Today I would like to share with you a gift a made for two lovely young women, that are serving a mission here in Victoria, BC. Actually it is two gifts, as they each received one. They are identical on the outside, but the inside holds most everything different from each other.
As a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, and instructor at Scrapbook Essentials, BC, I end up with a ton of cards! Some I sell and many I give away as sets for gifts. I was expecting these two young ladies over at my place and thought that as missionaries they could always use cards! Especially 'Thank You' cards, and I have a lot of those. I chose 18 cards each, and then thought I had to give them the cards in a nice box, and not just tied up with ribbon in a bag.
So next was what kind of box, and what would make it a box that they could keep and use over and over again? It had to look good on a desk or on a shelf somewhere. It had to be eye catching but simple. It had to be neat and clean looking. If it where to be used over and over again, what would the box need to make access to the cards easy without creating stress on the opening of the box? Then I remembered this box. I only had to modify the idea to meet the requirements for this box.
So out came my sketchbook, and I drew my new idea and figured out the measurements needed. To make it sturdy to last longer, I had to add additional cardstock panels on the inside and bottom to give it more strength. So I figured those out too.
And this is the result!
As I assembled them, I began to think that these would look lovely on my shelves, too! A place to keep my cards all in the same box, labeled with the type of card in the box - birthday, thank you, sympathy, thinking of you, and so on. If I made them all the same colour or combination of colours, my shelves would look a lot neater, without seeing cards stacked in clear bins.
The amazing thing about these boxes, is that the front folds down, and the panels that lay flat when opened, could also have a card list for the year added to them. This way you could have one box with all the cards you need for the year! Then when the year is over, just go to the other card boxes to pull out the cards needed for the next year! So one box would act as a card organizer for the year, while the others would be easily accessible card storage.
So here, in the next photo, you can see that you could access the cards from the top, but...
...if you pull down the front flap, you can get them even easier. You can see that the 18 cards with envelopes in this box, do not take up all the space, And, some of those cards are thick. If the cards are fairly flat, you could probably get 24 cards with envelopes in there easily.
Now, I know some you will want to make these for yourself or in a class. Please be patient and I will get the instructions out there for you as soon as I can. In the mean time, keep creating those lovely cards to fill up some of these boxes with!
Happy creating!
