Card gifts for co-workers

Hi friends!  I'm back to show you the cards I made for my co-workers.  I needed to make 18 sets- here are all 72 cards stacked up in neat little piles, waiting to be packaged!  I tried to make an assortment of common occasion cards, so I have a thank you, a birthday, a baby and a sympathy card in each pack.  My plan was to make each card pretty simple, but I'm not sure they ended up that way.. they were a lot of work, but I'm happy with how they turned out.  :)

First up is the thank you card: I've had this K&Co paper pad FOREVER (it was seriously one of the first paper pads I ever bought) so I've been trying to go back to my oldest papers and use them up.  It's not that I don't like them, it's just I have newer stuff I like better, and I have this tendency to not use the new stuff because I have so many other papers that need to be used first (or so I tell myself).  For whatever reason, I can't bear to just give away my older stuff- I feel like I paid for it, I have to use it! :)  Anyway, so here's some of that paper being used and it feels good to have it gone!  I cut a simple strip of paper and added a Nestabilities die-cut, stamped with a Melissa Frances sentiment.

This birthday card is so ME- I love the bright, happy, rainbow colors. :)  I used papers from Hobby Lobby, and while the card itself looks pretty simple, paper piecing 18 of those Studio G presents took me a LONG time.  I love how it looks like wrapping paper though, so I'm glad I took the time to cut and paste, rather than color in a stamped image.  I added a bit of orange ribbon to finish off the card- I don't love that loopy business, but I had a really tough time finding thin orange ribbon at Michaels and I was in a pinch.  I'm sure I'm the only one who cares about that though! :)  Onto the next card...

This card uses some Martha Stewart paper, some purple cardstock, and this awful ribbon I picked up at the thrift store.  Well I shouldn't say *awful*, but it's got the texture of burlap, and I have probably 25 yards, so I'm not sure how I'll ever use it up.  I was hoping to use up quite a bit with this project, but it hardly made a dent.  Again, I can't just give it away- I have to actually use it.  I'm such a weirdo!  lol  :)  Anyway, I stamped the flower pot (by Unity), colored the images in with my Copics and added a My Sentiments Exactly sentiment.  Sympathy cards are usually hard for me, but this one turned out alright.

Last up was this super simple baby card.  I was running out of steam by this time, but I knew I wanted to use this Melissa Frances onesie image, so I stamped it on yellow cardstock (gender neutral!) and used yellow ink for the sentiment.  The paper is K&Co.. a pretty simple layout because I didn't want to add buttons or anything bulky.  I guess you could call this one "clean and simple".  

I was pretty excited about the packaging- I know it's nothing new, but I finally picked up some clear boxes from Denami Designs when I was at a stamp convention last year.  Normally my cards are 5x6 1/2", but these cards are only 4x5 1/2" so they fit perfectly in the boxes.  I wanted the cards to peek through, so instead of wrapping them, I tied on some Christmas-y ribbons, added some shipping tags (stamped with an Inkadinkado tag) and a couple of jingle bells.  As I was driving to work, my boxes would tinkle whenever I drove over cracks in the road or potholes.  Hehe.  

These cards were apparently a big hit- I had a few people comment to me that they were hoping I'd give out more cards again this year, because they had already used the ones I gave last year!  It was such a cheap thing to make, too- I bought 75 cards/envelopes for $5, and I believe the boxes were $6 for 10.  Of course I already had the paper and embellishments in my stash, but I would say each box of cards cost less than $2 to make.  It was a great way to make sure each of my co-workers got a little something but it didn't cost me big!  I hope you enjoyed my post today.. I'm off to shovel my car out of the foot and a half of snow we got last night!  Then I'll make myself cozy with white hot chocolate and a day of making cards! :D  Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )