2011

Last Monday I met with the "regulars" at Your Maine Stamper, the faithful group who has continued to craft together on Monday afternoons with or without me.  Kellie has often stepped in to teach classes when I haven't been able to, and she had a great gift for each of us:  a do-it-yourself calendar kit for 2011!  I took mine with me to Spa Day #6 on Friday at the Oncology Center and began to put each month together.  I mounted each small calendar on Memory Box paper scraps and secured them with double-sided tape behind the tabs on the larger piece of white cardstock.  I then added other papers on top of the white cardstock and/or behind to set a color theme for each month.  This morning I went through my Memory Box stamps and started adding the details to most of the months. (I'll have to finish the other four months later in order to get this post up in time!)  January is finished and tucked inside the acrylic calendar frame that came with Kellie's kit.

 

January:  

I used just the head of C1375 Bundled Snowman to peek up over the "PERISHABLE KEEP FROZEN" sign and accented his cap with white glitter.  I added B1378 Snow Day with the snowflakes from the side stamped in Ancient Page Majestic Blue.  I stamped a few more snowflakes from B1158 Sprinkles and put Memory Box clear jewels in the centers.  I then used the PoppyStamps 233D Sledding Time for the focus image with more glitter.  The finishing touch--a tiny thermometer!

February:

F1439 Heart Bird Keepsake and B1423 Love and Hearts

March:

E1336 Shamrock and clover on the side stamped in Versamark and embossed in Lime Green

May: 

C1372 Cherry Cupcake, C1367 Berry Bird, and C1370 Tiers of Cupcakes

June:

C1355 Dotty Butterfly and D1351 Butterfly Twig colored with Memento pens and accented with Memory Box green jewels

October:

B1131 Orb Spider, D1135 Chandelier with spiders, and C1137 Chair

November:

E1276 Bramble Wreath accented with gold jewels and an orange bow

December: 

C1397 Lightbulb Reindeer (watercolor)

 

The hardest part of this project is deciding which stamps to use for each month!  Perhaps this post will inspire you to go through the stamps and papers and embellishments you've collected this past year and see how you can use them on calendar pages of your own.  

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy Stamping, 

Stamped Hand Soap Dispensers

Hi, all!

I'm sooooo glad it's the weekend - anybody with me?

I decided to decorate a couple of hand soap dispensers for the holidays. I've decorated these babies a few times now as I tend to refill them and then decorate for the season. This is also a very quick and easy gift to make in a pinch. You can also make a bunch of them (like for shower gifts) very cheaply by buying your soap dispensers from a Dollar Store.

Supplies: Memory Box stamps: Crystal Snowflake E1014; Memory Box papers: Crystalline, Double Fudge, Pool, Mocha; adhesive-backed foam snowflake; Recollections pearls; white glitter; Design Adhesives; sheer ribbon; Fiskers border punch; circle punch; Ranger Distress Ink; clear embossing folder

Instructions:

1. Apply "Flurries" Design Adhesive snowflakes to top of dispenser (above the ribbon in the picture  - it's kind of hard to catch in a photo) and apply white glitter.
   
2. Cut Crystalline, Pool and Mocha papers to fit around dispenser. 
3. Cut Crystalline paper 1/4" taller than Pool paper and Mocha 1/4" taller than Pool.
4. Punch stitches along Mocha paper's top and bottom using border punch.
5. On Mocha panel, randomly stamp snowflake with embossing ink, cover with clear embossing powder, and heat until melted.
6. Layer and adhere the three panels to oner another, then wrap around and adhere to dispenser.
7. Punch circle from Double Fudge and adhere over center of embossed snowflake.
8. Remove adhesive from back of foam snowflake and cover with white glitter, then adhere to Double Fudge circle.
9. Adhere 1 large and 6 small pearls to snowflake.
10. Wrap sheer ribbon around dispenser and attach in the back with a glue dot; trim excess.

1. Fold ribbon in loops and glue dot to ribbon.

 

 

Supplies: Memory Box stamp: Sleek Penguins (C1383); Memory Box Double Fudge patterned paper, Bazzill card stock; Memory Box snowflake and diamond stickers; Memento ink; sheer wire ribbon; Pearl Glimmer Mist; Nestability dies

Instructions:

1. Stamp Sleek Penguins on white card stock and cut with Nestie die.
2. Cut Double Fudge and blue card stock with matching Nestie dies. 
3. Spray blue card stock panel with Glimmer Mist and set aside until dry.
4. Adhere diamonds to penguins' eyes.
5. Layer and adhere the stamped image, patterned paper and card stock panels to the soap dispenser.
6. Adhere three snowflake stickers to stacked panels.
7. Cut and wrap 2" ribbon around dispenser's neck; trim edge.
8. Apply snowflake stickers around neck of dispenser (can't really see this in the picture - sorry!)
9. Tie 9" of ribbon into bow, shape tendrils into waves and glue dot to dispenser's neck. 
10. Glue snowflake sticker to center of bow.

Thanks for looking!

Crafting the outside of the box

Don't know about you, but I've gotten lots of good ideas from the household items redo 
posts so far.  Here are the items I decided to work with:

I had this wooden box that I had found a few months ago in the clearance at Hobby Lobby.  Don't know if you can tell from the picture, but the household items were an aluminum pie pan (the actual one I used did not have texturing on the bottom, foil tape (not sure what it's used for but it's from the hardware store), and fun foam that I had already painted from an earlier project.  

Here's how I altered the box.  I attached strips of the foil tape to cardstock and ran the strips through a die cutting machine with an embossing folder.  I had to run two of the strips through the embossing folder twice to get a long enough piece to fit the box.  I used a stylus to push the dots back out where the folder overlapped.  Next I colored the strips with alcohol ink.  I cut a cardboard template the size of the top of the box and used that to hold the foil strips in place so that I could miter the corners.  I attached the strips to the cardboard with temporary adhesive and cut through both layers to try and get a clean miter in the corners.  I stamped the new F1439 Heart Bird Keepsake with Timber Stazon ink on the center of the pie pan after cutting off the rim.  When the ink was dry, I traced the outside edge of the heart and the branch with a stylus.  Next I flipped the image over and laid it on a foam stamping pad.  I used whatever tools I found laying around to puff out the heart (a tool that came in a package of rubons, a big blending stump and a stylus from Doodlebug Design that has a scoop on one end).  Once I was happy with that part, I used a Tim Holtz texturizing hammer to add texture around the image and then cut out a rectangle around the image with an exacto knife.  For the border above and below the image, I heated a strip of fun foam with an embossing heat gun.  I had pre-inked G1404 Renaissance Tile with Timber Brown Stazon ink and pressed the stamp into the heated fun foam.  I attached all the pieces to the lid of the box with carpet tape.  For the bottom of the box, I sanded the box bottom and removed the dust.  I applied Espresso metallic paint by attaching a dauber top to the bottle of paint.  When that layer was dry, I applied Chocolate paint with a sponge dauber and used a paper towel to soften the paint.  My middle son thought the box top looked like steam punk and he wants to paint his guitar to look the way the box bottom turned out.  (It has a matte finish with metallic flecks coming through.) 

My father joined the Merchant Marines in World War II and he left our family for training just before Christmas in 1943.  The letters in the box are some of the ones my dad wrote home to my mom and my siblings.  This was a long time before I was born.  While I was going through the letters I even found the receipt from the hotel where my parents stayed in New York when he was in training.  It will be 25 years since my dad passed away the day after Christmas.  Reading his letters brought my dad closer to me and helped me to learn more about his life.  In one of the letters he was telling my mom he didn't think he'd be able to make it home for Christmas in 1944 and ended the letter saying there just isn't anything that can take the place of a man's family.  I thought I should make a special box to hold those letters and memories. 

I hope you are able to spend time with all those you love and hold dear this Christmas season.   Thanks for looking!

 

Decorated Doggie Bags!

During this holiday season I am always sending friends and family home with bags full of yummy treats. This is a fun and easy way to lable and decorate those plain paper bags that one of our teachers, Julia Quincey, came up with here at The Stamp Addict.

 

 

She used the 6X6 Mistletoe paper from memory box, and the Tattered Florals Sizzix die by Tim Holtz.  You just run 1 sheet of the paper thru your Cuttlebug or Sizzix michene so that you have one flower in each of the sizes.  Then you flip every other one over, (so you have the white side showing) attach together with a brad and you have a fun decoration for your bag. The leaves are cut out of green cardstock using the Tattered Leaves Sizzix die by Tim Holtz. You can add a little pizzaz by then running the leaves through a cuttlebug embossing folder to give the leaves some texture!

For the Fold you will fold one of the corners across creating a triangle(be sure to leave about an inch on the other side).  Then you will fold the other side down the same way.  Tuck the tab you have left over under the folded part to hold it closed.  You will want to attach the flower to the part that is showing, this way when you open the bag the flower is still in place. 

You could even take the idea a step further and stamp the bag with your favorite Memory Box Holiday stamps! I Hope this idea will help to make your holidays more festive. Merry Christmas!

 

 

A {Bottle} for Your Favorite Mints!

Hello everyone!  It's Patter here today!  I usually post my creations on my Memory Box Create x3 blog; however, I wanted to participate in the fun of taking a household item and recycling it!  So let's see what I created.

I chose to use this very, very cute 2 oz. Caltrate bottle. I loved the shape of this bottle so much that I couldn't throw it away. The shape reminded me of the glass milk bottles that the milkman delivered to our door each morning in England.  Mmmm, with the cream still on top and all!!!!  :)  Memories!  Anyway, the bottle size was also perfect for my purse and my favorite mints. 


I first painted the bottle with Adirondack Dabber shell pink paint.  I used a separate sponge to give the paint a little marbled look instead of the Pepto Bismal look. This paint works for plastic; however, I seal it with Mod Podge. We will get to that step in a minute.  I then spritzed it with pearl Glimmer Mist and set aside to dry.

While the paint was drying, I used the new Valentine stamp Daphne Heart {E1422}, and stamped a small portion of it onto the new Valentine paper called "Pixie."  I used different ink colors to match the ribbon I am going to add to the bottle.  After stamping each piece, I trimmed them each down to 1 1/4" x 2 3/4", cut them in half, and inked the edges. I ended up with 6 pieces that look like this:


Doesn't that new stamp look cute?  It's a large heart stamp filled in with those beautiful flowers! This stamp will be VERY versatile! You are going to want this one!  Next, I used my Scor-Tape to attach 5 of the pieces together so that I ended up with a piece like this:


After that, I put Scor-Tape on the back of the strip, attached it to my bottle, and used Mod Podge over the entire bottle and lid.  Then I set them aside to dry.


Notice the lid. I used the left over piece I had and punched a 1" circle for the lid out of that piece. 

After that was all dry, I added ribbon around the edge of the lid, filled it with my mints, and here is the finished product:


Papers:  Memory Box Pixie
Stamps:  Memory Box Daphne Heart E1422
Stamp Ink:  Tim Holtz Distress Ink tumble glass and walnut stain, SU pixie pink
Embellishments: American Crafts ribbon, Adirondack Dabber shell pink paint, Mod Podge

I love how it turned out!  Of course, this would also make a great gift for someone. If you have any last minute Christmas gifts to make, this would be easy and quick to do. You could choose their favorite colors so that they could carry this in their purse all year round!  Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to scroll down to see Angela's post today too! She has created something fun also for you! Have a blessed Thursday, and happy crafting! 

Tag, You're It!

 

Now that more and more people are going green and using cloth shopping bags, I find that it's harder to pick my bag out of a crowd.  I decided to create a "luggage tag" for my bag.  This project was so much fun and so quick, that I decided to make them for several people on my shopping list!  I started with a blank tag (called Javier from Creative Imaginations).  On the front, I applied Peeled Paint Distress ink over the entire tag.  I cut out a poinsettia from the Memory Box Poinsettia Birds 12x12 paper and adhered it in the upper left corner.  I then added a touch of Gold Glitter Glue to the smaller circles in the center.  Along the bottom, I stamped C1340 Ivy Border with Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy ink and applied several dots of Barn Door Distressed Stickles as accents.

 

One of the most challenging things about working with Memory Box paper is that it's almost too pretty to cover up!  So I didn't even try on the back of the tag.  I simply traced another section from the Poinsettia Bird sheet of paper, distressed the edges with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and glued it to the back.  Quick and beautiful - and easy to spot across a room!

Memories in a Box

 
 

 

Hello...hope you're enjoying our Design Team's "recycle/re-use/repurpose" ideas for the holidays!

I found a box of clear ornaments I bought for that old swirly-paint "faux-marble" method.  Or maybe to to fill with ribbon scraps from my tag-making phase?  Either way - thanks to Design Teamer Sue Trembeth - they were finally used.  Sue shared her idea of coating the interior of the ornament with Pledge Floor Finish (previously called Future) - then swirling glitter into it to create beautiful, sparkly ornaments.  I burnished Memory Box Brocade Design Adhesives on the outside and glittered them with Clearsnap's Ruby Slippers and Ocean Spray.  (I used Silver Lining on the red ornaments.)  Thanks for the great idea Sue!

I also found boxes of old "satin" ornaments that were starting to ravel and unwind.  I decorated them with Brocade Design Adhesives too. They've been sitting around for about 14 years, but I just couldn't toss them. They remind me of when Mom helped me un-decorate the tree down during her very last visit to Seattle - and how she struggled to remember that each box held 20 ornaments.  She and I counted them over and over again, just so she could be sure she did it correctly.  They are truly my "memory boxes."

Here are the directions for this project:

Memory Box Products

• Memory Box Collection Brocade Design Adhesives
• Memory Box Collection Calm and  Bright Design Adhesives
• Memory Box Collection Oh Joy Design Adhesives
• Thistle Distressed Dots Cardstock
• Cranberry Distressed Dots Cardstock
• Vanilla Bean Distressed Dots Cardstock
• Tinsel 6x6 Set

Other Supplies

• Clear Ornaments
• Red "Satin" Ornaments
• Pledge Floor Finish
• Clearsnap Glitter - Ruby Slippers, Silver Lining and Ocean Spray
• ColorBox Fluid Chalk Warm Red Inkpad
• Soft Round Paintbrush
• 3 Mini-Clothespins
• Small Disposable Cups 
• Branches and Twigs

Directions

• Remove the cap from the clear ornament and squirt some Future Floor Finish into it
• Swirl the Pledge around to coat the inside of the ornament
• Drain the excess Pledge into a small disposable cup
• Pour glitter into the ball and rotate the ball to coat the interior with glitter
• Allow the Pledge to dry, then replace the cap
• Burnish Design Adhesives onto the outside of the ornament and brush glitter onto the adhesive patterns
• Burnish  Design Adhesives onto the red ornaments and brush glitter onto the adhesive patterns
• Burnish Christmas, peace and Joy on strips of the Tinsel prints and brush glitter onto the words
• Trim the strips and mat them with Thistle, Cranberry, and Vanilla Bean Distressed Dots
• Arrange the ornaments on the branches 
• Attach the words with the clothespins

On an entirely different subject...we'll start posting Valentine designs soon!  Valentine Delights, our latest release of beautiful stamps and Pixie, the new 6x6 Set (and 12x12's too) are on their way.  Be sure your favorite Retailer has ordered the entire release so you'll be ready to create along with us.

From Can to Centerpiece

Here is my idea for taking a common item and recycling it for the holidays.  I started with a simple tin can.  After removing the paper and thoroughly washing it, I covered the can with a piece of Poinsettia Birds (10109) paper. I handcut a few of the poinsettias, some leaves and a bird from the paper to use as embellishments. Pearls and Jewels were added to the flower centers and Glossy Accents gives dimension to leaves and the bird. Ribbons decorate the top and bottom of the can.

 

Next, I took a walk outside and collected various greens, small pine cones and winter berries. A chunk of floral foam was placed into the can first, then I arranged the greens and a holiday sentiment. 

My little sign was made from stamping  Be Merry (B1386) with Brilliance Poppy Red ink onto white card stock. I cut it out and traced it onto another scrap of the Poinsettia Birds paper and glued these two to a small stick. The sentiment was further embellished with another small bird cut from the same paper.  

The entire project comes together from a recycled tin can, one 12 x 12 sheet of paper, one stamp, a few scraps of ribbon and some fresh greens from your own backyard. So simple and so pretty for the holiday table.

These little centerpieces are nice hostess gifts also. Make up several to have on hand and you'll be ready for any last minute gift giving.  

Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday season!

Stationery Holder Video

 
Hello all.  I hope everyone has been enjoying the Memory Box Design Team ideas for turning household objects into gifts.  For me, I chose to turn a 2 pocket folder into a stationery holder.  I have tons of cards to give as gifts, but I am always looking for ideas to package them.  Perhaps the project will inspire you to "borrow" a couple of pocket folders from your kids' school supplies.

The photo above shows you the outside of the folder after I decorated it.  Here are a couple of photos of the inside:

 
 
 As you can see, there is a lot of room for both cards and envelopes.  I ribbon holds the whole book closed.  For specific instructions for making the stationery holder, I made a video:

If you want to see a larger version of the video, you can view it directly on Youtube here.

Happy creating!

 

Glass Votive Candle Holder

Here's a quick way to jazz up your holiday table.  Just use a basic glass votive holder and add Memory Box's versatile Design Adhesive and some glitter.  It also makes a quick, cute gift.

Recipe:

Ingredients: Votive holder, Design Adhesive, Glitter, beads, embossing powder, etc

1. Trim out desired image from the Memory Box Design Adhesive package.

2. Remove frosted backing.  Because this is a round object, adhere the center of the design to the glass first and then wrap the rest of the transfer sheet around the votive holder on either side.  Press the adhesive firmly onto the glass and remove the transfer sheet.

3. Sprinkle glitter generously onto the adhesive.  Press the glitter onto the image.

Try beads or different embossing powders for another look.  The design adhesive will withstand the heat of embossing and of a burning candle.

Happy Holidays!