Papertrey Ink January Release Day 3

Welcome to Day 3 of the Papertrey Ink January release countdown! Today the team is sharing some fun new sets and I will be focusing on the new Bold Borders: Arabesque and the latest in the Sentiment Staples series: Sentiment Staples: Just a Note. If you'd like even more inspiration using these new products, head to the Papertrey Ink Blog!

I can't tell you how many "just a note" cards I have gotten back from my kids' teachers because I send so many gifts! LOL! Anyway, I thought it would be fun to "gift" some "Just a Note" card sets back to them! I know that teachers sometimes don't like apple themed gifts, but since they will be giving these cards away, I thought it seemed fitting that they look like they came from a teacher! Does that make any sense? Sometimes I really over-analyze things!

Each card set contains 4 cards and stamped envelopes. Two cards in each set say "Just a note to say hello" and two say "Just a note to say thanks". I thought these two sentiments would probably be the most useful for the teachers. To begin, I cut and scored 8 A2 card bases out of Kraft cardstock. I die cut 8 of the Bold Borders: Arabesque out of Pure Poppy cardstock and then used liquid glue to adhere them to the card bases. I used a metal shim in my Cuttlebug to ensure that the border would cut nicely. I have to tell you that it cut like butter. I DO have some die cutting tips for these intricate dies that you can read about HERE if you are interested!

When I was designing these cards in my head, they were going to be simple boutique chic type cards, but as I started assembling them, I just felt they needed a few extras; I thought it would be fun for the "Just a Note" sentiment to be stamped on the lined paper image from the School Days stamp set. It's a little bit hard to see in this particular photo, but it's there, I promise! Ha ha! The cute pen images are from the super fun set called Ink It In. I die cut all of the pens and then used my mini MISTI to ink them all up lickety split. I opted to leave the pen clip and tip portion white. I tried it out using gray ink, but I ended up liking the white better, so it saved me some time. I used a marker to color in the tips so that was a helpful time saver as well.

I die cut the large Granny Smith apple using the Big Apple die with a Kraft stem and Simply Chartreuse leaf. The smaller apple is from the School Days stamp set as well and I used the coordinating die to cut them out. I heat embossed the "to say hello" and "to say thanks" portion using white powder and then used the Skinny Mini Banners die. These dies are so perfect for the smaller sentiments in all of the Sentiment Staples sets. I also stamped the outside flap of each envelope with the "Just a Note" sentiment for continuity and a cohesive professional feel. I also stamped the back of each card using one of the images from the Handmade Hodgepodge, which I believe has been discontinued.

As I mentioned earlier, each of the card sets has 4 cards each; two using the thanks sentiment and two with the hello sentiment. I packaged them up in the Clearly Creative cardboxes for that professional look. Each one is tied up with coordinating ribbon. These ended up with a Valentine-y teacher feel, which was unintentional, but I think I'll gift these to my son's preschool teachers for their Valentine's Day gift along with a gift card to Applebees because I just can't resist! LOL! Thanks for fluttering by!