I Challenge You Wednesday: Spring/Easter

Yes, I know this is actually Thursday. :) There has been another death in my church family and a death in my friend's church family this week. We've been busy with funeral preparations and meals, so we had to push this off to Thursday this week.

My friend chose the challenge this week, and she chose an Easter/Spring challenge.

At first, I was stumped. I had just done a bunch of cross and flower cards, and I didn't need many more fillers for my kids' Easter baskets.

Inspiration finally struck when I finished a box of tissues and noticed the pretty box for the first time. So here is my challenge set that uses a recycled tissue box. This will be an Easter gift for my Secret Sister at church:




What is included? An Easter card for me to give her, a mini notepad holder, a checkbook cover, and a sticky note holder. In short, it's a purse organizing gift. :)

I made all of this out of the top, two long sides and one short side of a Scotties tissue box (the rectangular kind).



The Card: I used the top of the box for the card, since it had this natural oval in the middle where the tissues usually come out. I just trimmed it carefully to get rid of the jagged edges.

First, I laid down my paper lace (MS Paper Doily) at the edge of my card (which is a generous 5.5 x 8.5"). Then I added the top of the tissue box (cut to fit), popping it up on dimensionals. Then I stamped, cut and colored the cross image (Inkadinkado Spiritual Sketches) and adhered it with dimensionals as well. It still needed something, so I added the pearls at the corners with pink pearl dimensional paint. A little bit later I got the inspiration to add gold leafing around the oval. It was just what it needed!



The Notepad Cover: I created the base with a sturdy piece of pink cardstock, trimmed a long side of the tissue box to fit, and then glued it on. Easy!! (BONUS: No glued-on parts to catch on everything in your purse!)



The Checkbook Cover: This plastic cover originally housed one of those 2-year pocket planners. When the years were over, I discarded the calendar and kept the plastic holder.

First of all, I created the base with a sturdy piece of pink cardstock. I'll give you the dimensions I used, but if you want to make your own, measure yours first because it might be slightly different.

I cut my base cardstock to 6-1/2 x 6-1/8". I scored the 6-1/2" side at 3-1/8" and 3-3/8". I rounded the corners of the cover so they would fit into the rounded corners of the holder. Then I added the paper lace at the edge, cut the last long tissue box side to fit, and adhered that to the base. It was easy!



The Sticky Note Holder: I was inspired by this holder at Splitcoaststampers.

Since I was using the small side of the tissue box that I was able to salvage, I only made the decorative flap from the tissue box material. To do this, I cut as deeply as I could into the tissue box flap with my Nestabilities Labels 8. I cut a matching piece of pink cardstock with the same die (and to the same size).

To make the base, I cut a piece of cardstock to 4 x 8-1/4". I scored the 8-1/4" side at 3-1/2", 3-7/8", 7-3/8" and 7-3/4".

I attached the decorative part by sandwiching the 1/2" flap between the tissue box cut-out and its matching pink cut-out. Then I slightly tapered the sides of the "purse" to better match up with my shape.

All that was left was to attach a set of Velcro sticky dots, a decoration, and then the sticky notes inside.

Here's a picture of it opened up:



These projects were easy, fun, and cheap. I hope they have inspired you to look at your tissue boxes in a new light! :)

Now you can hop on over to my friend's blog to see what Easter or Spring projects she came up with this week.