This was my second submission for the Heartfelt Creations design team – when I visited the current design team’s blog hop yesterday, I found Angelica Turner’s project using the same stamp – She does a beautiful work!
Inspiration
Altered projects are especially difficult for me – I do so many cards, that my first impulse is always to make a card. But when I came across a beat-up accordion file at the local office supply store, I knew I could make something of it.
Since I do make cards every week, I’ve always needed a smart way to organize them. So, I turned this into a file for cards – a slot for each month, and a few extra slots for general cards – baby, wedding, etc. 
In deciding on the image for the front, I picked the floral image that first drew me to Heartfelt Creations – I saw it at a stamp show and had to add it to my collection of floral stamps!
It was quite a project! It took me one evening, plus another whole day – but I really like the outcome.
Hope you do too!
Ingredients
Paper
| Green/Small Dots (My Mind’s Eye) | Wild Asparagus/Pink/Tan Strips (My Mind’s Eye) |
| Soft Serenity patterned paper (Provo Craft) | Basic Black (SU!) |
| Always Artichoke (SU!) | River Rock (SU!) |
| Blush Blossom (SU!) | Whitewash Wicker Chair (Core’dinations) |
| Stamper’s Select White (Paper Trey Ink) | |
Inks
| Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko) | Really Rust (SU!) |
Stamps
| Autumn Corsage (Heartfelt Creations) | |
Accessories
| COPIC markers (Imagination International) | SPICA glitter pens (Imagination International) |
| Grand Label 4 dies | Sponge |
| Grand Calibur die cut machine (Spellbinders) | Sandpaper |
| Gold embossing powder (Stampendous) | Anita’s Glossy Black craft paint |
| Adirondack Alcohol ink (Ranger) | Crystal Effects lacquer (SU!) |
| Ribbon (Hobby Lobby) | Foam tape |
| Medium oval punch (SU!) | Corner rounder punch (SU!) |
| Small oval punch (SU!) | Clear address labels (Avery) |
| Key Tag punch (SU!) | Scissors |
| Paint brushes, foam brush | Rotary trimmer with straight blade (Fiskars) |
| Adhesive Transfer Gun 714 (Scotch) | |
Instructions
Here’s the before pictures – pretty ugly! It had actually yellowed with age, and was all scratched and dented. 
The inside was in very good shape – nice and clean, but very very plain. 
Step 1: I tore it apart! Well, I carefully tore out the accordion file.
Step 2: I sanded the outside of the cover. This took several hours – much tougher than I expected. I found as I
sanded that the yellowing had occurred because there was a plastic film over the whole thing. It came off as I sanded.
Step 3: Instead of trying to cover the folds with 
paper, I painted them with the black paint.
I used alcohol inks to color the hardware – I used the Mushroom and Cranberry colors, and
applied the mix with a felt square.
I used a small paintbrush to paint black around the edges of the hardware, so the original blue paper wouldn’t show through.
Step 4: Next, I covered the sections with paper. I used the small dots paper on all the panels, except the bottom, on which I used solid dark green. I used the oval punch to get the opening around the clasp. The handle was tougher – I ended up punching ovals in black paper rectangles to cover the seams in the patterned paper. 
Inside, I used the solid light green paper.
Note – when you cut the paper to cover the panels, leave plenty of extra for the edges. This box was 10 inches wide, so the 12” x 12” patterned paper had the perfect extra for folding to the inside.
Step 5: For the tabs, I didn’t want to leave them plain white. So I measure the tabs, and cut out 
2 patterns of paper to create alternating tabs. I used the corner rounder punch to match the rounded tab corners of the accordion file.
I mounted the paper to the front of each tab.
Step 6: I built the flowers into layers, so I stamped it 3 times on the white cardstock. I colored the images with COPICs, using these colors: Y11, Y13, R30, R32, R35, R81, R89, YG93, and YG97. I added glitter to the image with SPICAs, using Mint, Peach, and Buttermilk.
Then I cut out the images in pieces, trimming each one very closely. I painted the red berries with the clear lacquer paint to make them shine.
Step 7: I cut and embossed a dark green Grand Label 4, and sponged the edges with rust ink. Then I cut the next smallest die out of the Core’dinations cardstock, and sanded the edges. The images are mounted with foam tape, and each piece stacked on its’ base image. 
Step 8: I remounted the accordion file in the cover.
Step 9: I printed the labels in green, using clear return address labels. Then I put the label on the blush cardstock, and punch them out with a small oval punch. The green mat is punched out with the key tag punch. I mounted each label on a green mat label, then adhered the final label to a tab.
Step 10: The finishing touch was tying some ribbons around the handle – I found some brown ribbon with small dots in green and pink, and matching strips on the reverse side.
Here’s another look at the final result - Thanks for sticking with me through all the steps!
