Round and round it goes in a cycle of beauty

I have been swooning over this product for so long I squeeled when I was finally able to get one (it was so popular it was sold out for ages). I’m taking about Heidi Swapp’s Memorydex Spinner, an engenious little devive that has reinveted the retro Rolodex card systems so popular in the pre-computer era and taken it to a whole different height of practical beauty.

The mechanism hasn’t changed that much (if at all) from traditional card index systems with two ridges that hold the cards in place and allow them to be easily pulled out for closer inspection and slotted back in. The difference here is that it’s a rotating system as opposed to a desk flip through one. As such, as you turn the smooth operating handles on either side, you get to enjoy both sides of your cards as your collection spins around and around in a mesmerising motion.

beautiful and inspiring quote cards

I have used my Memorydex for art cards with inspirational quotes. Because of the compact size of the cards, it’s a much less daunting prospective for beginner crafters faced with a blank piece of paper to decorate.

• OPTION 1: STAMPS AND WATERCOLOR

My favorite way to prepare the cards is to prepare a bunch of different sized and shaped cards out of watercolor cardstock, with just plain black stamping, ready for watercolouring later (check my blog post on watercolors here). I’ve used my favorite stamps at the moment: beautiful sentiments and stunning whimsical images by the uber talented Jane Davenport.

OPTION 2: USING GELLI PLATE PRINTS

I lalso really ike to make my cards out of left over pieces of cardstock from my mountain stack of gelli plate prints (I will cover this on a future post in more detail). The paint prints offer you a ready-made background which you can then stamp on or use your choice of die cut stickers for an even quicker job. The stunning texture you get from gelli prints always wins me over and makes it look as though you’ve spent ages prepping the background, when it will really only take you a couple of minutes - shhhhhhh, no one needs to know that :) .

OPTION 3: USING PRETTY PAPER PADS

Combine your favorite designer papers with sentiment stickers, or make your own out of sentiment stamp sets. My all time favorite is Tim Holtz’s Tiny Text - if you can only afford one set of stamps, this one will cover you for a long long time, and for more than just quote cards (it’s great for greeting cards and journaling too)!

OPTION 4: USING DIE CUT AND STICKER BOOKS

For super quick creations use either a plain piece of cardstock or one of the options above to create your base backgroun and then decorate it using your favorite die cut collections.

In this video, I introduce you to the Memorydex Spinner and its companion punch and explain the exact dimensions you want to use for the cards so they glide all the way around perfectly.

The Heidi Swapp punch is very popular and often sells out for periods of time. If that is the case at the time you are reading this, there are some good alternatives in the links at the bottom of this articele, in the form of:

• Rolodex style cutting dies if you want to make your own fancy edge cards with the correct Memorydex slots. The one in the example above is a super adorable set and if you pair it with your favorite stickers, you can create a fab card in under 5 minutes! For this card I used these Art by Marlene sticker books.

• some stunning ready-made Heidi Swapp cards designed to just slot in to the Memorydex - you can colour them in or write on them, and some are gorgeous as dividers just as they are

• Memorydex envelopes so you can keep any cards, photos or other memorabilia inside without having to perforate it to fit into the spinner.