The problem that led me to making the mail sorter is that when I come in with the mail, I open/sort it on my radiator and then leave it in one big pile. Messy and easy to lose something important. As you can see in the picture, if it weren’t for my cat Lucy, the whole radiator would probably be covered in boxes filled with mail and other stuff to go upstairs.

The Cereal Box Mail Organizer is my solution! The idea is the same as the original pin, but I went a step further, and continued to cut down the boxes, so that the front box is 4″ shorter and the middle box is 2″ shorter than the back box. I also cut them so that the fronts of the boxes are 2″ shorter than the backs so that I could see what is in the box. Glued them all together, covered them in patterned paper, embellished with ribbon and some sticky alphas, and inked the edges. All products are Stampin’ Up! except for the sticky alphas which are from Webster’s Pages.

So now the boxes are upstairs, and the mail is sorted, and Lucy has even more radiator available to spread out. She takes her duties as Chief Radiator Guard very seriously and all that pesky clutter was distracting her for doing her job.

On Pinterest? I’d love it if you followed me - I always follow back. Still waiting for a Pinterest invite? Email me and I’ll send one over.

Well, sort of got creating. I first had to fight my dog Albie for the sticks a few times. I came home from work one day to find them scattered throughout the house and half chewed on. I rescued what I could and THEN got creating.

To start I hot glued the twigs together, then added some pretty patterned paper from Webster’s Pages behind the twigs as a base. Then I embellished the front with some stickers and a small tag, and added some linen thread to tie it all together.

Now, this started out as a tag, but it was a bit bulky for that and as I looked at it I like the idea of it being a keepsake instead. So I put some eyelets in at the top, dyed some twill tape green and attached it to the tag so it could be hung.

So, this didn’t get picked for the magazine, but I love this piece anyway…from the natural feel to the bright pop of color from the paper in the background.

For the lid, I folded over  and stitched the edges to make it look like sewn together leather. For the photo, I used a trick I learned at a Creating Keepsakes convention…to ink the photo…which gives it a nice aged look, and helps it coordinate with the box. In fact, everything on this box is generously distressed with a sanding block and inked edges.

For the sides of the box, I used some nice handmade paper that had little leaves and flowers in it.

Inside the box I glued lots of pieces of Stampin’ Up!’s First Edition DSP.

And I covered the whole thing with Mod Podge to protect it and after it dried attached the travel embellishments.

I made this so long ago (June!) that I’ve forgotten what ink colors I used to distress the paper and what brands of embellishments I used. Bad blogger!

The hydrangeas are made using the 1 3/4″ Scallop Circle punch – 5 green circles, and 4 blue circles crinkled up and glued together. I then sponged them with Old Olive and Marina Mist ink and spritzed with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz. In between are little flowers made using the Boho Blossoms punch.

The inside is also decorated with lots of little Boho Blossoms flowers – they help hide where the paper on the inside doesn’t line up perfectly. Nice trick, huh?

On the bottom I used the largest pearls from the Basic Pearls as feet.

The edges of the box are sponged with Crumb Cake and the whole box is spritzed with Gold Glow Smooch Spritz.

So…not feeling the hybrid Fun and Cute scrapbook page today. I’ve got a fun card planned for tomorrow though, so I haven’t abandoned Fun and Cute week yet. It is hard to believe that NaBloPoMo is almost over…only 3 more posts!

Versamark on Watercolor Paper. Background colored with a retired blue watercolor wonder crayon & an Aquapainter, the rest of the snowman colored with Garden Green, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, and Basic Black ink and a Blender Pen. You can’t see it in the photo, but I also used Illuminate Smooch for the snowman and ground. (I love Illuminate Smooch…have you tried it yet? You must. Excellent alternative to glitter.)

This was a fun and fairly easy project to complete. It is covered in retired holiday paper, Chocolate Chip cardstock for the trim, chocolate waffle paper for the roof, and Illuminate Smooch on all the trim to give it a glimmer.

I do have some tips on assembling the house:

1. The instructions say to adhere the paper to the chipboard before assembling. I would add one thing – since every piece has some sort of score line, I adhered one “face” at a time. I didn’t do that on the first piece I put together (the chimney) and because the paper was glued on so tight, it sort of cracked a bit at the bend. So on the remaining pieces, I’d glue, bend, glue.
2. Getting the roof on centered side-to-side and front-to-back is a bit tricky if you remove the backing on all the sticky strip for the roof. For future ones I’m going to adhere the front side first, and once I know it is in good position, then take off the backing on the sticky strip on the rear part of the roof.
3. A good part of the roof is exposed, so be sure to cover about 1/2″ to 1″ of the underside with paper too.
4. A coordinating marker does a good job of covering up the white edges of the chipboard. I used Soft Suede here. I also used the marker to color the inside of the chimney.
5. A flame less tea light inside may seem like a good idea, but it just makes it look like the house is on fire. Need to work on that idea bit – maybe cover the tea light up a bit?

“The classy and elegant style is polished. A shiny finish, sparkling embellishments, a rich color scheme, and sophisticated sentiment treatments are all part of the classy and elegant pedigree. Its look is regal, stunning, and dashing. And while its lines are clean, sweeping, and dramatic, it can also incorporate monochromatic color schemes with layered textures that awe and impress equally as well.”

Here’s this weeks 3D item. Again I seem to be treading a line between shabby and classy.

I thought the “a little wiser” sentiment was perfect for a bookmark, because I like to think that reading makes us all a bit smarter. The owl was colored using Chcolate Chip classic ink and an AquaPainter. The paper is Shimmery White (which is hard to see in the photo) and I added the buttons to give it some color. This could probably use something else on the bottom edge, but wanting to add, add, add is what turned the first bookmark into a totally different style. I cut about 3/4″ off the bottom  so that it wouldn’t look as unfinished.

Tomorrow, Clean and Graphic digital card.

Some tips for distressing DSP. I used similar inks to the colors appear in the DSP. So for the rose print on the front, I started with Pink Pirouette, layered on Old Olive, and then finished off with some Crumb Cake. Crumb Cake is a fantastic color to give a grubby aged look without making everything too dark.

Because of the demands of NABLOPOMO, I’m skipping recipes for November. Leave a comment if you have a question about any of the products or techniques used!