birthday/organization challenge

 

Happy New Year! With the new year comes so many ideas of what thing I want to accomplish and focus on in the year ahead. Nichole put a challenge out to the Papertrey Ink senior design team to look at our card sending organizational system - specifically with birthdays in mind. I pretty much use the same system for all my card sending and so I thought I would share that with all of you. Now I have to admit that so many times, I am making cards about 10 minutes before I need to walk out the door! I can be on top of it and get things done ahead of time, though, when I use the system that I do have.

I picked up these baskets years ago and have always used them to file my cards into. For the challenge I created some new card dividers to spruce my baskets up and to organize my cards stash more. I can also see a bit more clearly what kinds of cards I am running low on. I can definitely see that I do not need to focus on making cards for the "just because" section - they are taking up almost a whole basket on their own! For the wording on each divider, I thought about using alphabet stamps to spell everything out, but then after thinking about it, I just went to my stamp sets and easily found every caption I needed! Perfect! I also keep a seasonal basket to put whatever card I am working on for something coming up - like Valentine's day. I just toss tags, cards, packaging, etc into the basket as I am making it. That way I can easily grab and go when I am getting my cards and gifts ready.

 

The dividers measure 5"x6" and are 2 layers of cardstock stitched together to make them a little more sturdy. I used the 1 3/4" circle punch for the tabs on each divider.

So what's my system exactly? I really rely on lists (that I update pretty regularly) to get myself moving on anything I need to get done and this applies to cards I need to get out in the mail too. If it's on the list, it is more likely to get done and/or mailed out when it needs to. I have a basket of envelopes near the cards (and I also have a general envelope drawer in my stamp area) to pull the envelope I need. I do most of my mailing at the grocery store near me that has a post office desk and I get the postage that I need when I am there because we never seem to have postage stamps when I need them! More than often, many of the birthday cards that I give are hand delivered and that's my favorite way to do it.

 

Here's a birthday card design that I put together for some recent birthdays. I need to make more of this design for my baskets, as these cards are already or will be soon delivered to their recipients!

Are you inspired to get yourself organized for your card sending this year? Make sure you visit the other senior design team members for more inspiration and ideas: Nichole, Lisa, Michelle, Debbie, and Lauren.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Blue Flower Birthday Cards

stamps: Beautiful Blooms, Birthday Basics, Faux Ribbon, Polka Dot Basics (Papertrey Ink)

ink: Ocean Tides, Fresh Snow (Papertrey Ink), Jet Black Archival (Ranger)

cardstock: white, kraft, Ocean Tides (Papertrey Ink), Basic Black (Stampin' Up!)

other: Ocean Tides stitched ribbon (Papertrey Ink), wide oval punch (Stampin' Up!), 1/4" black grosgrain ribbon, buttons, linen thread, white acrylic paint, dimensionals

card dimensions: 4 1/4" x 4 1/4"