A Stampy Birthday Preset

I love handmade gifts. I think they are so personal, especially in this online day and age where we easily can buy anything we want with the click of a mouse. If I had more hours in the day, all my gifts would be handmade.

My friend celebrated her 29th birthday this year. As a portion of her present, I made her a box of monogrammed stationery. Simple, personal, and yet, still affordable.

(All photos were taken by my trusty compact point and shoot, since I hadn’t received the digital Rebel yet from Hubsters yet.)

First, I stamped her initial with pale aqua ink.

Next, the circle stamp outlined the “J.”

My 1.5 inch circle punch fit perfectly around the monogram.

After matting the monograms on slightly larger colored circles, I used a simple Xyron sticker unit to make seals.

Are these adorable?They’re backed on sticker paper so they can be used as envelope seals.

Now, for the stationery. The cards were made of white paper, matching monograms, and thin strips of patterned paper and colored ribbon.

Everything was adhered together with tombo tape runner.

Next, I made some pretty as punch lined envelopes using the leftover patterned paper.

Here’s the blue set…

And now, a picture of the green one.

I packaged the cards, envelopes, and seals in a thin, clear box wrapped with more patterned paper and a decorative oval that I cut using my Cuttlebug die cutting machine.

The photo is a little washed out, but here’s the final package. What do you think? Gift worthy? Or branded to the bottom drawer?

(Supplies: Nestabilities oval and scalloped oval dies, PTI aqua mist and spring moss ink, patterned paper, and cardstock, SU define your life and frames with a flourish stamps, SU circle punch, xyron sticker machine)