Magazine Holder

Good afternoon everyone!

Long time no stamp! I have been super busy lately and just haven't had time to make it to my craft room...but I made up for it today! I have a confession....I have TONS of craft magazines! Not just one craft either...lots! Crochet, Cross Stitch, Scrapbook, Cardmaking... and I can never make myself toss out the special Consultant only magazine, Stampin Success, that Stampin Up! sends out monthly, too much good stuff in there! It features techniques, scrapbook & card layouts and much more. I have all my magazines piled in boxes and when I want to find one I have to dig and it is a huge pain! So I started looking online last night for some easy ways to make your own magazine holder. I came across an e-how article about altering empty cereal boxes and using those to create them. That sounded like a good idea to me but a little flimsy for what I was looking for. So this morning when I was wandering around my craft room I had an A-HA moment! I do a lot of ebay shopping and I keep most of the boxes and envelopes that are in good, reuseable shape. I noticed that the MEDIUM FLAT RATE boxes from the post office were the PERFECT size to make into a magzine holder! They are super sturdy and a perfect 12" wide which makes altering them a breeze with the 12"x12" designer series paper! So I made one this morning for my Stampin Success Magazines! It turned out AWESOME! Here is the side view:



To get the box ready for altering here is what I did. I sealed one end that will be the bottom. I cut the flaps off the other side. I measured up 4" from the bottom on each side at the front of the box and marked it. I then drew a line between the two sides along the front connecting them. I used my ruler to draw a diagonal line from the 4" mark on the front to the upper back corner. I then just cut the box along my lines. To cover with designer series paper I layed the paper on the side I wanted to cover until it was where I wanted it. Carefully holding it in place I layed the box paper side down and traced the back of my paper. I then cut it and mounted it. I took a nail file and smoothed the cut box edges after my paper was on. Pretty easy really!

For this box I used the SPICE CAKE designer series paper to cover the top half. I then used pumpkin pie and chocolate chip as mats for the bottom half. I stamped a large panel of a pretty fall sunset scene set on a lake, with the trees reflecting in the water. I stamped en francais lightly on one side and then stamped the GRATEFUL sentiment, because I am grateful for my Stampin Up business :)
I finished off the panel using the gorgeous Victoria crochet trim. I did the same scene for both sides of my box. You just have to remember that the two sides will be opposite. So when I stamped my first panel I did my words on the right side, and on the second panel I had to stamp the words on the left, because when I mounted them on the box I wanted the ribbon side to be towards the front.

Here is a close up of my stamped panel.



Here is a close up of the side with the ribbon and words:



Here is a close up of the left side:



For the spine of my box I just cut a strip of the designer series paper and covered it. I did do a mat at the bottom of pumpkin pie, chocolate chip and then the matching designer series paper. I left this area kind of blank in case in the future I want to make a panel that says what's in the holder. Here is what the spine looks like.



For the front, I again did the same mat sequence, pumpkin pie, chocolate chip, the designer series paper. Then I did a pumpkin pie 2 3/8" scallop, a 1 3/4" chocolate chip scallop circle, then I created the STAMPIN SUCCESS on the computer and printed it out on very vanilla cardstock, punched it out with a 1 1/4" circle and sponged with chocolate chip ink. I adorned the scallops with the Basic pearls and added some victoria crochet trim. Here is the front:



And here is what it looks like from the front holding my Stampin Success magazines!



I covered the inside of my box with basic white copy paper just to cover up the priority mail wording on the inside. I think it turned out really neat! I can't wait to do more of these for my craft magazines. I thought it would be fun to seperate my magazines by seasons and do seasonal designs! Lots of possibilities and a great way to RECYCLE!

For my stamped design I was inspired by a beautiful card created by Michelle Zindorf which you can see here. Because her's was created awhile ago, I updated the colors I used and changed the stamp set so I used all current products. I also use sponges instead of a brayer.

For the sky & water the colors I used were: Peach Parfait, Bashful Blue, & Basic Gray - before sponging on your paper with the peach and the gray I rubbed them off on scratch paper so it wasn't as dark.

I used more mustard for the en francais words.

I did my trees using basic black, also for the reflections I used the basic black and the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig.

I sponged the outside of my panel with chocolate chip ink.

Here are the products I used to create this project.

MEDIUM FLAT RATE PRIORITY BOX - the one that is 12" wide.

Stampin Up! Stamp Sets: Lovely As a Tree, Always Thankful, En Francais

Paper: Stampin Up! Spice Cake Designer Series Paper, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Very Vanilla

Ink: Stampin Up! Classic ink pads in Peach Parfait, Bashful Blue, Basic Gray, Basic Black, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard

Accessories: Stampin Up! Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, post it notes, white gel pen, sponges, Victoria Crochet Trim