The following post is by contributor Mariah Bruehl of Playful Learning.
I am a huge fan of making homemade cards for every occasion. Yet, I often find that when it is time to get busy, getting creative, I have to search in ten different spots to find inspirational materials.
So this year, before the Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, end of the school year, family birthday card making frenzy started, I decided to put together a card caddy that would have everything the girls needed to make lovely and unique cards.
A card making caddy
I grabbed an unused utensil basket and gathered some materials that I thought would be fun for creative card making sessions. I started by searching through all of our craft supplies and was pleased to be able to put together a basket full of items that we already had on hand. It was fun putting these tubes (left over from our Valentine’s Day cards) to good use as handy storage containers.
Below you will find a list of supplies that we included in our card caddy:
- Alphabet Stickers
- Pressed Flowers
- Sentiment Stamps
- Washable Ink Pad
- Black Pens
- Pressed Leaves
- Blank Cards and Envelopes
- Tiny Sea Shells
- Moss
- Bling
- Metallic Colored Pencils
- Glue
- Paper Punch
I must say that since collecting all of our card making materials and organizing them into one easy-to-grab spot, our spontaneous (last minute) card making endeavors have been a breeze!
What would you include in your card caddy?
It’s so much easier to do anything when everything is in one place. My daughter is young enough that making cards just involves paper and a crayon but this is the inspiration I needed to keep organizing our various supplies to make life easier.
Steph´s latest post: Will Our Kids Want to Come Home?
Hi Steph – Yes, it is amazing how a little organization can make such a big difference!
Mariah´s latest post: Wooden Crate Themed Gardens
Mariah, I love this idea! I think this is something my kids, and me, would enjoy and get lots of use out of.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Kara @SimpleKids.net´s latest post: Young writer’s card making caddy
My pleasure Kara! I love being a part of Simple Kids…
Mariah´s latest post: Wooden Crate Themed Gardens
This is a wonderful idea! I think that my kids would quite enjoy this. My oldest is just starting to write (mainly just her name) but loves to draw pictures on cards that we send to others. I think that this could be a really fun activity! In fact, I might make one for myself as well
Heather´s latest post: i’m growing weeds for a living…
Hi Heather – These materials can be used for writers of all ages. And yes… it is hard to resist getting into the action!
Mariah´s latest post: Wooden Crate Themed Gardens
I just did one but called it a “craft caddy”. I stuck a bunch of random craft supplies and items I would have otherwise thrown away, and told my 6 year old what she created was up to her. I said there would be no requests for additional items — what she had was what she got. She spent 2 hours entertained and no mess scattered about!
Love it!
Mariah´s latest post: Wooden Crate Themed Gardens
Gosh, I think I could benefit from one of these – how much nicer it would be to sit down to write notes if everything was all in one place *and* fun! Great idea!
Megan´s latest post: One of those half-baked ideas.
Thanks for more inspiration Mariah. I’m just curious- do you have several different kinds of writing caddies? And do you store them all in one place? And finally- do you have similar things- like colored pencils in all the different caddies? How do you keep them organized? Sorry lots of questions- I’ve just been thinking about this a lot- we have a writing caddy and an art caddie but they have very similar things and I wasn’t sure if I should have 2 of each thing, or make one location for everything or let them borrow from one etc. Plus I was thinking of making a “young art” carried for my 1 1/2 year old so we can separate stuff for the 3 and 5 year olds that I don’t want my 1 year old to have yet. So I would love to hear what you do. Thanks again!