I remember as a kid my grandparents had this long white, deep chest freezer that was in their basement with a single naked light bulb hanging above it. I imagined it would have been a good place to hide anything you never wanted someone to find. Inside the freezer were bags, and bags of tin foiled covered food that was older than I was. Layers and layers of freezer burned meats that had been on sale and vegetables from seasons ago. My grandparents grew up during the depression, so saving every last scrap of food was imperative to their survival even though they now were going grocery shopping every week. There was a an old metal coffee can next to the stove top for them to scrape their bacon fat into. And when it was full, it was placed carefully into that chest freezer in case the end of the world was tomorrow.
In their 'root cellar' were countless Bell jars full of preserves. I'm talking countless. Many shelves high and stacked to the back wall like a grocery aisle. I can vividly remember my grandparents working together like a machine to seal up jars and jars of pickles, beans, tomatoes, corn, everything from their huge garden every summer at their Winnipesaukee lake house. I don't know when they were planning on eating all that food, but it was there "just in case." It must of been done out of habit. I remember thinking that I was never going to waste my time preserving food, or freezing it. It seemed to silly when I could just go to the store and get a fresh rotisserie chicken, and a bag of pre-made salad.
I grew up on a dairy farm but was very uninterested in the business and concepts as a teenager. My mom spent hours in her gardens. She has the greenest thumb. She knows how to sew anything, cook everything and has a mean creative edge. I was never interested in what she was doing but certainly retained most of the information through what must of been osmosis.
I've come drastically far since I used to think those silly thoughts and now am more interested in all the things I didn't like as a younger woman. I don't know if it's part of my dna, or if all that work my family did in their gardens and craft rooms was imprinted onto me.
Because, I am in love with the idea of freezing food for later, canning for gifts, sewing, glue gunning, and stretching myself creatively.

I created this blog for my future and because of my past.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Card keeper.


Our friend's son turned one, and we were invited to his Halloween inspired birthday party.  I always want to try and give a thoughtful gift - and it's hard shopping for a boy turning one - who has many cousins, family, and friends who know what he needs, and knows what is appropriate.  Tom and I wanted to get something for the parents, because we both felt like surviving the first year of parenting is a way bigger deal then turning one.  Let's face it, your kid isn't going to remember turning one - but you will.  So, I decided to make something (surprise!) for the parents, something they could keep and cherish, and actually USE!  I chose to make birthday card holders for his first five birthdays (and I'll refer to them as booklets)!  I'm hoping to be able to give him the next five (ages 6-10) at his fifth birthday party....

Birthday cards are always something I want to keep - but it gets to a point when I'm kinda like, what the hell am I keeping these for, they are all un-organized, and end up throwing them out.  I imagine if I had a child, I would want to keep every card they get, every year - not only to make writing thank you notes to people easier, but to remember who was there to help celebrate each year.
I started out by buying the most kick-ass paper at Michael's and picking out some stickers, and other items from their scrap booking section to decorate.  I could have spent a hundred dollars on stuff in the scrap booking aisle, by the way. 
I had a really hard time finding the clasps for the holders, but they were in the jewelry section.  I wish I could have gotten a gauge smaller, but these were the only ones they had.
I found some card board boxes we had and dissembled it so it lay flat.  I found a card that I had, and traced it over a piece of cardboard (I used cereal boxes, and beer boxes...hey, it's all we had).  The weight of this cardboard is just right for this sort of project.  You need to card board to provide support for the birthday cards that will be put between, and it's something to glue the paper too.  I imagine if you used a heavier weight card board, it would be too much.  But, it's up to you.
Then I used that one piece as the template to trace out the rest of the card board pieces that I needed (which was 10, front and back for the first five years) on the rest of the card board.  Then I took those pieces of cardboard, placed them on the paper and cut out two pieces of paper (front and back).  I decided to use two kinds of paper for each booklet.  I had each kind of paper on the "inside" and "outside" of the card board pieces. 
card board as paper template






The picture below is how I decided to use the paper.  I cut out the two pieces of each kind of paper, and glued one print on the "inside" of the booklet, and the other print on the "outside" of the booklet.  I found this more visually pleasing then having the "inside" be the same print, and the "outside" be the same print.  You can mix and match paper how ever you want, there is no right way to do something like this.  It's going to look great any way you glue it.




My scrap booking aisle selections

Above are the glued paper card board piece.  Starting at the top of the picture, every two pieces are for one booklet.

Here's the deal with punching the holes.  Please heed my advice:  Punch only the "front" of the booklet's holes BEFORE you decorate.  And only do the front one at first.
Then decide if you want two or three holes - two would work just fine for this sort of thing.  If you do something bigger (maybe you want to cards to sit inside the card board, so you cut the card board bigger and not to size of the card for example) go with three, and punch the middle hole out first. 
Okay, then punch ONE hole in ONE of the paper covered cardboard pieces.  Then get something straight, preferably a ruler - and put the ruler through the middle of your first punched hole - so it's parallel to the top of the card - then with a pencil make a little dot where you want to second hole.  Mine were about three inches apart.  By running the ruler through the middle of the first hole and marking it with you pencil, then you can use that as the center mark for your hole for the second punch.  Also, don't punch out the back until you are all done decorating.  I didn't do this, and had to re punch the backs because I just eyed it....oops.....Then you just lay the front on top of the back and punch right through the holes you already made - so they are all lined up, and straight, and neat for the clasps.

Then I just went to town decorating!  I labeled each booklet with a number to represent his birthday, in letters - 'one', 'two', 'three', etc.  You could do something like this how ever you wanted.  I almost went with "first birthday", "second birthday", etc....but didn't have enough letters!!

Here are some close-ups of each year....







I also personalized a decorative photo box to keep these booklets in.

The letters I used were also in the scrap booking section and were self- adhesive.  They are WAY cool.  They almost have little zen-tangles inside.   And of course, I had to throw in some Dr. Seuss!  by the way, I misspelled zen-tangles at first and my auto correct picked it up!  Awesome.

I wrote our friends a little note on what these were, it's not too obvious to the untrained eye.  But, a verbal explanation in front of the party will certainly make you sound much more crafty!

They loved it.  I hope they actually use it!  I think I might have to make a few of these for myself!!

Happy crafting
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)