« February 2017 | Main | April 2017 »

38 posts from March 2017

Thu 23

A Wildwood Collage Easter Scene
by Jean Okimoto

MemoryBoxWildwoodCollage-MemoryBoxClutchOfEggs-MemoryBoxSpringtimeBunnies-MemoryBoxHalADozenEggs-JeanOkimoto-EasterCards-FeltEasterCards-GlitteredCardstock-ImpressCardsAndCrafts

The new Wildwood Collage fits perfectly onto one of the Half a Dozen Eggs to create a sweet little Easter scene.  Don't you just love it when everything fits together like they were made for each other...and they were!  Hello, Jean Okimoto here, with a fresh spring design for you today.

Are you old enough to remember those precious hollow "window" eggs with the little Easter scenes inside?   That's my inspiration today - let's make a snailmail-able version of those vintage pieces.  Yes, objects from my childhood are now officially "vintage."

MemoryBoxClutchOfEggs-MemoryBoxWildwoodCollage-MemoryBoxHalfADozenEggs-MemoryBoxSpringtimeBunnies-JeanOkimoto-FeltDiecuts-EasterCards-GlitteredEggs

Cut the big egg from the Half a Dozen Eggs set from chartreuse cardstock.  Cut the Wildwood Collage.

Attach adhesive label paper (or a sticker sheet) to white felt and cut Springtime Bunnies.  The paper backing stabilizes the felt and keeps adhesives from soaking through the felt.

Cut glittered cardstock eggs using the small Clutch of Eggs dies.

Attach everything to a side-folded A-2 card of lime green cardstock.

MemoryBoxWildwoodCollage-MemoryBoxClutchOfEggs-MemoryBoxSpringtimeBunnies-MemoryBoxHalfADozenEggs-JeanOkimoto-EasterCards-FeltDiecuts-FeltBunnies-GlitteredEggs

Easter's my favorite holiday.  I love the colors, flowers, bunnies and dark chocolate eggs (not necessarily in that order) that  always make it so special, and pretty.    What's your favorite holiday?

Big thanks to everyone who took last weekend's SPRINGTIME IN SEATTLE class at Impress!  It was a chocolate-powered session - and we certainly flew through the cards and treat tote, and even ended ahead of schedule.    Thanks too - Ann and Karen - for helping us fill our baskets with all of the pretty, glittery supplies we need for Easter.

I've added a new special class from 1:00-3:00 this Saturday - it's ASIAN DESIGN...SIMPLY STATED.  We're making 7 cards, including a simple origami butterfly and a bunny with silkscreened artpapers.  It's time to stop saving those beautiful prints and start cutting them into accents, backgrounds and perfect squares for origami with our Memory Box and Poppystamps dies.  

Thanks for stopping by...

  Jeansignature-3

 

 Related articles

Come Rain or Shine...Springtime Bunnies and Splashing Puddles

Supplies


Wed 22


Spring Forest By Lindsay

Hello, and welcome!

I have a masculine card to share with you today using a few of the Spring release! Masculine cards are sometimes challenging, but with a few choice colors, and specific dies, you can make something any man would love to receive. 

DSC_0207

To begin, I die cut a panel of lime green card stock using the Sapling Collage die. I also die cut the front of a top folding white note card with the same die. I trimmed the green panel down, and die cut it using the Scallop Stitch Fancy Frames die set, adhering it to my white card using foam tape.

DSC_0210

I stamped a sentiment from the So Many Things To Love set, using gray ink. I then die cut a few deer from an older set, called Valley Deer Trio, and inked them using brown ink. I adhered them to the card front, as well as the inside using liquid glue, as well as foam tape.

DSC_0209

To finish it, and give it more interest, I sponged on a couple of blue shades on the inside panel of the card. 

Lindsaysignature


Supplies


Tue 21

Fish Wishes
by Jenny Griffiths

Fishy Greetings!

I hope you are as big a fan of the new sea life dies as I am...today's card has a large school of fish carrying special wishes.  The Family of Fish die is a charming design and reminds me of goldfish crackers.  With a bit of watercoloring and glitter paper I created this fun and colorful card...

IMG_9765

To color the fish, I smeared Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade and Barn Door inks onto my craft mat and dipped my wet paintbrush into each color separately, then onto a piece of water color paper.  By letting each color dry before introducing the next color, I was able to get distinct colored areas without a big blend of all the colors.  A little blending is Ok but not too much.  I die cut the fish several times and adhered them to a wide strip of glitter paper which was placed behind the curved die cut papers.

 I used the slim curved die from the Pasture Grass die set and cut into the blue panel twice.  I only used the top and bottom pieces because I was using the glitter paper for the middle section.   Simply adhere all 3 pieces to a white note card, then trim off the overage from the bottom blue panel to keep it an A2 card size.

The coral pieces were also die cut from watercolored paper--this time I used Spiced Marmalade, Wilted Violet and Shaded Violet inks.  They were adhered randomly along the lower edge and overhanging pieces were trimmed off.  

The fun part was adding the sentiment along the curve.  From the clear stamp set, So Many Things To Love, I selected the sentiment from two different phrases and joined them together to read, "wishing you a special day".  I laid out the uninked words onto the card to make sure the sentiment would fit, repeating it twice.  Using an acrylic block, I positioned the clear stamps in a curved shape to match the paper curve (trial and error), then inked and stamped the sentiment in place.  For the repeating sentiment I repositioned the clear stamps on the block to match the right side of the curve.  Easier than it sounds.  You could also use a stamp positioning tool to accomplish this too. 

IMG_9767

I hope you like these colorful fish swimming in sparkling blue waters bringing special wishes today.  

Thanks for stopping by, until next time!
Jennysig


Supplies


Mon 20

Seaweed Layers
by Anne Thompson

I've been playing with multi-layered cards this past week and decided to show you what I've done with layering the SEAWEED COLLAGE 99727 and SEAWEED STALKS 99717.  This is the first card I made using three layers of the Seaweed Collage and Seaweed Stalks in shades of green.  I added three of the CHEERFUL CRABS 99722 cut from dark green cardstock on the front of the card and one more large crab on the inside.  And, of course, there's ribbon around the top layer of the card!

IMG_3440

Now I'll show you step by step how I created a second card with even more layers!  For this second card I decided to work in shades of blue.  I cut multiples of both the Seaweed Collage and the Seaweed Stalks from several blue papers.

IMG_3430

With  each of the Seaweed Collages I added the corresponding Seaweed Stalks using Glue Dots to attach those to the back of the Seaweed Collage piece.  Here you can see how I stacked up 5 layers.  

IMG_3434

I then cut around each of the Seaweed Collages leaving an inch or so and connected them with foam dots.

To dress up the card even more and add one more layer, I cut the UNDER THE SEA COLLAGE 99703 from a piece of pale blue cardstock (the same size as an A2 card front) and some dark blue Cheerful Crabs.

IMG_3432

The final step was to line up everything beneath the Under the Sea Collage, sticking the Seaweed Collage layers to the front of a pale blue notecard and adding stacks of foam dots to secure the final top layer to the rest of the card.  

IMG_3438

I learned a few things in this process.  If you look closely at the card above, you'll see that I actually cut the Seaweed Collages down a little too much at the top under the bubbles area.  Another time I would use the die and a pencil to mark the outline of the Under the Sea Collage on each of the pieces I would use for cutting the Seaweed Collages, moving the die just a tad each time so the collages would be a little off center from each other so the layers would show up better.  I also thought I needed another pop of color on the front so I added the three Cheerful Crabs, two small ones on the bottom left and one large one on the bottom right and the other large one on the inside.  And now I can see that one of the pull-off pop-dot coverings is sitting in there among the seaweeds! :-)  Where are my tweezers?! 

I think this card would look great in a deep shadowbox frame.  I love looking at all the layers.  I know I will make more of these with other printed papers and with my own watercolored papers.  Five layers may be a bit much, and certainly three layers without so many pop dots is easier to mail!

Happy Crafting!

Anne Signature


Supplies


Sun 19

Lighthouse
by Penny Ward

Lighthouse

Hello and welcome to the Memory Box blog. Penny here today with more goodies from the newest release. I don't know about you, but for me making "manly" cards is tough...until this newest release. So many things to be excited about!!!

Let me walk you through it:

Start with a White cardstock base and "emboss" Scalloped Stitch Trimmings using the largest and third largest of the dies.

Lighthouse2

Ink blend as shown using Peacock Feathers and Squeezed Lemonade Distress inks.

For the sky ...die cut the largest Stitched Cloud Trio, then use as a mask and swipe VersaMagic Aspen Mist ink upwards leaving soft cloud formations on your card front.

 

Lighthouse3

Die cut Oceanside Lighthouse and Waves from White cardstock. I colored the Lighthouse by using the Collective Hearts stencil and eBrushing with a Copic marker. Small strip of Black cardstock was used behind the windows.

Wave was inked with Peacock Feathers then coated with Stardust Stickles. These were adhered to card front with foam adhesive.

Greeting from the So Many Things to Love set was stamped and heat embossed unto Vellum.

The Flying Gulls were die cut from White cardstock.

 

Are you loving the Ocean themed release? Which is your favorite so far?

 

Happy Crafting...

Pennysignature


Supplies


Sat 18

Oceanside Lighthouse and Waves with Beachfront Seagulls
by Anne Thompson

I just love all of the newest ocean-themed dies from the latest Memory Box release.  I've combined two of my favorites today into two similar notecards: OCEANSIDE LIGHTHOUSE AND WAVES 99736 and BEACHFRONT SEAGULLS 99724.

Anne1

I started by die cutting both dies from watercolor paper.  I colored the images with watercolor pencils, using a damp brush to move the color around each piece.  The first time I removed the pieces from the larger piece of watercolor paper and the second time I left them in place which actually worked more easily for painting.  

Anne2

I decided that I wanted the lighthouse and waves with one of the FLYING GULLS 99734 set onto an oval which I cut from the STITCHED OVAL LAYERS 30069.  (You'll notice that on the second card I used two oval layers, one light blue and one white.)  I also added a small piece of yellow cardstock behind the lighthouse as if all the lights were on.

Anne3

I cut a large rectangle from Blueberry Distressed Dots paper and anchored it in the lower right corner of a pale blue notecard.  I attached the oval in the upper left.  I then assembled the seagulls on their pier posts and added them to the lower right corner of the dot paper.  

Anne4

For the finishing touches, I added a blue wired ribbon to the first card and a narrow white ribbon on the second.  (Have you submitted an entry for this month's RIBBON challenge yet???)  There's also a flying gull on the inside of each card.

These are the perfect cards for me to send from Maine to friends away.  I spend a lot of time at the oceanside, about an hour away, visiting lighthouses and watching seagulls.  

Happy Crafting!

Anne Signature


Supplies


Thu 16

Blog Blitz Winners
by Laura

Hi everyone.  Thanks so much for visiting us last week during the blitz to see the new arrivals.  Winners from each post were chosen at random from the comments.  Congratulations to the winners!  I have sent you an email about your prize.

Here is a list of winners:

Laura's post winner of the Ocean Swell Die- CreaNancy

Jenny's post winner of the Under the Sea Collage Die-julye

Sherry's post winner of the Delicate Sea Fan Die-JennyH

Lindsay's post winner of the Underwater Collage Die-Jutta

Jean's post winner of the Butterfly Swell Die-Heidi H 

Anne's post winner of the Meadow Road Oval Die-karenladd

Donna's post winner of the Oceanside Lighthouse and Waves die-Greta H

Jean's post winner of the Sapling Collage die-Judy A/BC

Penny's post winner of the Dancing Dragonfly Collage die- Tracy

Thu 16

Faerie Cards and Techniques Video
by Dave Brethauer

Hello and Welcome!

Today I am sharing a video that turned out to be much more of a project than I had originally planned for! So my apologies in advance - my short craft video took on a life of its own and before I knew it I had more cards, techniques and video than I knew what to do with!

Faerie2--3

But I think you will see that once you get started, it is easy to get carried away with using the faeries in all sorts of ways! All of the faerie dies are from our Poppystamps collection - Poppystamps is a division of Memory Box that we started about 10 years ago. The Poppystamps faeries were perfect for staging little scenes on the card - like having them carry a Dandelion Stem! I had designed the Posing Faerie so that she could carry things - and this worked perfectly for this card.

(Watch this in HD on Youtube by clicking here)

I designed 5 different faerie projects (plus some bonus cards) in the video and I feature two different techniques. These techniques are especially suited to faeries - full of color and layered with splatters and details. I wanted to create the look of fireflies dancing around the faeries - and I also wanted some watercolor backgrounds that would capture the look of light reflecting in a pool. I think you will love using these techniques!

Faerie2--8

I switched things up with the second card, using the same faerie dies but now with a different scale image. The Posing Faerie and the Dancing Faerie work just as well with the Dandelion Stem as they do with the popular Birch Collage die. 

Untitled-1

And the delightful backgrounds you get with these simple techniques have endless possibilities. I played around with different colors, and did my sponging while things were still wet, and sometimes when things had dried. It was a new and amazing result every time!

Update--18

Update--26

It was easy to incorporate these backgrounds into the projects - the layers of different colors provided a lot of dimension and helped make the faeries look magical.

Update--32

The watercolor technique was effortless - I used Peerless watercolors because I love their intense color and they were just perfect to create glowing areas of color. You will need some 140 lb cold press watercolor paper for this method (hot press watercolor paper will work too, but will have a slightly different look).

Butterfly-faerie

I think I really felt things come together when I created the butterfly faerie card - I used the Hampstead Butterfly Stem along with the Dancing Faerie to create an eyecatching scene. I tried putting as many different distress inks onto the card as I could - carefully overlapping colors and outlining the entire card with one of my favorite distress inks - Ground Espresso - until the background appeared really brilliant and then I added my "Faerie Drops". 

Faerie2--19

You can compare the two images above to see the variation you can get with this technique - bright white pops of color or subdued drops in the background. The sentiment is from the CL405 Hope and Thanks Clear Stamp Set - it is a great basic to have in your craft room since it's full of all sorts of sentiments that can be used for a variety of cards.

Faerie2--20

Faerie2--28

I took it up a notch with the next card - using no less than 7 designs to create this magical scene! The Thoughtful Faerie rests in the tunnel created by using the Timberland Collage, Grove Collage, Thicket Collage and Wildwood Collage - I designed these four dies to work together to create a dimensional scene on any papercraft project.

Faerie2--26

Here's what they look like when assembled in solid color cardstock - each trunk and tree scene getting smaller than the last. I imagined monkeys, squirrels, flowers and other woodland creatures resting inside. But the faeries are perfect here!

Faerie2--29

Faerie2--25

The Tiny Frogs and the Mushrooms and Toadstools were great accents for the card - I cut and colored them in using Copic markers and sponged ink, then placed them in the corners of the card. There are a lot of possibilities here - the frog could be on the mushroom, or the mushrooms could be set further into the tunnel. Once you try this project, you'll come up with a delightful scene of your own in no time.

Faerie2--31

Here's a slight variation using a different background at the horizon - and what a difference the color scheme makes. The darker tones give it an entirely different feel. I changed the faerie to a navy cardstock - and I love how it looked with the deeper blue sky.

Faerie2--30

In the end I think I preferred the background to be a bit lighter - it had the look of dawn on the horizon. I just used a bit of the background I made using the watercolor technique in the video - the only hard part about this technique was waiting for it to dry!

Faerie2--34

For the final project, I created a shaker card using the Dainty Faerie and paired her with the Garden Lantern. My intent was to use the faerie as the "glow" in the lantern - so I kept her light and bright and then created the background on the card such that it was lighter near the lantern and darker further away.

Faerie2--41

The Garden Lantern was created with a faux metal finish using a really easy alcohol ink technique - it achieves a weathered patina look that adds a lot of visual interest to a card.

Faerie2--38

Faerie2--40

The Little Dragonflies are the finishing touch - I have them flying around the lantern and since they are cut out of glitter cardstock they catch the light and really improve the look of the lantern glow.

Faerie2--6

I even came up with a few bonus card ideas along the way!

As I put together cards and cut out shapes for the projects, I discovered uses for some of the extra pieces that came out of the process! So I included these ideas in the video too - the extra Dandelion Stem that was cut out of the watercolor background was used in the cards above. I created nesting frames using the Square Basics and Circle Basics dies and set the Dandelion Stem in the center - the result is a modern looking set of stationery!

Please enjoy the video - it's a long one, so grab a cup of coffee or some iced tea and sit back and relax. I hope you'll get as inspired as I did when I was creating these!

Thu 16

Avezzano Butterflies
by Melissa Rusk

Spring is just around the corner friends! Today I have a card using the beautiful new Avezzano Butterflies die to share with you.

Melissa1

I wanted this card to feel like stained glass so I used black paper for my die cut. I glued it onto a piece of white watercolor paper so I could use my Zig Clean Color Brush Pens to color in the butterflies. I added some clear gems for the butterfly bodies once everything was colored and dry.

Melissa2

I love a simple and bright card that makes a statement. This could be used for a Spring birthday or even an Easter card. I can't wait to make a few more in some different colors!

Have a great day everyone and thanks for stopping by the blog!

Melissasigimage


Supplies


Wed 15


By the Seaside by Lindsay

Hello, and welcome!

I am so glad you stopped by today, because I have a clean and simple card to share with you! You could say I am dreaming of the ocean, and you would be correct. The winter weather just doesn't want to leave, and I am cold! Let me share with you how I created this simple, and easy seafaring card. 

DSC_0188 1

To begin, I took the Scallop Stitched Fancy Frames, and ran the second to last frame through my die cut machine four times with white card stock. I glued them together, and set it aside. I then took the Oceanside Lighthouse and Waves die set, and did the same. 

DSC_0190 1

Taking a white card base, I masked off the sides with Post-it tape and and applied blue and mint ink to the bottom portion. I then adhered the frame, along with the images using foam tape. 

DSC_0191 1

It truly was that simple! I hope that you were inspired to make something today. I appreciate you stopping by! Have a great day!

Lindsaysignature

 


Supplies