Another recipe box - wait! It's a CARD box instead!!!

Today I am showing you a card box for a friend of mine for Christmas.  I haven't seen her since before Christmas, so it works!  She used to babysit my children, so I have a special bond with her.  Her sons and I went to school together too!  When she babysat for me, I got her hooked on stamping.  She's a very simple stamper, doesn't have to have all the millions of stamps out there, all the ribbon, all the embellishments.  Yet her cards are very sweet and you know they come from the heart.  So, I wanted to make her something special, and thought that she could use a box to store her cards in until she's ready to send them out.  I have acquired quite a few recipe boxes.  Well, really they are just file boxes found at your local office supply store.  I think I mentioned that before... Anyway, I can't find them at MY local office supply store, so I am constantly on the hunt and when I spy them, I buy several!  Just in case!  So, back to my story.  So I have this file box, and if you read my blog, you know that I have made several, I think it's up to 7 recipe boxes now!  So, that's my thing it seems like.  But, I didn't want to make ANOTHER recipe box.  Even though my friend is a great cook!  I thought about her cards, and I formulated a plan to make it a CARD box instead!  There are 18 slots to fill, so every two are the same thing.  It makes for more storage per subject, ok?!  ;)
Here are my subjects:  Stamps (postage); envelopes; Holidays; Thinking of You; Thanks; Weddings & Anniversaries; Sympathy; Birthdays; and Blank (for note cards).  All stamps are from Kitchen Sink Stamps, by the way.....!  I used the following sets: Mix It Up!, Letters from the Past; 3 Step Hibiscus; 3 Step Poinsetta; 3 Step Hearts & Roses; Never A Loss 4 Words; Whole Family; & Other Important People.
Most of the stamps were ready made, but envelope?  Yeah, needed Mix It Up! for that one!  LOL!  And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the KSS fonts, so it worked out perfectly!  I also used Mix It Up! for the letters CARDS on the top of the box as well!  I love this set, and find myself grabbing it ALL THE TIME!

Ok, on to the pictures!  This first one is of the box itself.  I really think I outdid myself on this one.  The other ones were very nice, subtle, themey.  This one was just a little wild and crazy.  I'm sure my mother would agree!  But, I had so much fun with this!  3 whole days of fun!  LOL!  Oh, and the paper is from Me & My Big Ideas.  It was a 12x12 stack and was half off at JoAnn's when I happened to go in there looking for something different!  I also used Baja Breeze scraps since I felt it went well w/ the paper, as well as Rose Red.  The flower in the bottom center is from Fifth Avenue Floral (SU!).  Oh, and I cheated a little bit on the circles that I have on the front and top of the box!  I learned this technique from Melanie Muenchinger!  I took my paper and used my scallop circle nestabilities and cut my circles out.  Then, I took each one and turned them ever so slightly so that the scallop part of the paper is in between the scallop parts of the nestie.  Then, I ran them through my cuttlebug and they came out like the pinked nesties that Spellbinders sells!  So, I don't have to spend $50.00 buying the pinked circles!  I can make my own!  They don't look half bad, either!  My husband said he liked the way I was thinking!  LOL!

Full View of box

Front View of box

Front View of box w/ top opened

Top of Box showcasing CARDS - see my pinked circles?!  ;)

Top of Box showcasing Prima flowers (in case you really wanted to see them!)  LOL!

How about this close up of my fabulous stitching!  Look at the top stitching!  (Not the bottom!  Came that way from SU!)  I wanted a thin ribbon, and SU! only comes out w/ so many types of ribbon. *eye roll* Plus, this is Baja Breeze, which has since retired.  Boo hoo!!!!  So, I folded it over, used some pins to hold it in place and started stitching w/ my sewing machine!!!  I now have my sewing machine on my desk full time!  After figuring out how to sew, and how to put that darn old bobbin in correctly, I'm becoming a fast learner!!!!  So, what do you think?????  ;)

Here's the inside tabs, just so you can see how I have them displayed.                                                          

And here's a close up of the tabs, so you can see the different fonts I used from different sets.

This is my favorite tab!  I'm SUCH a literal thinker, and when I was going through all of my KSS stamps, I realized that the Letters from the Past had a two step stamp of a postage stamp, and that it would be PERFECT!

I really love how this turned out!  I just hope my friend loves it too!

Have a STAMPTASTIC day!!!