Save Lids To Save Lives

I made a not-bookmark thing! I haven't been able to think of what to make for the various Breast Cancer Awareness/Think Pink challenges going on this month, you see. I mean, eventually I did think pink and submitted that, but it seemed a little wrong not to do something for BCA too.

I thought maybe I'd make a thing to hang in the shower to remind me to do self-exams. That is, I could make a thing that looked very much like a bookmark, laminate it, and call it good. (I debated what it should say. Possibilities included "Feel Yourself Up" and "Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself".)

In trying to think about that, I thought I might use some of the yoghurt lids around here -- I don't have any ribbons, real or stampy, but the lids do because they're part of Yoplait's Save Lids to Save Lives program.

Then I thought, wait, it seems a shame to sacrifice something that's actually useful just because you're sad you can't find any ribbon stamps. Because we do eat significant quantities of yoghurt, and we do save the lids and send them in. Usually they collect on top of the microwave. If we're particularly neat and fussy they might end up in a ziplock bag, still on top of the microwave.

I had a brainwave. I could make something to keep them in, make them easily countable, and contain the mess! Visions of tiny envelopes full of yoghurt lids danced in my head.

At this point I've got a fairly good idea of what's sitting about in the local big box craft stores, and tiny envelopes haven't come to my attention lately. I briefly contemplated making them. Then I contemplated it some more. I decided that was definitely a backup plan.

So I went to Staples. I not only found tiny envelopes, I found a bright pink index card holder to put them in! Normally I am not very into bright pink (or pale pink, for that matter), but it was clearly perfect for this project.

The ideal envelopes would be a bit shorter and squatter, but compared to making a bunch, me and my achy shoulder will take no. 1 coin envelopes every day of the week.

I determined that I could probably stuff five or so lids into an envelope without becoming frustrated. It would be neater if they held 10 apiece -- since each lid represents 10 cents, an envelope would be $1 -- but they are what they are. So two envelopes are $1. I determined to stamp the number 5 on each envelope, a little bit to remind my future self what I was supposed to do... but mostly because by gosh I was going to stamp something.

I tried three pinks, all heat embossed with sparkly embossing powder, and settled on the brightest one. It goes best with the index card holder and with the lids themselves.

Since it's not terribly important what the envelopes look like, I kept all three and did 17 more in the bright pink, for a total of twenty. (Stamping and embossing 17 more was pretty easy; since this is pigment ink, and dries slowly, I did a couple of batches of stamp-then-emboss rather than doing them one at a time.) The envelopes are a bit loose in the holder right now, but I think once they're stuffed with lids they will be packed tight.

That paper blank clearly needed something on it. I choose to write out the address we'll be sending the lids to -- that way we won't have to squint at a lid when the time comes. I decorated the corners with little pink ribbons, hand-drawn. I have some confidence that, given the context, they will probably not be mistaken for stylized fish.

I popped the card back into its pocket. I like it there; now the holder is more than an anonymous pink thing.

To finish things off, I wrote out "Save Lids to Save Lives" again on a white strip of cardstock and taped it to the spine of the holder. (You can see I did not succeed in stopping my handwriting from getting smaller as I wrote. Oh well.)

And that's my BCA/Think Pink project -- it's pink and it holds lids that will eventually be sent off so that Yoplait donates a couple more dollars to the Susan B. Komen foundation. If we fill it, it will only be $10, but it would be easy to send away the little envelopes and stamp more to start collecting another $10 of lids. Probably the fanciest thing about it is the glittery embossing powder -- it's not the epitome of amazing papercraft projects by any means -- but it will serve a useful purpose.

Probably on top of the microwave.

I'm entering this little project in the following challenges:

• Dawn's Crafting: Breast Cancer Awareness / Think Pink
• The Crafty Pad: Breast Cancer Awareness / Think Pink
• Simon Says Stamp and Show: For the Love of Sparkle (sparkly embossing powder on the little envelopes)
• Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes (no October Afternoon here, though)
• Ladybug Crafts: Anything Goes

Undisclaimer: I'm not being paid or sponsored or anything like that by Yoplait. Alas.

Supplies: (envelopes and index card case are from Staples, which is just very unfriendly to the linking widget)