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Look what I made... Take Two!

Last year about this time, I started a spring cleaning project. A crafty mail organizer to consolidate that stack of miscellaneous papers that were driving me crazy! You know what I'm talking about --- The bills, statements, insurance cards, announcements, advertisements, etc. spread all over the counter and in random places all over the house. Half of it is garbage, but you're not sure if your husband wants to see any of it before you start tossing papers. You end up putting everything in one pile in the corner, but the next day more mail comes and, of course, it is spread all over the counter. The pile in the corner keeps getting bigger because some of it is stuff you don't have time to do right away, and it all gets mixed up with the papers you are supposed to mail out... you with me? THAT pile.

Well, it's been working quite nicely and I still love the way it looks on my wall.

(Go HERE to see the project and blog post.)

So... I had a friend with a birthday recently and decided to make something similar for her. As a general rule, I know that I should not impose my crafty taste on others who may have different preferences --- I even thought about buying the materials and letting her put it together herself, but wasn't sure she would have an extra couple of hours any time soon. Who wants another thing on their  "to-do" list for a gift anyway?  But I thought I knew her well enough that I could create something she would like. After all, we do share a lot of the same interests, and I knew the colors of her home decor. So here is what I came up with:

I used the same large clothes pins I used for mine. Found them at Porter's again. Painted them and the backboard a soft black color that I already had in my craft supplies.

Here's a close up on the His and Hers section. The paper I used for her side was a really cool maroon color with a shiny gold floral texture. When I did the one for myself I learned that guys (namely my husband) don't like their own personal clothes pin to be all crafty/girly, so I vowed I would make this one manly. In order to bring out the masculinity, I found some paper with a football print and incorporated it to fit the color scheme. Mwahahaha!

I think the outgoing mail section was my favorite one this time. I really liked the faded grid paper, found some red chipboard alphabet stickers that looked way cool, and added a big burgundy button to accent the bottom. The one for bills includes a random paper combo, black ribbon one one side, and black shiny letters - I used a few black asterisk stickers to act as a top/bottom separator.

Last but not least I clipped a small piece of "remember" ribbon to label the final section. This is kind of the "Other" stuff category. I use it for checks to be deposited, or appointment reminders, or coupons. I was happy to find out that the swirly paper from my Recipe Box project fit this color scheme perfectly. A little chipboard flower as a finishing touch.

I hope she likes it as much as I like making silly stuff!  And I hope it at least sort of prevents her stacks of mail from piling up throughout the house.