Great Gift Idea: Betsy's Card Box

 Hello, Memory Bound friends! 
If you're a card maker, you'll love the Iris Card Keeper box we carry at Memory Bound! This roomy box (just $12.99) comes with dividers you can label to organize your inventory of handmade cards. And, as you'll see in this post, you can fill a box with cards for a wonderful, thoughtful gift!  Our staff member Betsy has been working on a box of cards for her husband's grandma, so I asked her to tell us a bit about this project.

A Year of Cards for Grandma
Betsy Knoblock Grabinski, Memory Bound Staff Member

Between my husband Brent and I, we only have one living grandparent - his maternal grandmother. The family calls her “Grandma Bert” (her first name is Roberta), but I call her G-ma Small (Small is her last name) because she’s spunky and fun and loves to spend time with the family more than anything else. She still lives by herself on the family farm just north of Storm Lake.

One thing we can always count on is that G-ma Small will never forget a birthday or anniversary. A friend or sibling may just post on Facebook these days, but G-ma Small sends a card via snail mail to let you know she’s thinking about you. The card usually includes a short letter and always a $15 check. My husband is now 43 and since 1971 has received a $15 check annually from her. There has been no rise in the amount and everyone gets the same amount. She’s also likely to remind you if you don’t cash the check promptly because she doesn’t like her checking balance to be off. :)   
  
With nearly 50 people on her birthday list, the one thing she needs is cards. Since I now have a full selection of decorative paper being stored in my home, I thought it would be a great gift to make cards for her to send to the family. Yes, it was originally a Christmas gift and no, I am still not done now that it’s March, but I did recruit Brent’s sister to help make some cards and I’m attempting to get at least a supply to her soon.
 
 
The one thing I identified early in the process was that the cards needed to be designed for a variety of audiences. Her kids are in their early 60’s, the grandkids are in their 30’s and the great grandkids range from teenagers to a newborn. A card for a 6-year-old girl wouldn’t be the same as one for Brent’s dad. I made a list of all of the family members and determined how many cards I would need of each kind. My categories were young kids, older kids, adult females, adult males and anniversaries.

I also wanted to make it easy for Grandma to pull out the type of card she needed. I bought one of the Iris card organizer boxes and labeled to tabs for each type of card I was making. The box has also helped me keep tabs on how many cards I have made. I ended up adding sympathy cards and a space for general/blank cards since I know how important it is to her to keep in touch with her family and friends, no matter what the occasion.

 

 

This is G-ma Small with Abbie, Betsy's niece.

Here are a few more wonderful cards from Betsy's card box:

Many thanks to Betsy for sharing her great gift idea with us! Stop in soon to take a look at the Iris Card Keepers. Then put one to use by organizing your own inventory of cards...or fill it with cards for someone special!
Janet