A Message Box for Father’s Day

I found the most gorgeous antique trade card with an illustration of a fisherman camped along the river bank. Then I remembered that I also had an image of a fishing creel in one of my old printer’s stock art catalogues. I knew these would be just perfect for creating a Father’s Day Message Box.A message box can be filled with all kinds of loving notes, photos, trinkets and mementos to share with someone special. These boxes hold anything the size of a standard business card or smaller.

A few years ago, I designed a few message boxes for Mother’s Day. You will need to follow that tutorial for putting together this one for Father’s Day. The instructions are HERE. For this box, download the PDF file by clicking on the template image below.

Print the template onto cardstock using your printer’s finest settings. Carefully cut out the template pieces.

Score or cut along designated lines and fold along the scores. If you do a lot of paper crafting, I highly recommend the Martha Stewart Scoring Board.Assemble the pieces as shown in the instruction link above. Use grommets to reinforce holes in box and gift tag.Fill with kindness & gratitude, then thread some Divine Twine through the grommets,and tie closed.Use the little labels to customize the box.Here is the cleaned-up image of the antique trade card (click to enlarge), and the vintage creel and fish clip art.

You can design your own message box using the blank template from the Mother’s Day Message Box post. If you make a message box, I would love to see it.

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Craft Studio Organizing: Ribbons

THE PROBLEM:

I have lots and lots of unorganized ribbon.

When I work on projects involving ribbon, I never know how much of any particular ribbon I have at a glance and keeping those cardboard spools and loose ribbon in any sort of system has yet to work for me. And if I make a permanent fixture for my ribbon, it won’t be easy to schlep organized ribbon from studio to dining room (where I pretty much take over the entire room for days on end.)

THE SOLUTION:

The drapery-ring-cup-hook-yardstick organizer!

I added cup hooks to an old yardstick (pre-drill holes for screwing in hooks along inchmarks.) The yardstick had holes on each end so hung that from Command Wire Hooks.

I have a good amount of vintage wooden drapery rings picked up on the cheap here and there.

I unrolled all my ribbon spools, untangled the piles of random pieces elsewhere and slid each through a ring to its halfway point. Some super long sections were folded double then slid through. I then hung each draper ring from the cup holders by their eye screws in rainbow order.Then, when I need to take specific colored ribbon into the dining room (such as a Valentine palette,) I simply remove the rings from their hooks and run them onto another yardstick, tucking that high into my bookcase, using heavy books to hold it in place.I’ve been using this system for a few weeks now and I’m loving it. I can tell instantly what ribbon options I have for any project. It does take up a big 36″ section of my studio,  but it’s worth it.

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Vintage Street Market Guest Designer

Because you know I adore vintage, I was so excited to work with Vintage Street Market as a guest designer. I used their goodies to doll up one of my little toy wagons with handmade parade rosettes and pennants.And, I dolled-up an old ledger into something sew much more fun!You can see all the details on the Vintage Street Market site HERE. Be warned, you may get hooked on the goods!

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