davebrethauer

Painted Pears

I had a very specific project in mind when I drew the images for my latest pear stamps and wanted to share the idea with you. I created a video to show the whole technique from beginning to end (grab some popcorn, it's a long one!).

 

This is a very fun project - because each time you stamp the solid  pear, the paint has blended in a different way, creating realistic color variations in the image that change from one pear to the next. The shaded image that goes on top helps define the image! Don't worry if you don't get the shaded image in exactly the right place. It doesn't have to be perfect to look nice - because watercolor is supposed to go a little outside the lines anyway!

The Solid Pear (D1828) and the Shaded Pear (D1829), which were just released last week, were created to work with each other. The idea is to stamp the solid pear and then stamp the shaded pear over it. I knew that I wanted to use paint on the solid pear for stamping, because the way paint mixes and blends on rubber is always amazing.

I am using Twinkling H2O's in the video (Sunburst Yellow, Kiwi, Hot Cinnamon and Orange Peel) to create the amazing effect on the solid pear, an extra fine mist spritzer from Judikins (GT008) and Memento Tuxedo Black ink from Tsukineko for the project.

Try this project out - once you start stamping out these pears, you won't want to stop!

Haunted Greetings from Memory Box

Greetings of the season! Here we are, almost time for Halloween. Time for spooky greetings and haunted houses, and lots of orange and black. Today I'm posting Halloween cards made using some of the new stamps and dies for 2011. There are lots of new things on the way from Memory Box and Poppystamps, so be sure to check back often in the next few weeks.

First up is a Haunted Mansion Snow Globe...full of bats and things. This card uses our Haunted Mansion stamp (E1801) and the new Grand Snow Globe Die (98228) and also our 6x6 Nightfall paper pack (10148). The globe is topped off with the Fremont Crest Die (98223) to add some whimsy.

The mansion was double embossed in jet black embossing powder. To give the snow globe some added definition we added bright orange stickles. This snow globe die is so versatile and is available in three different sizes. And that cool background frame in the background? It's a new die from Poppystamps (my kids' company) - it's called the Splendor Frame die (803). We used it with a piece of Squash distressed dots paper.

The bottom of the globe was cut out twice from black paper and one of the pieces was raised on some foam tape to make it pop!  

The second card I have to share today uses the same 6x6 Nightfall paper pack and a new leaf die that is just released from Poppystamps (806 Meadow Leaf die). Leaves don't always have to be green... This version in black adds a creepy accent to a Halloween image.

The stamp is from last season's Holiday Release and is called Halloween Collage (G1395). The edges of the main image were distressed and then inked in a dark brown. Orange stickles were added for the spider bodies. This would be a great card to mass produce and easy to mail because it's flat when it's finished.

 

Time to finish up all of those spooky Halloween projects this week! 

Winners of the Snow Globe contest!

We received 146 comments for the snow globe contest - everyone had great ideas to use the snowglobe dies. Here are the randomly chosen winners!

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:36

I've been a fan of Memory Box stamps for years and now have quite the collection of your dies. I can see shaker cards for winter holiday cards, but having the three circular parts of the dies is a huge plus all year long! I have many dies, but find that MB dies are the best of the lot. Love the details.

Posted by: MA | October 20, 2011 at 01:26 PM

 

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:80

I too love your dies, I have ten and several are on order! They are fun and easy to use! I am so in love with all your products, keep them coming! Thanks Dave

Posted by: Eileen | October 20, 2011 at 07:53 PM

she then goes on to say...

Oops I forgot to say that I love the snow globe and I love the Santa and sleigh inside of it almost as much as the polar bear.

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:127

And finally, I chose a 3rd winner - because we were so close to another 50 comments...

Each time you release a new line it becomes my favorite : ) I see myself using the snow globe as part of my christmas cards with 2 kids inside!!! Love the polar bears too!!! Great job.

Posted by: l ditto | October 22, 2011 at 10:09 AM

Thanks everyone for all of the amazing ideas - there were many ways that I hadn't thought of using them!

All you winners, please email me at info@memoryboxco.com so that I can send you your prizes!

 

 

Winter Release - {New 2011 Dies & Stamps!}

I am so pleased to announce a new release of fun products - lots of new craft dies and stamps! Actually 15 new wood mounted stamps (6 of these work with some of our new craft dies!) - and 32 awesome new craft dies!

I made a short video (which is sure to be nominated for an Academy Award) using two of my favorites - the 98228 Grand Snow Globe Die and the D1823 Polar Bear Globe stamp. I designed these to work together (as you'll see in the video).

Here's the Grand Snow Globe (98228) and the Medium Snowglobe (98229) - we made these a little special because we had stamps and photo cards in mind for the holidays. We bonded a transparent grid to the die so that you can position things precisely when cutting - and it works wonderfully!

The D1823 Polar Bear stamp fits inside the Grand Snowglobe nicely - just watch the video and see how well they work together!

 

To see the new assortment of stamps and dies, go to the Polar Bear Studio collection on the Memory Box website!

To celebrate, I'd like to do a giveaway! Please post a comment on how you would use the new Snowglobe dies in a project (cards, albums, decor) - I'll give away a set of all 3 snowglobes (Grand, Medium and Small) to a randomly selected commenter - one prize set for every 50 comments. So, if there are 50 comments, there will be one lucky winner. If there are 300 comments, there will be 6 lucky winners! Tell your friends! Contest ends Sunday night 12 midnight pacific time October 23, 2011.

2011 Class Tour - Stores

When you look at the map above, you can get a better feel for all the places I went this summer on the big trip! Memory Box on Wheels - a van full of a ton of stamps and paper, me, Monica, Emma, Cooper and two dogs - was able to make it through 31 states as we visited some really exciting and beautiful stamp and scrapbook stores. I love being able to go see the storeowners that I sell my stamps, papers and dies to! It is really gratifying to see a store that someone has built from scratch and designed with their own unique vision. Monica and I created our business from scratch too - beginning 16 years ago with just a couple colors of cardstock!

Here's a listing of all the stores I went to this summer - just click on the title and it will take you to the blog post that tells you about my stop at that particular store!

It was truly a fantastic line-up of stops and stores this summer, and everyone made me feel like a rock star!

If you missed my feature on the dessert and food highlights of the trip, you can check it out here. And if you took the classes and want to see the samples again, you can check those out here.

Stay tuned for an upcoming giveaway - we are going to be having some fun later in the week, and hope you can join us!

 

 

2011 Class Tour - Bakeries and Restaurants

I can't believe what a huge undertaking the tour was - and am grateful that everything fell into place. We laugh at the little mishaps along the way now - and will have stories for years to come.

I made it a point to support the local economy as much as possible as I went around the country - we sampled tasty food from all corners of the country and I was sure to mention it on the blog or tweet about it when I could. I wanted to make sure that others discovered all of the amazing foods (especially dessert) that America has to offer - and I felt so good inside when I received the following email from the owner of one of the places we went to along the way. I received it on my birthday (so it was a great birthday present):

sent August 28, 2011

Subject: Real Thanks!

Hi I am Blyth, (creator/owner of Real Food Nation)

Thanks so much for your kind words about Real Food. We are glad you enjoyed our place and we appreciate you letting others know about us.

I remember being a bored teenager, but as a nostalgic adult with 2 kids, I look back fondly on those trips with the frame of mind that it was really nice of my parents to take us to interesting place – even if we were not interested at the time.

We look forward to your next visit, Blyth   

This made it all worthwhile- and I'm dreaming about those breakfast tacos and beautiful cinnamon rolls again now!

The food that we eat along the way on these annual tours has grown to be just as important as our discovery of the big old world. We did rely on a substantial diet of Chipotle this time - 4 orders of three soft tacos (chicken, rice and cheese - two orders without salsa, two orders with medium salsa), but only when there wasn't an amazing local restaurant to check out. We became experts at logging into urbanspoon.com before we drove through a city - and had the route mapped out as we exited the freeway.

Our main focus was dessert - which became one of the four major food groups in the Brethauer family a long time ago. There are sooo many good bakeries out there in America  and our goal is to try them all! Finding a good bakery is something of a treasure hunt - I always ask the students in class if they know of one, and if time permits, we'll go check it out!

 So I wanted to put a list together of my blog posts that featured information about the bakeries we visited, for those of you who also appreciate a good cake with a tender crumb. Or that the buttercream frosting is flecked with real vanilla bean and piled higher than the size of the cupcake it rests on!

So here's a rundown of the posts (and links) of bakeries and special restaurants we came across the summer of 2011 - and we hope to find more next year!

Tin Roof Bakery - Chico, California

Miette - San Francisco, California

Dick's Bakery - San Jose, California

Ettore's - Sacramento, California

The Grove - Albequerque, New Mexico

Real Food Nation - Santa Fe, New Mexico

Wood Fashion Cafe - Salina, Kansas

Pops - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Dinstuhls - Memphis, Tennessee

Muddy's - Memphis, Tennessee

Amelie's - Charlotte, North Carolina

Truffles Bakery - Farmington, Connecticut

Keyks - Chelmsford, Massachusetts

Kimball Farms - Westford, Massachusetts

Topsfield Bakeshop - Topsfield, Massachusetts

White Turkey Drive In - Conneaut, Ohio

Ox Yoke Inn - Amana Colonies, Iowa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2011 Class Tour - Card Projects

 

 

For those of you who came and took my Summer 2011 Class Tour workshops - a huge thank you from me, my wife and business partner Monica, my kids (and assistants) Emma and Cooper, and our dogs Biscuit and Kip. We slept in dozens of hotels, went through two rental vans, met a thousand new paper crafters and had the most terrific summer of our lives.

Our plans originally were to teach workshops and have enough time to see the country in between stops - but additional classes and a tight schedule made the trip a little more business-oriented than we anticipated. The kids were real troopers - and some of you may have gotten to meet them on the days they worked with me. I was bursting with pride when I saw Emma suggesting Brilliance Graphite Black ink to a student who had asked for a recommendation on a certain project. And I can still see Cooper running around the room sharpening pencils for students during colored pencil classes! Or Monica, next to me in the van, talking on her cell phone while simultaneously answering emails on the laptop and figuring out payroll for the staff back in Seattle. I joked that it was Memory box on wheels!

I promised the students I would post the projects for reference - and for those of you who couldn't make it to one of my workshops this year, here's a look at what we did!

First, the 5 Watercolor Techniques cards:

G1795 Autumn Leaf Collage

F1809 Maple Leaf Branch - delicately colored in with Watercolor Pencils

G1790 Poinsettia Stem -  colored in with Watercolor Pencils

G1804 Harvest Moon - background wash painted with Twinkling H2O's

 E1805 Autumn Tree Landscape - embossed with white embossing powder and painted with Twinkling H2O's

Next, the 5 Colored Pencil cards:

G1797 Vintage Christmas Words and D1773 Holly Sprig

E1811 Holly and Bell Bird and G1780 Blank Ticket

E1794 Maple Leaf - cut out with the matching 98201 Maple Leaf die

C1796 Pear Sketch Trio

D1810 Pine Branch Bird - colored on patterned paper from the 6x6 Yuletide Collection

 

 

 

Absolutely Everything - Topsfield, Massachusetts

I can't remember when I met Kate, the owner of Absolutely Everything in Topsfield, Massachusetts - it was several years ago - but she was then, as she is now, a constant source of support for artists in the paper arts world. I remember her asking me to sign and decorate her artists' wall in her class area - next to some really talented instructors who had visited her store before. I was of course, intimidated, but managed to color something out. I hadn't really had that experience before - a store owner asking me to alter and leave a permanent change in their store!

She has a lot of Memory Box in her store - and the sample card above (which uses the E1772 Graceful Deer stamp and the matching 98152 die to cut it out) was a gorgeous project. The antlers (cut with the 98150 Antler die) were popped up behind the deer's head.

I'm still honored to be a part of Kate's world - and was thrilled to be front and center in the store as you walk in the front entrance. She had created a charming greeting sign...

...and you can see that she even remembered to welcome the whole family!

We unloaded the van into the class space - a whole separate store space that she uses for a classroom area - it was huge! We got set up in a snap - since this was the last stop on my class tour, we were really efficient at getting everything set out. Monica and the kids headed for the beach to tire out the dogs, while I taught 2 workshops of 30 students each on a warm Sunday evening.

Kate has filled the store with thousands of objects of art - each detailed and rich with color.

Need some inspiration? This is your place. Ready to feel like an artist? Drop in and pick up all the materials to start your journey. As the name of the store implies - Kate has Absolutely Everything.

Even the light switches are altered! A little watercolor, a little glue and beautiful paper - and you have some art! I'm thinking that the light switches in my own studio look a little plain now...

And the paper cakes! How cool is this? Rolls of tickets, some sheet music, paper punches, and some sparkly trim create the most beautiful paper cakes!

This cake, is even more spectacular! I had a hard time taking my eyes off the displays!

Umm...and did I mention that Kate is hysterically funny? I was introduced to the class with the help of her singing frog - he dances and shakes to the song "You're Unbelievable". There were a few students who arrived as we were beginning (they had driven all the way from Cape Cod and encountered some weekend traffic getting off the Cape) - and you should have seen the look on their faces as they saw me being serenaded my a singing frog!

Kate served Caesar salad and Eggplant Parmesan in between workshops - and then came the dessert we'd all been waiting for. Kate knew I had a sweet tooth - and did not disappoint with what is now a serious contender to my cupcake addiction. She had emailed me that she had discovered something amazing in the world of sugar.

She got these amazing little treats called Red Velvet Cake Balls from the Topsfield Bakeshop - probably the moistest, most delicious red velvet cake I've had. Seriously!

And not only do they melt in your mouth - but they are beautiful. Kate gave us a dozen - and they lasted all of 3 minutes.

It was a sweet ending to the tour- a wonderful dessert in a wonderful store. Thanks Kate - for making the last day of the tour terrific.

 

 

Ink ABout It - Westford, Massachusetts

Lori and Linda really rolled out the welcome mat (er, banner!) when I visited their shop Ink About It in Westford, Massachusetts! A handmade banner with my name on it, was special enough - but they didn't stop there! 

They had a buffet of cupcakes for all of the students and me - from a wonderful, new local bakery (Keyks) that had all sorts of wonderful flavors!

We added workshops on to accommodate two days of classes - and they went by way too fast. I loved seeing many familiar faces - I hadn't been to Ink About It for a couple of years since Lori is a member of the Memory Box Design Team and has been doing a wonderful job as the Memory Box instructor at her store!

Ink About It is one of the stores that tests out products for us - and we are currently trying out a card program there. They are selling our patterned papers (gingham, dots and distressed dots) that have been cut and scored into cards and then packaged with white envelopes. If you love those patterned papers , this is a convenient way to get them, already cut and folded for you! So far the program has been a success at their store - and we are considering making these available to everybody!

In between classes, I was able to sneak around the store and see what they have done with our stamps, papers and dies! I have so many wonderful ideas to share with you! Above, the D1347 Dotty Tree Birds is stamped and then framed with our 98109 Scalloped Circle Die. 

This is a great way to color in the Maple Wreath stamp (G1793) - some splashes of autumn colored paints is all it takes to make the wreath come to life. And the matching Maple Wreath die 98200 cuts the whole thing out in seconds!

These flowers were stamped with the G1762 Scalloped Thank You

This stamp was cut out with some scalloped shape punches - but can also be trimmed out with one of our matching dies (98109).

This was a really interesting greeting card - look at the rolled up patterned paper! And behind it? One of our best selling dies - the 98183 Amira Flourish die!

I loved the look of the Frost Border 98171 cut out of mirror paper! It looks like a piece of polished silver across the card!

This is such a neat way to use the G1790 Poinsettia Bloom stamp and matching Poinsettia Bloom die (98205) - doesn't this greeting card look like a present? Wouldn't it be great to receive this in the mail?

...or maybe you'd like to see this one in your mailbox? They used the 98211 Classic Ornament die to cut out some of our 12x12 Candy Cane paper (center), and used the stamps...

...D1784 Classic Ornament Shadow and D1785 Classic Ornament Outline to stamp the images on the left and right. Hung from a velvet ribbon - the card is so charming! Look how well the C1782 Christmas Ticket image fits on the 98210 Bistro label die! The holes on the die are inserted with silver brads - and the label is secured onto the Bubblegum Distressed Dot paper.

Here, the G1802 Vintage Halloween Words were stamped onto the G1781 Index Card - a cool Halloween Ticket on the front of a greeting!

I was so energized after classes that we decided to go over to nearby Kimball Farms for ice cream and lobster rolls. Linda and Lori are so fun and run such a great store - their ideas and customer service are really top notch. Be sure and stop by if you are in the Westford area!