Boxed Holiday Stationery Set

With the economy headed in a recession, we’re all on the lookout for inexpensive holiday gifts, especially if you have a large family like me. This year, I’m planning to hand make most of my gifts. It will be a good time recoup some savings for what I spent on my immense stamp collection.

This weekend, I experimented with making handmade stationery sets from scratch and I really like what I came up with. I created a stationery box that holds a set of four cards and envelopes. Best of all, the raw materials cost less than $3 in paper and ribbon (not counting the ink and the stamps I already own). Someone could easily make the same project with leftover ribbon and a few sheets of patterned paper that’s on hand.

Above is a picture of the full stationery kit.

The box is made out of one sheet of 12×12 textured card stock, plus a decorative strip on the flap. In the near future, I will measure the dimensions of the box and make the pattern to post on my blog (although I can’t promise when!).

And here’s a close up. I like the bright, festive hues. These are SU’s current In Colors.

Above is the card box all closed up. There’s a tiny piece of Velcro under the scalloped circle tag that keeps the box closed. I also used two big eyelets to string the ribbon through as a purse handle.

Here are the four cards in the set.

Project Recipe (all products Stampin’ Up unless otherwise noted): Season of Joy (110384), Deer Friends (hostess set), and Cute & Curly (112966) stamp sets, card stock and ink in riding hood red, baja breeze, kiwi kiss, and whisper white, designer paper in ski slope, striped ribbon in riding hood red, double stitched ribbon in baja breeze, 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon in old olive, punches in scalloped circle (109043), 1 1/2″ circle (EK Success), 1 3/8″ circle (104401), curly label punch (112966), threading water edge punch (Fiskars), stampin’ dimensionals, Heidi Swapp clear flower

So, what do you think? Would you be happy to get a similar set as a gift? I’m planning to create several of these stationery sets, non holiday themed, so you’ll surely see a few more on this blog.