I was going to post more Journal Club photos tonight but the blog server isn't cooperating very well with the photo postings, so I'll work on it again tomorrow. In the meantime . . .

This Friday is Play Day at Art 'n Soul from 10:30 to 4:30 . . . it's free and you're welcome to work on any project or technique you bring with you. In addition, I'm bringing the new Memory Box Make 'n Take that you can have fun with from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.; all you have to do is bring an item for the Thurston County Food Bank Barrel or pay $1 for each Make 'n Take. The new color of the month is Taupe, and there will be extra packs of 5 Taupe A-2 cards that you may purchase, too. The taupe color is a limited production from Memory Box and will not be available once their supply from this initial run is exhausted. If taupe is one of your favorite colors to work with, you might want to take advantage of this special availability.

We're going to do variations of
these Memory Box Make 'n Takes
between 1:00 and 3:00 this Friday
at Art 'n Soul. Bring an item for the
Thurston County Food Bank Barrel or pay $1 cash
for each Make 'n Take.

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From Memory Box . . . a nice example of how to use their new alphabet dies.

Got Dies?

by Jean Okimoto for Memory Box

"Here are just three of my favorite new dies - Snowflake Tree 98405, Ornament Border 98417 and Parker Lower Alphabet.  There's such a great selection it's hard to pick just one favorite!  The intricate dies like the tree are easily cut with the Metal Adapter Plate and the other plates required for thin dies.  Save the tree cutout - we'll use it on another card soon."

Diecut a Sparkling Water Dress

"There are many reasons to create a card - like celebrating the end of the local recycle-truck drivers strike.  During the strike I discovered that the dress from the just-released Lady Dancing Die Set 98394 is perfect for upcycling your lightweight sparkling water cans. It's not the first time anyone ever diecut metal cans...but these cans were just waiting for the perfect dress die to come along! 

I've used cans from Cascade Ice Citrus Twist, Pomegranate Mango and Lemon Lime flavors  - from my Woodinville Top Foods - for this card.  The tiny silvery ballet slippers were diecut from the barcode section of the can. The cans are great for diecutting birds, flowers and butterflies too...and they'd be cool for "green Christmas" ornaments.  It's addictive once you get started - and you'll look at juice and water cans in a whole new way."

"Carefully trim the cans, then diecut the dresses from the beautiful graphics on the cans.  Cut the shoes from the can's barcode section and attach them to the lady, cut from Parchment Cardstock.  Stamp Distressed Garden Record G1848 on Mango Distressed Dots with Seattle Sky ColorBox Archival Dye Ink. Trim the cardstock and ink the edges with Seattle Sky. 

Diecut the letters to spell "choices" using the Parker Lower Alphabet 98363 set and Dill Cardstock.  The letters can easily be separated for diecutting - but I'm keeping the set intact for now so I don't lose any letters.  Attach the letters to a piece of Key Lime Cardstock.  

Attach everything to a 5.5" square card of Mango Cardstock using a combination of double-stick tape and foam dots for the lady and dresses.  The natural curve of the metal adds a nice dimension to the dresses."

Word Background by Laura Fulcher

"I have been playing a lot with the new Memory Box alphabet dies.  They are just really practical.  For my card today, I used the Classic Alphabet Upper (98361) to create a word background spelling out the words "snow" and "cold."  It took a while to glue on all of the letters, but I really liked having a 3-D background.  Here is a side view to see the dimension:

You could just as easily put letters on half of the card if you wanted to speed things along a bit.  For the center of the card, I used the Beaded Snowflake die (98396) and added a few white pearls."