I Just Love Creating Homemade Gifts...

I love it because it affords me an opportunity to sort and take stock of my supplies and then see what I can create. De-stashing has never been my strong point. I hate throwing out or even giving away my goodies. As selfish as this may sound, my reasons are innocent enough. I hate it because I always feel like there must be SOMETHING that I can make with these excess goodies.

That something came recently when I needed a gift for my niece and sister-in-law. We don't get to see each other as often as we would like so I always make it a point to send them and my brother a card from time to time and in between visits. As I dug through my stash I found an old book of heritage papers from Hot Off The Press that had been donated by them for a scrap booking party I had a few years back. It had sat on the shelf collecting dust until I came across it the other day. I had also made some pendant necklaces for my niece and sister-in-law using blank pendants and paper, embellishments and diamond glaze. They turned out nicely and I wanted to make a card that matched the vintage style of the necklaces as well.

I printed out several vintage ballerina images from my Flikr pool and adhered them to the card bases I had made from the Hot Off The Press papers. Since the cards turned out so lovely I didn't want to have to package the necklaces separately in another container but I wondered how I could put them together in the cards. Then I remembered how the last necklace that I had purchased for myself came on a card with 2 holes and ascending slits to hold the chain. So I created similar cards and fed the necklaces through the holes and taped the backs. The finished result to my surprise, turned out quite professional looking and I was very pleased. I can't wait to pop the completed cards into a bubble mailer and send them on their merry way.

Flikr Images...

And Cut Doily...

The necklace cards were so easy to make once I thought about the template for a moment.