Quick & Easy Gifts

This month's Papertrey group post is all about quick and easy gifts.  You're sure to find lots of inspiration to kick off your holiday gift making season.  The Papertrey Design Team is using Tiny Treats: Christmas, a big fan favorite now featuring holiday images and sentiments.  This set along with all the new goodies this month will be available at Papertrey on October 15th.

Today I have this year's version of my holiday planners to show you.  These fun notepads are a such a useful gift and very much anticipated by all my friends and family.  I like to hand them about early in November so that everyone can get a head start on their holiday lists.  They're perfect for jotting down wish lists, decorating ideas, holiday projects, menus and more.  They tuck perfectly into a work bag or purse.....and they're just so cute.  What's not to love?

To see of my holiday planners and embellished notebooks in general, click on the *notebooks* label at the bottom of this post.  All of my previous posts with my notebooks will show up.

For this year's holiday planner, the Tiny Treats: Christmas set is soooo perfect for the main embellishment.  The images and sentiments fit right into Papertrey's Limitless Layers Die Collection which includes a 1.75" circle die and other decorative edged dies.  You can also use a 1.75" circle punch to punch out the stamped images.  To color the bell image, I used red Copic marker and a B000 marker to outline the bell image.  The bell itself was colored in with a white colored pencil.  For my notebooks, I used Pure Poppy Felt with a decorative die and it worked like a charm.  The dotted circle image is from Take Note.

For the Holiday Planner strip on my notebook, I used Take Note again along with a strip of snowflake paper cut from Pine's new Christmas Prints patterned paper collection.  Vintage Buttons tied with Pure Poppy Baker's Twine were added to the strip with small sticky dots.

And here's my best tip when making the holiday planners:  Use the patterned paper sheets from the Christmas Prints collection which has rows of horizontal patterns.  It makes your notepads look like you've layered on lots of different papers, but it's so quick and easy.  Love!

And for final finishing touch, here's a simple gift wrap for your notepads.  Simply slip a finished notepad into a Large Glassine Sack and fold the excess around the notepad.  Tie a piece of Fresh Snow Satin Luxe ribbon around the sack.  I added some more Pure Poppy Baker's Twine along with a vintage jingle bell to tie in with the Tiny Treats image on my holiday planner cover.  So cute and so easy.

And if that wasn't enough inspiration, Nichole is providing each designer with a *receipt* which shows how inexpensively you can recreate each of the Design Team members' projects.  How awesome is that!?  Here's my breakdown costs for my project today:

And remember, if you break each part of the project down into little steps, you will be able to mass produce the holiday planners so easily.  You can finish a pile of notebooks all at once....or do a few steps   at different stamping sessions.  Either way, you're off to a great start on your holiday projects!

Enjoy!  And be sure to check out the other Design Team blogs to see their quick and easy gift ideas:

• Nichole Heady
• Heather Nichols
• Lisa Johnson
• Betsy Veldman
• Debbie Olson
• Dawn McVey
• Kim Hughes
• Niki Estes
• Melissa Phillips
• Erin Lincoln
• Maile Belles