Grow Love Card Carrier

Hi all!  I have been stamping SO much lately, that I needed another card carrier.  I like my cards to be somewhere easy to access and I like to flip through them without having to touch them, to keep them in good shape.  The idea for my project today came from my talented friend, Karen, who has made me one of these for me in the past.  :)

The front cover of my card carrier uses the MFT stamp set, Grow Love.  I LOVE to paper piece the trees.  They are so easy to cut out and the open, teardrop shape leaves lots of room to show off your patterned paper.  I hand-cut the "hills" using olive card stock and then stitched along each layer one at a time as I placed the trees on/in them (start with the back layer).  My little Janome was mad at me for making it sew through all those layers, but it made it!  *whew*

I threaded a kraft corduroy button to the corner for a little pizazz!  :)  The tag was made from 2 different pieces of SU chipboard that I glued together.  A tag is glued to the back of the rounded rectangular piece.  The word "cards" was spelled out using SU chipboard letters.  Which leads me to a JODY RULE:

• If you EVER use chipboard die cuts/letters/shapes that come on a large sheet that you have to "punch out".  You MUST... I repeat MUST sand or cut off the little "nibs" that are left after removing them from the chipboard (I use a Basic Grey sanding kit).  Punched out chip board does NOT like to show it's nibs... it told me... so don't do it... please. :)

The cover of the card carrier is heavy weight chipboard found HERE.  I cut the chipboard to match the size of my plastic inserts (SU 6 X 6 page protectors).  I don't recall what the exact size of the chipboard is, but you are welcome to leave a comment with your e-mail address asking and I will get back to you. :)  I covered the front and back of both the front and back covers (that was a mouthful!).  I used my Crop-o-dile to punch holes in the chip board covers that match my inserts and then sandwiched 10, 6 X 6 page protectors between the 2 covers and held it all together with office supply binder rings (cheapest I have found them is at Hobby Lobby).  I prefer the larger size insert for my cards because many of them are 5 1/2 X 5 1/2" and those that aren't are FAT!  LOL  This gives you an easy opening to slip them in and then you can flip through your cards when you want to send one out. 

If you have any questions on how to make this, feel free to leave a comment with your e-mail address and I will get back to you. :)

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Stamps: Grow Love MFT

Ink: Memento brown, PTI chamomile

Paper: olive, October Afternoon

Accessories: 12 X 12 heavy weight chipboard, 2 binder rings, SU chipboard pieces, Janome sew mini, twine, corduroy button, SU page protectors, crop-o-dile, crystal effects (to glue down chipboard)