Make a letter rack to hold your incoming or outgoing post or your greeting cards
This week I'll show you how to make this cute letter holder from scrapbooking card.
I've made mine to fit A5 envelopes but I will show you how to adjust the size if you wish to make a smaller holder.
It can be used as a rack by your door to remind you to post your greeting cards or maybe just to hold the greeting cards you have made. I've also made a couple to hold advent calendars (I know it's a bit early to be talking about these, but scroll to the bottom of the blog page where I will show you why and what I have done to make a festive calendar).
It might be nice to make one of these as a gift for a friend and fill it with greeting cards that they can post. Or why not make one to hold your favourite recipes?
Follow the below link to find out how the letter holder was made
You will need
- 2 sheets of 12x12 scrapbook card - fairly thick. (Can be double sided although the ones I used were not)
- Small amount of cream card
- 2 pieces of brown/beige patterned card
- Stitched nested label dies by Stampin Up
- Just for you stamp set by Lawn Fawn
- Colouring medium of your choice (I used promarker pens - honeycomb, oatmeal and cool grey1)
- Guillotine with cutting and scoring blades
- Strong double sided tape
- Decide what width of holder you wish to make. I made mine to hold A5 size envelopes. I measured the width of one of these envelopes (23 cm) and rounded it up for a little wiggle room - so i used the width measurement of 25 cm. Use the below image to see how we are going to cut out card to make the holder. The width will be measurement 'A'.
- Cut a piece of scrapbooking card to 30 cm in length (16 cm back height + 4 cm bottom depth + 10 cm front height) by the width which will be measurement 'A' plus 1 cm left tab width plus 1 cm right tab width. So my measurement was 25 cm + 1 cm + 1 cm = 27 cm. Therefore cut the scrapbooking card 30 cm high by 27 cm width. You can change any of the measurements in my diagram, for example make it narrower in depth from 4 cm to 3 cm, or make the overall height of the box smaller by adjusting the 16 cm back measurement or the 10 cm front measurement.
- Score the card down the length at 16 cm (back measurement) and 20 cm (back + bottom depth measurement). Then score across the width at 1 cm (left tab) and 26 cm (left tab + width measurement). (You may need to change some of these score lines if you have changed any of the measurements)
- Cut small triangles out from the tabs as shown in the below photo
- Fold along all score lines
- Cut two side rectangles from scrapbooking card measuring the back height 16 cm by the depth of 4 cm. (You might need to change these measurements if you made adjustments in step 1 and 2)
- On the back of these two rectangles measure up from the bottom edge 10 cm (front height) and put a feint pencil line. On one of the rectangles put it on the left side and on the other put it on the right side.
- Cut a triangle off the top of each side piece by cutting from the pencil line to the opposite top corner as per the below photos
- Put strong double sided tape along the tabs on the outside
- Stick the two side rectangles to the back tabs on either side making sure the longest edge is against the back as per the below photo
- You will find some of the back tab is now showing above the side pieces. Just cut this off with some scissors
- Fold the front round and stick the front tab to the side rectangle, ensuring the middle tab is kept on the inside of the box. Do this for both sides.
- Now stick the bottom depth tab on the inside
- Your letter holder is now complete. It can be decorated how ever you like. I stamped some images from 'Just for you' stamp set by Lawn Fawn onto cream card, coloured and then die cut using one of the nesting dies by Stampin Up. I then layered it onto two different patterned pieces of card. I then stuck this to the front of the letter holder
I'm going to use my letter holder to hold the greeting cards that I need to take to the post box.
I then made made some more of these letter holders but this time to make Christmas crochet advent calendars. I labelled up some envelopes with the countdown dates on them (click here to see my previous blog page on how I labelled some advent calendar envelopes) and I put a different crochet pattern in each envelope. I've done a couple for friends and one for myself ! - I've done it early and put it away in my Christmas cupboard so I will forget what patterns are in the envelopes so it will be as much as a surprise for me as it will my friends :)
