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Starting with a large cereal box and glue the top closed and make sure the bottom is glued tight.

Then cut the box in half. Line up both of the halves and glue them together with Fabri-tac (or any strong glue). Allow these to dry for a few minutes.

Measure from the back top along the side 1 1/2" and make a mark. Do this on both sides. Then measure from the bottom front up 2" and make a mark. Using a ruler, connect the two marks. This will be the line that you will cut along to get the slant on the sides of the organizer.




Along the front measure 2" up from the bottom and draw a line across the front. Cut the front of the box off at the line.





Now to make the cubby for the pencil holder/can. You will see in the video that the final organizer is different than the pictures in this tutorial. I recommend leaving a 1/2" lip at the bottom and cutting the entire piece over to side, which removes the tab. This will allow the pen holder to fit into the space. Adjust the space according to the size of your can. Fold this piece back towards the inside of the box and adhere it to the center of the box.




Cut boards to attach to the back, bottom, sides and front of your organizer. These boards will strengthen your organizer. The boards that I used are Comicare Backer Boards (8.5"X11") which I purchased at my local comic book store. These boards can also be found on Amazon Here. Extra cereal box can be used as well. Glue the boards to your organizer box. Once dry cut off any excess board.











The entire organizer is covered in brown packing paper. Crumple and scrunch (yes, technical words here) the packing paper a few times. Glue the packing paper down with Collage Pauge (or your favorite glue), patting the paper onto the surface. Apply the glue to the box instead of the paper to keep all of the texture from crumpling. If you apply the glue to the paper, it can smooth out the crumples.

Once the box is covered and dried, dry brush gold metallic paint over the entire box (fingers work wonders here for the dry brushing). Once the gold paint is dry, go over the entire box with Distress Ink Gathered Twigs to give the box some depth. Now take your favorite digital papers or die cuts and decorate your organizer. Keep in mind where the pen holder will be so not to interfere.

The pen holder is a Great Value Black Pepper can (8oz). The can is wiped with rubbing alcohol inside and out. Using a multi-surface paint or enamel paint, paint the inside of the can and a small section at the top and bottom of the outside (I used Folk Art Enamel Hydrangea). To make the stucco look on the inside of the can, just bounce the paint brush over the surface to leave a texture. For the top and bottom rim of the can, use a gold enamel paint. Allow the paint to dry for 24 hours before touching (or follow the instructions on the paint you have used).





Measure the body of the can and cut the digital paper to size. For this can I only needed to measure the height, I left the paper at the full 11" to wrap around the can. I then trimmed off any excess. The back of the paper was inked using Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. The edges were also inked. I cut a portion of the paper that I wanted to show under the curled edges on the front of the can. I applied red-line tape to the back of each of the pieces.The red-line tape seems to be the strongest bond that I have found. Do not place tape behind the portion of the large piece that is curled on the front, if you want to curl the corners.

The small bottom pieces I applied Diamond Glaze to the top of the pieces and used Martha Stewart Clear Glitter to the top. These two pieces are then taped to the front of the can. I then taped the large piece over the can. At this point you are ready to decorate the can.







Please let me know if you have questions about the process that I took to make the desk organizer. I know that I did not give you any measurements, but that is due to the cereal box. The cereal box that you use may be different than the one that I chose.

I hope you have enjoyed the video and the tutorial. Have a wonderful day!

I am very honored to be sharing with everyone today. I have posted my first video as a guest design team member for Ephemera's Vintage Garden. The project is a Bible cover made from a recycled pair of jeans and digital papers from Ephemera's Vintage Garden designed by Debbie Anne Parent. Debbie's work is phenomenal. I cannot say enough good things about the items available from her Etsy Store. They are all so pretty. The digital paper pack that I used was Love and Romance. Just click on the name of the pack to go directly to the paper on Debbie's Etsy store. While you are there, make sure you check out her other digital goodies as well.

I have an inkjet printer (Epson Artisan), which took me a little while to adjust to from my vintage Lexmark, but I love this printer. Now some would say that an inkjet printer is not the best to print digital files, but I say the papers are just as beautiful no matter if you use an inkjet or a laser printer. There is one draw back to the inkjet if you want to use any type of wet media though, where as a laser printer printouts are waterproof the inkjet prints are not. I have a solution though that I just found. This magical product is Microglaze by Judikins (this link is to Amazon, but Walmart.com also carries this product). This little pot of waxy goodness makes inkjet prints awesome. It seals the prints and you can use Diamond Glaze, Glossy Accents, Resin, Collage Pauge, etc, etc. The print stays put and the ink does not run when sealed with Microglaze. This product also seals your stamped images.

So, I made a video of my project and in the video I explain how I made the bible cover and the journal. I hope you enjoy the video. I encourage questions and feedback.


Thanks for stopping by today. I will have more projects in the next month with more videos to follow, so I hope you can stop in again. I hope you are enjoying your week!