Day Four with Sharon Johnson - A Simple Gift

We can't thank Sharon enough for all the outstanding projects she has designed for JustRite this week. Today's post will show you how to transform paper into a beautiful personalized monogram stationery gift set. Sharon will be showing you how to recreate every detail including designing your own box.

I could not possibly let my week at JustRite pass without doing a set of monogrammed cards. After all, the ability to so easily produce beautiful monograms is what drew my eye to JustRite in the first place, so today I have prepared a simple gift of monogrammed note cards – appropriate at any time. Also, they are simple to make during this busy time of year and would be a well-received gift. I intentionally stayed with basic layouts and minimal embellishments to make this a very do-able project this Christmas season. I also included a simple box, tied with ribbon, to make the gift of cards seem even more special. Here’s the entire set.

I have instructions on how to make the box at the end of this post, but I’ll start by showing you everything first.

There are six cards in this set. These three are made with brown mats on a white base. Each is slightly different. I really wanted to use Bella Rose paper by SU, but as it’s been my favorite paper there isn’t much left, so I was drawing on small pieces to come up with enough for this project, and I just made it!!! For most of these cards I used a 2” strip of the brown dotted DP and just positioned it differently on each card. And on all the cards my brown and pink papers are separated by a thin strip of pink cardstock. Love that look and I do it often.


Here are the other three cards. These cards have no mats. The paper is just adhered to the white base. I am really loving this style of card lately. In addition to being appealing to the eye, they require less paper and less work, and that’s a good thing!!! My embellishments were kept simple. My monograms were cut, matted and framed using my Petite Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders. I added two tiny pearls to each monogram and a little taffeta bow on top of each monogram. I did, however, pop my monogram up on SU Dimensionals. Just wanted a bit of elevation. Even though they are simple, I think they are pretty and I hope the recipient likes them!

And here’s a look at this simple box for my set of 6 cards. My box is 1 ¼” high and perfectly holds 6 envelopes and these cards with their one layer of SU Dimensionals. It would easily hold 8 cards, or probably even more, if the cards were totally flat. This box is designed that you must open the ribbon to open the box. The tag is adhered to the box, with the ribbon in between, so even when the box is opened, the ribbon stays attached. Take a look at the box when opened.

See what a perfect fit? I think in this photo you can also see the tiny pearls on the monograms and you can also get a good view of the tag on the box. The tag actually opens like a card, and we’ll get to that in a bit.

I used several different JustRite products to make this simple gift set. The monograms were made using the Damask Border Starter Kit. But rather than using the Times New Roman font that comes in the kit, I chose to use Trompe Font for my monogram. And I now see I forgot to include the Trompe Font box in my photo – sorry! To make my tag I used the Harmony Classic Circle II Stamp Ensemble (With Love), and for my To and From which is stamped on the inside of the tag I used Brayton Font with the Harmony Rectangle Stamper Set. It’s really great how well all of these products work together and build upon each other.

I'd like to show you how easy it is to make this little tag. First of all I stamped my sentiment and made the tag front, the decorative part. Once that was done, I took the same die that I used for the largest layer on the tag front, and used that to make my little card/tag base. The base of the tag, which opens like a card, is done with that die. I folded my paper, just like you’d fold a card, then when I positioned my Nestie onto the paper, I made sure that the top portion of the Nestie was OFF the paper. This way it doesn’t cut through and we end up with a fold, or a little card. And since we used the same die, our decorative tag top fits perfectly onto the tag or card base. Adhere it on and you are set. Take a look.

I then added a pearl and bow and stamped the To and From on the inside. Cute as can be!! As I said above, I did adhere this tag permanently to my box top, but these cute little cards could be used for just about anything! Now on to the box.

This is a simple box to make and it takes only 2 sheets of 8.5 x 11 cardstock – less actually, you’ll have leftovers! I did make mine of cardstock and then covered it with the Bella Rose DP to match my cards, but you could just as easily make the box out of DP and avoid that one step. I just didn’t have enough DP to actually make the box out of the DP. Here’s the measurements:
Cut box base 8 3/8 x 7 – score all 4 sides at 1 ¼”
Cut box top 8 ½ x 7 1/8 – score all 4 sides at 1 ¼”
I set the stopper guide on my Scor-It to 1 ¼” and quickly scored all sides perfectly uniform. By having an adjustable stopper guide on the Scor-It you can easily set it to whatever measurement you need – a feature I really love, especially when doing boxes when you need consistent scores on all sides.

Once scored you need to cut your slits where the box will fold to form your tabs. As you’ll notice from the photo, I actually cut out the entire width of the score, rather than just a slit. Doing this ensures that your tabs will fit perfectly and nothing will get hung up. Add tape to your tabs as shown in the photo on the RIGHT side of the box. They’ll end up on the inside of the tab on the inside of the box when you fold it into shape.
If you are going to make a plain box and then cover it with DP, the time to do it is BEFORE you adhere your box into shape. Do it while the box is still flat – just makes life much easier! After your DP is applied, THEN you can tape your box into shape and continue to decorate as you wish.
I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed making monogrammed projects during this past year. They are some of my all time FAVS both as to simplicity and for just a general WOW!!! factor! Who doesn’t LOVE to get something made especially for them!!! I hope you have some monogram stampers and are able to give it a try!!! I know it’ll turn out JustRite!!! Thanks for looking!!!

Supplies:
JustRite Stamps: JustRite Damask Border Starter Kit, Trompe Font, Brayton Font, Harmony Rectangle Stamper Set, Harmony Classic Circle Stamper II Ensemble
Paper: PTI White, SU Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Bella Rose DP
Ink: Versa Fine Vintage Sepia
Accessories: Scor-It, Petite Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders, Kaiser Pearls, SU Pink Taffeta Ribbon and Chocolate Satin Ribbon, SU Ticket Corner and Corner Rounder Punches

Keep us in mind....."When it needs to be JustRite".