This is a card in Dave's Virtual Box of Cards.

Stack Display (cardboard desk toy for small paper notes)

Page created: 2025-07-06

I’ve been using this actual paper stack method for keeping track of personal projects for almost a month and it’s working great for me.

I make useful and/or whimsical stuff out of cardboard boxes constantly. Shelf organizers, art supply caddies, phone stands, goofy little art things to amuse myself and others, toys for the kids (puppet theaters with little cardboard puppets, castles, play kitchens, etc.), and countless little temporary…things.

(Note to self: I should really round up some of the greatest hits and post them on the website…)

Here’s a little cardboard display I made for the mini Post-It stack:

The completed stack display - it looks kind of like a mini computer display with a little clear screen just big enough to show a mini Post-It note

Anyway, the clear screen for the display is a piece of stiff plastic taken from a brownie treat container from the grocery store bakery. (I washed the chocolate off and replaced the missing square in the packaging with a piece of cardboard so the treat will remain protected until it’s eaten.)

I cut the plastic a little larger than the dimensions of a mini Post-It note and hot-glued it to the back of the cardboard display front, which has a cut-out for the window.

The back of the display has a hot-glued clear piece of plastic just big enough to show one note.

The sides are just triangles of cardboard hot-glued to the display front.

By the way, you can get amazingly accurate cuts in cardboard with a fresh utility knife blade and a straight-edge. I’ve had the best luck taking cuts in multiple passes so that I never have to press really hard (which tends to make the piece move, losing accuracy).

The insert is a couple pieces of cardboard that the notes stick to.

To hold the Post-It stack inside the display, I made a little cardboard insert. It’s the cardboard piece from the window cut-out, with another piece as a bit of a handle to make it easier to shove up into the display, and a third to provide tension, pressing the notes against the window and keeping the insert from falling out.

The insert shoved into the bottom of the display

Above is the underside of the display, showing the insert "clipped in" by the tension of the bent cardboard piece and a little shelf of cardboard that supports it from below. It’s not as complicated as it looks.

I think the result is pretty cute on my desk. Certainly better than a haphazard stack of notes!