How to organise cards.

I've always been someone who likes everything organised and in its place and I have a box which stores piles of old cards and special notes which I can't bare to part with. However with Henry's birth and the baby shower and dedication, cards were just piling up. I recently read about the idea of not having items that don't spark joy and some people may just throw cards away,  I really treasure them.

I wanted to make sure I kept them in an accessible way so I can refer back to them and keep them together. Too much love and kind words were in these cards to stow them away in the bottom of a box.

After trying several options for organising cards in the past (including gluing cards in notebooks, scrapbooking and using photo albums), I've decided on a favourite way- using hinged rings.

A box of these set me back about $12 from Officeworks but the 30 hinged rings I have should last me through a first, second and third birthdays and then ....30th birthdays.
I used the original invitations as the front covers of the cards and holepunched through them all, before joining the cards using the hinged rings. As we received so many cards when Henry was born that I actually sorted the cards into sizes before hinging them and making three piles. The photo below shows the different books of cards but I haven't shown you the cover invites as they contain personal addresses etc. For Henry's birth cards there was obviously no invitation so I attached a copy of the announcement card we sent out when he was born.

These cards are now stored in a white box on my office shelf- .ready to refer back to if I need a good read and one day Henry and I can read through them together. I will definitely be doing this in the future for when we get cards for other special occasions.

Lisa x
P.s Don't forget to enter the giveaway below, it's still open for a few days :)

Onesie thank you notes.

There is something special and wonderful about snail mail. My dear friend Leah threw me a baby shower the other weekend and I wanted to thank those people who gave me gifts at my baby shower with a little bit of snail mail love. After looking through those available in the local stores, I felt the need to make my own. These thank you notes are so easy to make and I think look rather cute and lovely. For those on a thrifty budget, they cost nothing much to make and still show people that you appreciate their generosity. I'm always going to be someone who prefers the homemade.

To make thank you cards like this (or this idea could be used for an invite too) you need:

scissors

pen

buttons

cardboard

craft glue

very small foam pads

plain cards

If you are a craft addict like me, you probably already have all these items in your stash. If not these items can be purchased from your local cheap store.

I used the pen to freehand a onesie on a piece of cardboard (I choose to use striped brown cardboard but whatever you have will work). Then I used this onesie as an outline and cut out a whole bunch more. 

I had some plain white cards from the local cheap shop and I cut them in half to make mini cards. Then I attached the onesies using two small sticky foam pads. This way the onesies stand out a bit and it all just looks a bit more professional. For a finishing touch, I choose two coloured buttons from my button jar for each onesie and used craft glue to stick them on. I also made a few extra using some pretty patterned cardboard cut from a gift box I received.

Then write a loving little note and send them on their merry way :) Thank you notes are always a bit time consuming but I hope people enjoy the little snail mail they receive. Are you into snail mail and sending out thank you cards or do you prefer just a message or word of thanks?

Lisa x

Homemade Christmas cards.

There is something really special about homemade cards. I love making unique cards for friends and family who appreciate the homemade. For far this festive season I've been working on two design types which channel my love for vintage and second hand.

A few weeks back at a garage sale I was fortunate enough to thrift a small travel scabble set. These pieces inspired some scrabble cards. If you are not familiar with my love of scrabble pieces, check out my scrabble sign, scrabble coasters, scrabble magnets, scrabble thumb tacks and scrabble chalk board. You can tell I'm always on the lookout for old scrabble boards.

I've made a range of cards but these were three of my favourites. For the background I used pictures I had found in an old version of Frankie magazine. I'm more a 'true meaning of Christmas' type and tend to avoid Santa related things but this vintage Santa print was too adorable to pass. I trimmed the backgrounds to size and glued them on blank cards. Then I used magic dots to attach the letters.

My second style of cards was inspired by love of animals in Christmas hats. I found second hand cards (and Peter Alexander pyjama wrapping) with cute pictures and cut them to fit little wooden frames that I picked up from cheap as chips ( they're two dollars for three). I used magic dots to put the pictures in place and then regular UHU glue to stick the frames on. Some of my cards also had backgrounds, especially with the smaller frames.

I love these little cards and how much more special they are than a packet of 20 cards from a local store.

Enjoy creating your own Christmas cards.

Lisa x

P.S I'm linking up with
The Dedicated House