Cat's Outta the Bag...er, Box...

There's only one thing to do when you spy a sturdy box lying around your house, especially when it looks to be just the perfect size for storing cards. You turn this...

Into...the masterpiece you see below!!!

So, really quickly, here's what I did...I measured the width of the front of the box, and cut the Designer Prints Blue Bayou paper about an inch wider than it needed to be. Then I measured from the bottom of the box to the tip of the open flap on the front, and cut the paper about an inch longer for that dimension also. Then I scored the bottom of the paper at about 1/2", to tuck it under the bottom of the box, and I adhered it just along the bottom of the box, as you'll see below:


Only the bottom folded under part of the paper is adhered at this point. Then I turned the box over onto the paper and used a bone folder to trace the edges of the box onto the paper, as you can see in the picture below:


After that, I put adhesive on the areas that would be folded around the edges, and then just folded them down! I used my Paper Snips here and there to snip in a little bit where there were sharp corners, so I could fold those in at an angle. In the picture below, you'll see how I folded carefully around the tab at the top of the box--I wanted to preserve the closure. I did the same on the other side of the box, cutting carefully around the slit where this tab gets inserted to close the box.


So, after covering the front and back of the box with Designer Series Paper, I covered the two sides with Blue Bayou card stock in the same manner. As I looked at the top, I didn't like how plain the closure tab looked, so I gave it sort of a "buckle" appearance. I adhered Designer Series Paper to Blue Bayou card stock to give it some extra weight, then punched it out with the Scallop Circle Punch, layered a 5-Petal Punched piece of Soft Sky on that, and then put a Rhinestone Brad in the center. I used Stampin' Dimensionals on only half of the scalloped piece, which was adhered to the box top side with the tab. Only adhering one side of the scalloped piece allows the other side to lay over the tab closure, and "hide" it, or pretty it up a bit.

And that's how I turned a "cat box" into a treasure chest for storing my greeting cards! My plan is to fill the box with pre-made Thank You, Happy Birthday, and other greeting cards so that I can have them at my fingertips when I want to use them. I'm such a procrastistamper, I never have a card ready for surprise occasions!

If you're not comfortable doing all the cutting and measuring on the fly, but you love the idea of a customized card box, contact me to order a Forget-Me-Not Keeper and some Designer Series Paper in your favorite color(s). I can give you an instruction sheet with specific measurements so you can create your own masterpiece in a snap!