Card Box...Complete!

Remember when I had this great DIY idea for a vintage suitcase card box? Yahhhh...my first attempt turned out so badly I couldn't stand to snap a picture of it before it landed in the trash. So, I went with my backup plan.

When I was planning my candy buffet, I picked up this black cake stand, which happened to come in a great box. I'm not using the cake stand anymore, but it's been sitting around my kitchen in that box. It only made sense to stop trying to think of something new and go with what works - a hat box turned card box.


Mr. S cut a slot out of the center with a box cutter, then I took some extra damask fabric I had on hand to cover the top. I didn't have big enough of a piece of fabric to cover the whole top, so I used two separate pieces.

I hot glued it in place on the top, then...


I flipped it over and gathered pieces, pulling the fabric tight, and glued it in place. I didn't have the patience to try and get it smooth, so instead I pulled it so that it looked gathered around the side.


To cover up some not-so-nice edges around the slot, I glued some ribbon in place and tucked it into the underside of the lid.


The finished box! It's simple and a little rough around the edges...but I finished it in less than an hour using materials I already had in the house.


I'm glad I ended up going with a classic idea rather than trying to reinvent the wheel for my card box - one more completed project is incredibly helpful at this stage of the game!

What are you using for the card box at your reception?

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DIY Card Box Idea

I've seen the cute bird cages, mail boxes and hat boxes that brides are using these days for their card boxes on the gift table. So many of them are tailored to fit in perfectly with their themes. I, however, can't seem to get myself to jump onto that bandwagon. Sometimes I wonder why I have to make things so hard on myself.

Anyway. I've been trying to think of creative options for the card box that fits us, but doesn't make me go crazy. Or broke. I started thinking about vintage suitcases like this and how they tell there story of where you've been.


Source: Travelsmith

I've seen from time to time these great card board versions of vintage suitcases. Paper Source actually has a wide variety of them at pretty affordable prices - these black suitcases range from $8.00 - $14.50 each, depending on the size. Because they're cardboard, you could cut the bottom out of the top and middle cases, part of the top off of the middle and bottom cases, a slit in the lid of the top case, and adhere them all together, so when you drop a card in the top, they collect in the bottom case. Unfortunately for me, these are black with red stitching, and I don't want red. And I can't seem to find all black anywhere (or anywhere I can afford)...and really, can I afford to spend much money on this at all? No.

Source: Paper Source

Lucky for me, I came across this DIY suitcase. It's apparently made out of a Bisquick box! Who knew? Find the instructions here for this simple project. This project gives you so much more freedom because you can use whatever boxes you have available to get the size you want, fabric or paper that matches your color scheme, and it will cost next to nothing!

Source: Pecuniarities

I envision creating a stack of "suitcases" in black and telling our story on them through pictures of us - where we've been through our relationship. Since we're not planning (at this time) to do any form of a slideshow of pictures of us, this will be a fun way to display our memories as a couple, with maybe a few baby pictures pasted on for good measure :)

As I get going on this project, I'll be sure to share the final product...hopefully it will be beautiful!

What will guests be dropping their cards into at your reception?

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