Crafty Card Organization

Today's project was both crafty and organizes--WAHOO! I love it when that happens!

I've never known what to do with greeting cards that we receive. I want to keep them, but I'm trying my hardest to manage clutter and didn't have a good solution. I usually just keep them in a box but it wasn't the prettiest thing and to be honest they were just a cluttered mess inside a box.  

I found this project from Kayla Danelle and it looked simple and solved my problem. I decided to start with all the cards that our daughter has received (she's only a year old so it sounded manageable!). Like I always do, I first searched my craft stash and then made my list for Hobby Lobby (man, I should be getting paid for these daily endorsements but, alas, I'm just doing it because I heart the Hob Lob).

I had some scrapbooking embellishments so all I needed was the heavy duty cardboard for the front and back cover, the chipboard letters, acid-free glue, and the rings.  

Simple stuff. I used my utility knife to cut two pieces of the cardboard (think super thick poster board) a bit bigger than an average card. I then used a hole punch to punch holes in both the front and back cover and embellished the front. That's it! I bought the biggest rings that they had but I know you can get much bigger ones. I'll probably have to switch to a bigger size in the future but this should work for now. After the "book" is done just hole punch the cards and slip them between the covers on the rings. Now they're all organized and easy to find and look through when I'm feeling sentimental. I think I'll do our wedding cards next--it's about time I get them out of that ugly box!

Do you keep your cards? How do you organize them?  

Use What You Have...

Today's post was inspired by my late Great Grandma Milton, or Ma Milton as she preferred to be called. I have such fond memories of her and rarely a day goes by that I don't think of her. She was an amazing woman and resourceful beyond imagination. We are still impressed that we could open her cabinets and they would appear all but bare and then she could somehow whip up a meal fit for a king. Grandma worked hard her entire life and enjoyed the simple things. I miss her so much.

Grandma lived by these words:

Begin where you are, use what you have, and do the best that you can. ~ Irene Milton        

As I was looking for a piece to balance out my mantel (I'm a symmetry girl, what can I say?) I decided to "use what I had and do the best that I could." I gathered up the dried lavender that I had purchased fresh at the beginning of Summer and had hung to dry, a spool of leftover burlap ribbon, a rubber band, and a canning jar. And this is what I came up with...

I put the rubber band around the canning jar and stuck the lavender stems in it. Then, I covered the rubber band with the burlap ribbon and hot glued the ends. That's it. I set it up on a candle holder base to give it the height that I needed.  

I think I'll pick up some lavender oil to refresh the scent a bit but, other than that, the project was completely free.

TIP: Always, always, always shop your home before you decide to purchase something new.  Sometimes just moving something from one location to another gives it a whole new life. Or, maybe change something up--if you don't like it or aren't currently using it as it is use your imagination and make it something you will use. It saves you money and you're not bringing 'more stuff' into your space.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin' Rosettes!

Today's Pinterest Project was inspired by The Idea Room.  I chose it because I liked the way it looked and thought it would make inexpensive decorations for our daughters upcoming Olivia themed 1st birthday party.  It was very easy to make and budget friendly!

I already had a styrofoam ball and glue for my glue gun.  All that I had to purchase was the crepe paper which was $1.99 at Target.  Hobby Lobby did have bigger rolls for only 99 cents but they didn't have red.

The only change I made was that I didn't fold the crepe paper like The Idea Room suggested.  It went pretty fast, once I got the hang of rolling the rosettes.  I also found out that I suffered fewer glue gun burns when I put the glue directly on the ball rather than the rosette.  I'm not quite sure how I am going to use it yet.  I'm either going to attach some ribbon and hang it, or use the black stand shown in the picture.

The black stand is another project that I did years ago.  The top is a cheese board and the bottom was an ugly green candle holder.  Both items were purchased during Garnett City Wide Garage Sales--so my apologies if the 'ugly green candle holder' belonged to you.  I painted both pieces black and used Gorilla Glue to attach them.  I hot glued the ends of some red polka dot ribbon around the base (shown above) so that I could remove it after the party.

To wrap it up, this was a fun project that only cost me $1.99 (and I still have materials left!) and I'm pretty sure I'll use it at Elia's birthday party.  I worked on it throughout the day but I would think its could be done in a couple of hours (while watching TV)--it's a perfect 'multi-tasking' project!