Thursday, March 24, 2011

Gift a Handmade Collection of Cards

As much as I can, I like to make the gifts I give.  This card catalogue is something that I made for my mom.  She loves sending cards so I tried to make her a little of everything: thinking of you, congratulations, welcome baby, thank you, birthday wishes, in sympathy ....

I chose this plastic expandable file (that I found at the dollar store) because I loved the patterned circles on it and it had the right number of tabs inside.  I had actually spent a bit of time looking around for a really nice folder couldn't believe it when I found it at the dollar store!
















I labeled the inside tabs so the cards would be easy to find.

















I searched around online to find the most simple, image free calender I could find (similar to this one) and then printed it on heavy white card stock.  I filed it at the front of the folder so that my mom could quickly reference it if she needed to.   

















I also took the time to compile a list of all family members and close friends and typed out a list, highlighted by month, of all their birth dates and anniversaries.  I had to be little sneaky because I had to borrow my mom's address book and get it back without her knowing it had ever been gone - stressful, but successful :o)

















The last part was creating the cards.  This took many evenings of cutting up old cards and fun scrapbooking paper, stamping, chalking, sparkling (probably not a word) and mounting to my heart's content.  I had never chalked stamped cards before and they actually turned out really neat!  I also dusted off and experimented with many of the paper cutters and scissors that had been sitting idle and forgotten for eons on a bookcase in the basement. 

















As part of the presentation of the cards and their envelopes, I stuffed them into plastic sleeves (biodegradable ones made of corn) that I had bought to keep the cards clean and to lend them a more "professional" look :o)  I slotted the cards into the corresponding file divider and wrapped it up.  Needless to say she was very pleased and spent time looking at each "work of art" :o)  

Now to make one for myself ... 

- Kristin - 

4 comments:

  1. What a fantastic idea! I've linked to your post on my blog! :)

    http://vegasnarcissist.blogspot.com/2011/03/handmade-collection-of-cards.html

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  2. That is an awesome idea, thanks for sharing.

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  3. This is a great idea. I can think of many people in my family who would love this gift. I also like that you recycled old cards, I hate to throw them away, but think it is silly to keep them all, this is a great solution.

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  4. It's great post...thanks for sharing....

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