yearly cards

I am the person that is always stopping at Walgreens or Target on the day of someone's birthday to pick up a card. Why do I do this to myself? In an effort to simplify my life, I am making a push to get more organized. Today, I'm sharing how I plan to reach my goal of never sending a "belated birthday card" ever again.

I was talking with my dear friend Molly the other day about how nice it would be to keep a few birthday, anniversary, sympathy (etc.) cards on hand for when I need them. She mentioned how great it would be to buy all of your cards for a year at once and have them ready for when you need them. HOW BRILLIANT! I started working on it immediately. I constructed a list of birthdays and anniversaries and then went out shopping.

 ... what I bought ... 1) an Avery mini binder (I couldn't resist the smaller size) 2) mini binder page protectors (pack of 15) 3) mini sticky notes (I usually have these on hand but I ran out) 4) a BUNCH of cards (mainly birthday & anniversary)
... making my card binder ... I made individual labels for each month with the persons name & birthday on it. I stuck this sticky note to the bottom of each page protecter. I then labeled each card for who it was meant for and slid the cards into their monthly sleeves (this took up 12 of my 15 sleeves).

Next I made a sleeve for anniversary cards & sympathy cards. My final sleeve was used for niece/nephew birthday cards. These are also labeled with names and already have cash in them for when we go to their birthday parties. This will also eliminate a trip to the bank to get cash on the day of the party.
Once everything was organized, I made a little cover with my rubber stamps and a leftover paint swatch.

I slid my card binder into my "mail center" (the top right cubby of our Ikea Stall - which is meant for shoe storage) and did a little happy dance.

All in all, I'm feeling so organized already. I still have a few cards to pick up (since I'm stock piling cards for the rest of this year and all of next year). Here's hoping I'll never send another late card again!

[p.s. this post may be linked to any number of these blogs]

paint swatch notebooks

I have a lot of paint swatches around (from numerous projects) and I decided that I either needed to 1) throw them away or 2) do something with them. So of course... I found a something to do with them. I saw these little paint swatch note books and thought they were a fun, functional idea.

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Here is what you'll need to make your own:

paint swatches

ruler

stapler

exacto knife

cutting mat

scissors and/or paper cutter

paper for the insides (I used plain and graph)

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