Holiday Planners & More...

'Tis the season for my much anticipated Holiday Planners. When the holiday season rolls around, all of my friends and family look forward to their Holiday Planner so that they can begin jotting down gift ideas, recipes, long to do lists and more. I like to hand out the Holiday Planners at least by November 1st and this year I'm adding in a few other items to make a perfect "re-gift". Here's a little shot of the merry little mess I created down in the Craft Department.

Every year I love to use a simple red and white color scheme for the holidays. Sometimes I leave it at that....and other times like this year, I'm adding in some aquas and greens to the mix. I'm also going with a candy cane stripe as you can see in the patterned papers and twine in my photo below.

Here's the whole gift ensemble. My idea is that in addition to my usual Holiday Planner, I'm also going to include 2 cards with envelopes and 2 gift tags with enclosure sacks. Many times the recipient will say "It's too cute to use"...or...."I want to keep all of it for myself". Well this year they can keep all of it. Or they can keep the Holiday Planner and give the rest away. Or they can keep the Holiday Planner + 1 card + 1 tag and give the rest away. You get the idea? I think I'm going to type up a little note enclosure that says this is the perfect *re-gift* and how this is the gift that keeps on giving. :)

The time is critical here for handing these out. I plan to give mine out by November 1st. This way the recipient can start using their Holiday Planner & other items. It's also a nice way to give a little gift to someone you don't buy something big or expensive for. And it's great to get together with the recipient early in the season before all the hustle and bustle starts.

Okay, here's what I did for my ensemble of goodies. Each piece has some similar items:

*Kraft cardstock base with white splatters (I used Studio Calico white Mister Huey)

*1 vertical, wide strip of aqua colored candy cane patterned paper from Candy Cane Prints

*1 vertical, narrow strip of red colored candy cane patterned paper (see above link)

*1 horizontal strip of Rustic White cardstock with sentiment (except tags)

*1 tiny pint jar embellishment with snowflake embellishment

For the Holiday Planner I used 2 White Notepads so that the notebook will be thicker and last a little longer through the holiday season.
All jar embellishments use the smaller friendship jar from the Friendship Jar Summer Fillers stamp set. The Pint Jar die is sold separately and makes mass producing these projects a breeze. I created 5 total jar embellishments and then started the projects from there. I colored each jar with a Copic marker, just around the edges. The pinked paper is from Crate Paper's Peppermint line. The snowflake die is from the Peace Be Still Collection. Snowflake stamp is from In the Meadow. Pure Poppy Vintage Buttons and Red Baker's Twine are from the PTI store.

For the sentiments, I used Take Note. It's still a favorite set of mine that Nichole designed from my concept sketches. Paper is from Crate Paper's Peppermint Collection. Vintage ribbon is from my stash.
Here's what the inside of the Holiday Planners look like. I use Scor-Tape to adhere the notebooks to the cardstock cover. Note: I do not have measurements for the cutting and scoring for the notebooks. I mark where I want to cut & score with my fingernail. The measurements are so small that they never turn out right when I go by a set number. I just make sure to add a little extra to the cardstock cover so that it fully covers the notebooks. For the notebook enclosure, I used a brown paper sack from my shop that I trimmed down and stitched around.
Here are the pair of cards. Same concept for the jar embellishment and patterned papers. For the sentiment strip, I used my Scor-Pal to create 2 raised lines on the top and bottom of the strip. That just adds a little dimension without the addition of more papers, inks, etc. These cards could easily be used as Christmas cards, thank you cards or well into the winter months of next January, February, etc. The *just a note * and hand are from Take Note. The *Winter wishes* is from Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers.
Here are a duo of tags that are made with the new Tag Sale #5 die. It's a new favorite of mine too. The sentiment is from Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers. Red chevron sacks are from my shop.
And there ya have it, a fun little ensemble that will surely put the recipient in the holiday spirit. The perfect re-gift! Hope you enjoy!

Note: You can click on the *Notebooks* label at the end of this post to see all my previous blog posts featuring my notebook creations.