Hey, y’all!

We’re halfway through June, and this week I have some Memory Dex cards for you that I created using items from this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit from Tres Jolie Kit Club and items from my stash – quite a few from previous Tres Jolie Kits! Check out my video to see what I did for each of the cards I made – then grab up your supplies and create your own Memory Dex card(s).

I had bought the Heidi Swapp Memory Dex Spinner quite some time ago, and had originally thought of grabbing up some spray paint and changing the color – I might still do that – but I grabbed it up for this project so I’d have someplace to put my cards when they were done, and to make sure I didn’t make them too tall to clear the bottom! Depending on what kind of “–dex” system you have – be it a spinner, a box, something vintage, or something custom made – you can get very creative on how your Memory Dex cards are made! If, for example, you have the Memory Dex Box, you don’t have to worry about height, only width! (After this project was completed I happened to find a vintage Rolodex® system that would allow cards to fit in without any height or width restrictions!! *happy dance*)

Video:

A closer look at the cards I made:

My Concord & 9th “Lucky” Die cuts the three layers – thick line and outline from one die, thin line from another – so I made two lucky cards. The thick line and outline were cut from a half sheet of the white cardstock that I hand-inked up using a variety of Distress Oxides from my stash. The white pieces were from another partial sheet of the KaiserCraft cardstock, and on some of those, like the butterfly, I added some Distress Oxide to give a pop of color. I didn’t have any particular plans when I set out to make my cards, I just cut a lot of pieces and started layering; generally ending with a few of the Eyelet Outlet jewels and/or some of the small Prima butterflies.

I made my “Imagine” card a shaker card by cutting a circle out of the pink striped paper from this month’s kit, adding a sheet of craft foam with a circle cut out as a spacer, and filling it with some of the beads and sequins from the Buttons Galore cube from Septembers (2021) Cards Kit. I just used some plastic from an old package of die cuts – I often save the harder/stiffer plastic packaging for just this reason! – and stitched it in place with some metallic silver thread. My “Imagine” as a layer of the “Gamboge” Stencil Butter on it from the Mixed Media Kit and, while it was still wet, I sprinkled some Lindy’s Magical Powder on and spritzed it with a little water.

These two cards were really a couple of “let’s see how these parts work together” cards! The “grateful” card has a slot cut from the top (the label die from Tim Holtz’s “Stitched Slots”) that I just tucked a couple of large die cuts into after giving them a little color. The flower is just inked with some Distress Oxide, and the leaves have some Lindy’s Magical’s sprinkled on them. I cut the card from my inked KaiserCraft sheet, backed it with some of my leftover handmade paper, and added some stamping, jewels, & butterflies. The “grateful” had originally been stamped, but it didn’t show up very well, so I traced over it with a gel pen.

I wasn’t sure when I cut it if I would use the Bird Branch die, but I added some Magical’s, let it dry, and thought about what I’d do with it while working on other cards. Eventually, it came time to play with it, and I found that I liked how it looked with the oval frame, but the frame needed some color too! So on went some Magical and PearlEx powders. The card is another cut from my inked sheet and has some of the “Grecian Gold” Modeling paste (from the Mixed Media Kit this month!) dabbed on with my finger for a little shine. Then, to add a bit from this month’s Card’s Kit, I popped on a tab punched from one of the papers, added some orange jewels, and a Tim Holtz “Small Talk” sticker from my stash.

These two Memory Dex cards were made from a piece of scrap cardstock that I practiced a couple of mixed media ideas on. I have some texture paste, mica powder, and Magical powder on the base tag/Memory Dex, then I stamped the butterfly from the stamp in this month’s kit, I cut a tag-shaped frame out from my inked paper, layered a couple of more tags vertically, popped in a flower, added my jewels and phrase.

While I was doing all of my cutting, I decided to make a round Memory Dex card, so I used one of my circle dies to cut out the inked stenciling I had done (stencil from this month’s Mixed Media kit!). I stamped on the butterfly and phrase, attached a rectangle bottom, and ran it through my sewing machine a few times. The final touches were some Distress Oxide around the edges and the jewels.

When I first started this card I had thought of just attaching the pocket to another card, but as I was putting it together, I decided that I much preferred the pocket as the card! The top slot is backed by some pink cardstock from my stash, and the rest of the slots are back with white cardstock – what had been the original Memory Dex shaped card. The Tim Holtz “Stitched Slots” die is the perfect size for the spinner, I just punched the slots at the bottom and popped it right on. I used some of the smaller tags, cut with the tag dies from this month’s kit and cut from this month’s papers, to stick on some “Small Talk” phrases and slipped them into the slots. They don’t weigh a lot, so the friction between the papers is enough to hold them in place when they are upside down on the spinner. I then just added some of my die-cut hearts, outlined them with a yellow gel pen, added the label, and another “Small Talk” sticker.

The card with the bicycle stamped on it was probably the fastest to put together because all I did is layer up the different circles I had already cut out! I used the pink striped circle to fill the circle in the card base, then put the layers through my Sizzix using the dot embossing folder that had come with the machine, added that half-circle with some Lindy’s Magical’s stenciled on, and then all of the other plain circles. To add some contrast to all those circles, I popped on one of the smallest tags, then stamped on the bicycle and added the butterfly and phrase.

My “Spring” card was my first of the batch! I trimmed an inch off the width of a 3”x5” index card so it would fit on the spinner, used the stamp from this month to just get the flowers to peek out from behind the tag, and splattered it with some “Lemon” Glossy Spray. The tag is from some pink cardstock I had that was already adhered to an adhesive sheet. I used the thin scraps from my Folio at the beginning of the month, and just randomly layered them on the adhesive. I then cut the tag using the next to largest die in the set, peeled the protective paper the rest of the way off, and brushed on some Finnabair Mica Powder. Then I just finished up the details with some flowers, jewels, a butterfly, and the small tag.

Lastly, my “document” card. The die-cut word was too long to fit on the Memory Dex Spinner, so I cut it where it could be hyphenated, clipped off an end of the cross-mark on the “t” to use as the hyphen, and layered up a couple tags and a tab on the base card. I used some of the “Grecian Gold” Modeling paste on “document,” the stars and diamonds are from my Concord & 9th Lucky Die Set, there’s a little stamping, and a few jewels, and this card was done!

Thank you for joining me here in my corner! I hope you enjoyed seeing these cards and they inspired you to make your own Memory Dex card or two!

Stay Crafty, Friends

In addition to this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit (*from previous Tres Jolie Kits), I used:

Some items (non-Tres Jolie) contain an affiliate link where I earn a commission at no extra cost to you!

Lindy’s Gang: Magical Shaker: *Guten Tag Teal, *Oktoberfest Orange, & Yodeling Yellow, & *Magical “Bougainvillea Fuchsia;” *Jacquard PearlEx “Misty Lavender;” Ranger/Dina Wakley: *Glossy Spray “Lemon;” Prima/Finnabair: *“Vintage Roses” & *“Pearls & Crystals” Mica Sets; Darice: *“Mosaic Butterfly” Embossing Folder; *Embossing Essentials “Oblong Frames,” & *Embossing Essentials “Oblong Doily Frames;” Dress My Craft: *“Classic Doily” & *“Crochet Doily” Dies; Buttons Galore: *“28 Lilac Lane;” Ranger Opaque Matte Texture Paste; StazOn “Olive Green” StazOn “Royal Purple” Ranger/Tim Holtz: Distress Oxide Spray “Dried Marigold” Distress Oxide “Speckled Egg” Distress Oxide “Squeezed Lemonade” Distress Oxide “Kitsch Flamingo” Distress Oxide “Villainous Potion” Distress Ink “Villainous Potion” Distress Ink “Speckled Egg” Ranger/Wendy Vecchi: Archival Ink “Watering Can” idea-ology/Tim Holtz “Small Talk” Concord & 9th “Lucky” Die Set, Heidi Swapp: “Imagine” Die, “Document” Die, Memory Dex Dies (Oval) Memory Dex Punch & Memory Dex Spinner (Black) Spellbinders Tool ‘n One & Standard Circle Nestabilities; We R Memory Keepers 3-Way Corner Punch & Tab Punch; Sizzix: Big Shot Plus (Big Shot Plus Starter Kit) Sizzix/Tim Holtz: “Tattered Florals” & “Bird Branch” Bigz Dies, & “Stitched Slots” Thinlits; Sakura Gelly Roll Moonlight & Gelly Roll Souffle Pens; Scrapbook Adhesives 12×12 Adhesive Sheet; Aleene’s Tacky Glue; Krylon Workable Fixatif; JudiKins Diamond Glaze & MicroGlaze; Art Glitter Glue; adhesive foam squares; Tonic/Tim Holtz Stamp Platform; We R Memory Keepers 3-way Corner Punch; Unbranded Memory Dex/Rolodex Dies; blending brushes; 1/4” & 1/8” double sided tape, craft foam; *spray bottle; 3×5 index cards