Loving the Heidi Swapp Memorydex!

Welcome to December Magpies! I have a great idea for something to put on the Christmas list, or even something to make for a gift for someone else for you this month. It’s the Heidi Swapp Memorydex!
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I decided to order a unit for this blog post and I am LOVING IT! I chose the white unit and I’m so happy with it. I definitely think this is something you could put on the list for Santa, but it’s also something that would make a great gift to give to someone else. I’m thinking it would be brilliant to give to someone who would appreciate getting cards as follow up gifts. So you could give one to a parent and then give them more cards for it on their birthday’s, Mothers/Fathers day and so on. So it’s something you could add to.
HS_MemorydexHere’s a picture of mine. I’ve propped up the cards from behind cause my collection is pretty space so far, but I am looking forward to adding more to it and I’m sure you’ll be seeing cards here from me every month! I found it great to just sit down at my craft desk and bang out a card every now and then. In fact, a couple of these I put together in the morning while my coffee machine was making my morning cappuccino! It’s so fast and also, a great way to use up some of those stickers and chipboards that you know you won’t use on another project. Lately I’ve found a lot of the collections have some random bits in, like zebras or giraffes. Now I’m the kind of scrapper that needs to have a connection to the embellishment before I put it on a LO, so I struggle to use some things, even if I love them! But hey, I don’t have a problem bunging things on cards! So I am loving making cards for the Memorydex, I can just create a pretty card for the hell of making a pretty card! Some of these cards I have written journalling on the back of. I’ve not shared that cause it’s all a bit personal but sometimes I just made a pretty card for the joy of making something pretty, and sometimes I did have a reason for choosing the embellishments I did and I have journalled on the back. I plan to add photos as well, I’ll just add whatever I want, it’s my Memorydex isn’t it, I can put what I like in it!
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Now, if you’re anything like me you’ll be wondering what you need to buy with the Memorydex. I didn’t buy anything except some of the cards that come already cut, Address Book Cards! There is a punch to punch the notches that come out of the bottom of the cards but it’s currently out of stock. There are more coming and I will be buying one as soon as they come in stock again. I’ve signed up for an email alert so I’ll know as soon as they come in to the shop! But you actually need one to get started. What I did was trace around the notches and cut them out with scissors. I am lazy though so I want the punch and can’t wait for it to come back in stock! At the moment I am cutting my own cards from 4×6″ white cardstock, rounding the corners with a corner rounder and hand cutting the notches out. It’s fine to do it this way, it works!
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There’s also some dies to cut the cards out and again, they’re out of stock right now, but I’ll be buying these as soon as they’re re-stocked too. I plan to fill my Memorydex up and I’m lazy, so I will want to be cutting my own cards easily! I will buy these dies and just snip the tabs off the top if I don’t want them.
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So on to the cards! I decided I will probably stick to using Crate Paper collections in my Memorydex, because I proper LOVE Crate but also because I find their collections all seem to go together so nicely. For the first three, I used Craft Market. The 6×12″ Stickers are out of stock now but I decided I could use the pretty bicycle sticker up. I love the sticker but it’s just not something I’ll probably ever use on a LO so I can use it up on a card. I layered up some of the papers from the 6×6″ Pad across the bottom, popped my sticker on and then used a Heidi Swapp Wood Veneer word on top and the final touch was some of the cute little Enamel Heart Stickers from Hey Little Magpie. I journalled on the back of this card about how I need to get out and about a bit more. Some of the cards are like reminders to myself of what I want to achieve or do.
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Card number two and I covered the card with paper from the 6×6″ Pad and then made my own banner with another piece of paper. I put one of the Standout Layered Embellishments on top and then popped a line of Hey Little Magpie £1 Pearls, lemonade above and bubblegum below.

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My last card using Craft Market and again, I layered a piece of paper from the 6×6 Pad across the bottom and then made my own banner from the turquoise. I popped another Standout Layered Embellishment on top, a tag from the Ephemera Die Cuts pack and another Heidi Swapp Wood Veneer word.
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Next I pulled out my bag of Maggie Holmes Confetti. Most of the stuff I used is out of stock now, but there is a few bits of the range available and it does work really well with the newer Maggie Holmes collection, Shine, as well as all the older Maggie Holmes collections. I do love Maggie Holmes, all her collections mix with each other, that’s why I look forward to the new ones coming out. I layered up some of the papers from the 6×6″ pad, popped a piece of the Ephemera on foam pads on top of a card and banner from the Ephemera pack too. I always buy the Empemera Packs in all collections I like, there’s always so many bits to use in them, they last ever such a long time and are value for money!
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Next up I used one of the cards from the Maggie Holmes Confetti Ephemera pack, it’s in the background with the gold corner. Then I layered over some paper from the 6×6″ pad and a ticket from the ephemera pack. I used the chipboard camera from the 12×12 Chipboard Stickers sheet and some old alphabet stickers to remind myself to take more pictures. Some of you may have noticed I scrap the same pictures again and again….. I’m a bit useless at taking new ones to be honest! But since I don’t have children, I’m not really scrapping for the future, I’m scrapping for the now, cause it makes me happy so I don’t mind if there’s LO’s with the same picture on in my albums! But I get so much more excited about scrapping when I have fresh new photos to scrap so I need to take the camera out more.
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Again, I just layered up stuff from the Confetti line, a tag & tickets from the ephemera pack and then put the chipboard celebrate word from the 12×12 chipboard stickers sheet and a little puffy hooray sticker from the Gold Puffy Stickers pack. Then I added some Pink 3mm Self Adhesive Rhinestones along the bottom.
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I moved on to the new Maggie Holmes Shine collection next but I didn’t buy the 6×6″ Pad for that collection so I used papers from the Confetti 6×6 Pad. Then I layered up bits from the Cardstock & Acetate Ephemera and Die Cuts pack, popped some Chipboard Stickers from the 12×12 Cardstock Stickers sheet and the little banner sticker is from the 6×12″ Cardstock Sticker sheet. I have journalled a lot on the back of this card as well.
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My last card has journalling on the back about how bored I am with dieting this year! I used some papers from the B Side collection. The ‘sugar will get me through this’ sticker is from the Dear Lizzy Documentary 6×12″ Stickers sheet, the little puffy feather sticker is from Crate Paper Wonder. I added Rhinestones as well cause you know, why not!
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So after all the cards I did do 2 LO’s. For the first one I used the Maggie Holmes Shine collection. I used the Lucky paper, both sides of that and then some little strips from the black & white stripes paper from the 12×12 Paper Pad. I used some bits of Cardstock & Acetate Ephemera including the ‘love you’ and ‘XO’ tags and the flower & leaf diecuts. The birds are from  the 12×12″ Cardstock Stickers sheet. My title is using the ‘smitten’ which I think came from an older Amy Tangerine line and ‘kitten’ is Freckled Fawn Puffy Alphabet. I also used a bow from the Maggie Holmes Confetti line and some Rhinestones from Hey Little Magpie and the little wood veneer cat was from Studio Calico Baxter.
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My last LO I used Basic Grey B Side…. AGAIN!!!! I do love this collection. I really love the turquoise, pink and yellow but I decided to challenge myself to make a more subdued LO with the papers this time. So I used both sides of the Shine On paper, the turquoise in the middle of my grid and also the square top right, the bottom left square is the grey stripe from the Maybe paper and then I used a square of Prom Date paper. My title is from Amy Tangerine Finders Keepers Phrase Thickers and I do love those for a super quick title. I have used some ephemera from B Side and layered up a tag with a HLM Wow Flair Badge and the lush silver glitter heart is from Freckled Fawn Chipboard Hearts and I’ve used some of the stickers from a Theresa Collins Signature Essentials Labels. This is a super simple grid LO that I based around the square photo I had printed from Instagram.
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So that is what I was working on this month. I do love the Memorydex and I will be making more cards for it for my design team work I’m sure. I love that I can just make something quick and pretty, I don’t have to have a photo and a story to tell, I can just whack something down really quick and fulfil that creative itch. But I do love the idea of making one as a gift and then continuing to send cards every now and then to the recipient. And at £20, it’s something fab to put on your xmas list as well. You don’t need the punch or dies to start creating but make sure you get some of the pre-made cards to trace around for size. If you’re serious about making cards you will want to get the punch or dies though, but they’re not immediately necessary to get started, you can get them at a later date for sure.
I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas, I hope you all have a fantastic December and holiday season!
RACHEL

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