Birthday Card Organizer

I like making something from things that would ordinarily be thrown away. I love "found object" art as well.  I saw an idea on another blog (I'm sorry, I can't remember which one. If you recognize this project as similar to another one you've seen please let me know and I will give a link to that project as well.) to make a birthday card organizer.  I love making cards and it would be great to make them in advance and put them into a little file for sending when the time comes.  I started looking for a little box to alter and found that the boxes that hold the little "K cups" are perfect for this purpose.

Here is my completed project: 

 

 

In order to do this, I used the K cup box and took off the lid. 

 

 

I covered the box in paper, and because I wanted a rather shabby chic kind of look, I used different papers on the front, back, and sides. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also covered the insides of the box with coordinating paper so it would have a more finished look. 

 

I then cut out squares to fit the box from chipboard, and covered those with paper.  I'm not big on using rulers to measure so I just traced around each piece of chipboard.  

 

 

I made twelve of these pieces, one for each month. 

 

 

I then inked each one, and added a tab at the top with the month, and a piece of lined paper to put the names and dates for each birthday for that month so I could see at a glance the birthdays that were coming up.

 

 

I used Spellbinder's dies for the circles, Tim Holtz distress ink in antique linen and tattered rose, and a variety of patterned paper that I had scraps of lying around.  This is a good project to use up scraps!

 

I hope this system helps me become more organized.  I don't usually forget birthdays, but I do find myself often scrambling to make a card at the last minute.  Perhaps this will help me to have some cards prepared in advance.  One can always hope!