department.  Children from all over the world would benefit from such a generous donation.  It is truly difficult being a military family as we are so often on the move and friends are inevitably left behind.  I for one have an aspiring artist who always finds comfort in creating something beautiful and would benefit greatly from the donation.  I am sure that the many children that have made La Mesa a home for one to two years would equally appreciate the donation.  

We feel fortunate to connect with these schools - and were inspired to read of all the things that so many people are doing all over America to improve their local schools. Hopefully our donation will make a small difference for some of the students and teachers out there. 

I still remember art class in 4th grade at Pfeiffer Elementary in Littleton, Colorado and the substitute art teacher who showed me how to color in a picture of a lion. Art can make such a difference in people lives!

Thanks to everyone who entered -and thank you to everyone who continues to support Memory Box.

Paper Donation Winners (almost...)

Hi everyone - the plan was to announce the winner today, but we had a landslide of people applying for the school paper donation in the last couple of days. We want to make sure we go through all of them as diligently as possible, so we will be posting the winners tomorrow. Let me say that there are some truly deserving schools out there and some beautiful worded requests. I wish we could give to each and every school out there - we have heard from so many people who are willing to combine their talents with some paper resources to enrich the lives of some special school children! Tune in tomorrow!

In the meantime, our kids company (poppystamps) was highlighted on Alice's {Little} Wonderland blog - click on over to see her beautiful coloring using some fun poppystamp images!

Winter Wonder - Holly Garland

As most of you know, I have a soft spot for all things bird related, so when I saw this little Mercury Glass ornament from West Elm I immediately put it on my wishlist. You can learn more about it here (a portion of the purchase price goes to support St. Jude's).

I used the idea of a bird on a holly swag for a jumping off point for the card I am showing today. Wouldn't a shiny silver bird look great on this card?

To make the holly garland, I used the Holly Sprig (B1416)...

...simply stamp the image in a graceful curve, making sure you overlap so that everything is connected. Then cut everything out and mount onto the card.

I stamped the E1410 Crystal Snowflake right below the garland - and it looks like an ornament suspended in air. A little sponging on the background and the addition of some Cherry Red Christmas Jewels brings the card to life!

 

2011 Paper for Schools

Think that your school deserves some paper? Tell us why your school should receive a BIG shipment of Memory Box cardstock for their art program! Every year, we donate our overstock to local schools in Seattle - but this year we are looking for 4 schools around the United States (sorry, no international requests) to donate paper to.

Simply email us at info@memoryboxco.com to tell us about your nomination. Your message should include the name of your school and why you think your school should get some Memory Box paper.

So if you are a teacher or have a child, grandchild, niece or nephew at a great school that needs some materials to help foster kid creativity let us know! We will announce the winners November 18 on our blog and Facebook page! (please submit your nomination by November 17 midnight PST)

 

"Wow, this is intense!"

"I'd like to learn...glass blowing."

This is how Emma responded when I asked the kids about exploring their creative sides this fall. It had been awhile since we had really focused on some creativity for Emma and Cooper. Since I didn't have any more travel on the weekends, it would be a good time to plan some events that inspired them in ways that homework and their poppystamps business didn't.

Emma's first choice was the glass blowing workshop, followed by a trip to Ellensburg, Washington where she would be playing piano in the Sonatina Festival. Cooper set his sights on a hip hop dance class (he wants to move like those guys on Glee!) and seeing a performance of Stomp. We threw in a trip to see the Picasso exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum and tickets to meet Jane Goodall. Jane Goodall didn't really count as a creative experience - but definitely qualifies as inspirational!

We signed up for some lessons at Uptown Glass Works in Renton, Washington. Being complete beginners, we showed up without the proper clothing and eyewear - but our instructor, Adam, took good care of us. I knew we were about to do something outside my comfort zone when he let Emma know that her shorts "might melt, so be careful!". I tried to relate this level of danger to my everyday life, but the most dangerous part about rubber stamping would probably be making sure you don't get burned when using your heat gun to emboss. Nevertheless, we proceeded (with caution) - with some borrowed "sleeves" and pink rimmed sunglasses. We were ready to start our foray into the world of glass.

Adam went over some basic tools - jacks, shears and pinchers - and let us choose some color to roll our glass in. The workshop was equipped with 2 ovens and a cooling oven - the oven that we got our "gather" from (our initial dip of glass) was 2200 degrees! We learned to put our punty into the pool of glass and gather a little bit on the end - turning the punty the whole time. It was a bit like turning a stick to keep honey on the end of it - except that all of my arm hairs were burning off.

"Wow, this is intense", Emma said, her eyes wide with excitement. I could tell that she had been apprehensive when we pulled up to the studio in my truck. But now, her nervous energy had turned to excitement as we pulled the molten glass out of the oven.

After rolling the gather onto a table to smooth it out (this is called "marvering"), rolling it into some color and reheating, we sat at the bench. Emma used a wooden block (dipped in water to prevent it from burning) to shape the hot glass. Rolling the punty the entire time, the glass smoothed into a glowing ball.

She also used the shears on the glass, cutting it into little strips. The cool metal shears hardened the glass during the cutting process.

After playing around with the glass for awhile, we learned to use the "jacks" to create a seam where the glass would disconnect from the punty. Then, Emma dripped some water into the seam with the big tweezers, fracturing the connection. Adam was all suited up to catch the glass and place it a 1000 degree oven to cool (yes, to COOL!).

Here are a couple of our creations - a vase and a paperweight (inspired by the color scheme from our 6x6 Gossamer paper collection). Emma has them on display on her bookshelf in her room and can't wait to learn some more about the world of glassblowing.

If you haven't tried glass blowing, I encourage you to try it (or go see a demonstration). It opens you up to other creative processes - I want to try pressing an image into molten glass, but have to figure out how to keep my stamps from burning!

We're continuing with the creative process this fall with the kids - not sure if I'll share with you my attempts at a hip hop class (though it would probably be a very entertaining blog post!). Make sure you're working in some time to grow your own creativity too!

Ombre Glitter Techniques

Sometimes inspiration strikes in funny places.

My father-in-law brought us a few bags of the last of his tomatoes from his garden and I had been ripening them in bags on the counter. Green as grass, I was hoping to bring them to ruby-colored ripeness so that I could make a batch of tomato sauce. It took about a week (they finally did ripen - not as sweet as vine-ripened but our cool summer in Seattle didn't help the tomatoes much this summer) and as I made breakfast each morning for the kids I'd peek inside the bags to see how things were going.

In one bag, there were a group of about a dozen tomatoes ('Stupice' and 'Arkansas Traveler' I believe) that ranged from emerald green to chartreuse. They were in varying degrees of the ripening process - the deeper green fruits were huddled on one side of the bag and the lighter green ones spilled towards the opposite side. It made me think of ombre ribbon.

I then thought about the glitter technique that I had used on the Halloween Trays we had sent out in October. Using the Design Adhesives, we could apply 2 (or more) shades of glitter to each Design Adhesive Sticker.

 

 

The Winter Wonderland Design Adhesive pack - with it's pine trees - would be a great collection to use for this idea. I imagined a row of trees, lighter green at the top and deeper green at the base.

After applying the clear tree stickers to some White Textured paper (I used two sets of trees - so that there was a row of 6), I sprinkled dark green glitter across the bottom. Shaking the excess off, I then applied a beautiful chartreuse shade across the tops.

I added a layer of patterned paper from the Tinsel collection (it has white words printed over a green background) and then sewed everything together onto a Dill notecard.

Simple and effective.

Good news on the tomatoes - enough ripened to make about 4 cups of sauce, which we'll eat on our pasta this evening. And the green ones too stubborn to turn red? Still green.

But, they inspired a Christmas card - and maybe we'll cook up a batch of Fried Green Tomatoes tomorrow!

New Patterned Papers

Pattern.

It's all around us. Pattern is 95% of my work here at Memory Box and is always and continually evolving. 

My work in designing patterns over the years has changed (hopefully for the better) to include a better appreciation for how pattern works with the rest of our product line. Sometimes I'll use the same pattern over and over, but change the color, and it's hard not to notice the difference it can make. Sometimes I'll make a very involved pattern - full of busy little designs and lots of colors.

The thing about pattern that I've discovered is that it isn't so much about the pattern by itself, but rather how it works with other elements on a greeting card, scrapbook page or other papercraft project. As a recovering perfectionist (ha!), I've realized that beauty is a matter of taste - so I've been working on trying to mix patterns in ways that I wouldn't have thought to do before.

Design - it's about letting go. Mix a few patterned papers together and walk away from your project. Come back later and take a fresh look. Let those initial instincts push you in a new direction. 

I am so excited about using the patterned paper that we designed for the Winter Wonder Collection - because we used pattern in a very basic way. We scaled the pattern small, and used single colors - Vanilla Bean, Cranberry and Thistle - rather than the colorful designs we sell in our popular 6x6 paper packs. The colors match our Vanilla Bean, Cranberry and Thistle notecards - not that you have to match!

As you can see from these magnified images, the designs range from simple to complex. What I've discovered is that once shrunk down, the look of the pattern depends on how much solid color "shows".

Isn't the Distressed Dots (shown here in Cranberry) beautiful? Classic dot patterns have been used throughout history - and for good reason. They are classic, and always add a stylish look to a project.

The Sicily pattern (shown here in Vanilla Bean) is a sweet pattern too - miniature loops dancing and curling across the page. I love how it looks next to a layer of our shimmery Chocolate paper.

Email me your favorite pattern - Sicily, Moroccan or Distressed Dots - we'd love to hear what you think about the new papers!

Oh Deer - It's a new Blinkie

We have a new Blinkie! If you like this little guy, just copy the code on the right side of my blog and post it in yours! Spread the love!