Valentine's Day is next Tuesday, so don't forget to acknowledge that special someone. Or, if you don't have a "special someone", take the opportunity to brighten the day of a good friend or family member that might need a little extra attention right now. I have a couple friends to whom I am sending a little something just to show them how much they mean to me. I am lucky to have them both in my life and this is my opportunity to show them that I appreciate their friendship.
I am sending small gifts that did not cost a ton of money. You do not have to spend like a drunken sailor to show your affection. Small gifts can and do bring every bit as much joy and happiness as expensive gifts. Now, don't get me wrong. I enjoy receiving an expensive gift every now and then. But I'm saying that you don't have to spend a lot at every gift giving season. Remember, it's not so much the gift, but the expression. So let's take a look at some of the touches I used in preparation for sending my gifts.
We'll start with this circle cutter. These are handy to have around. I bought this from Amazon (of course) for a whopping $14.83. I thought that was reasonable and it does a perfect job. Just one quick note about this cutter - the smallest size diameter" it will cut is 4". So that means the smallest radius is 2". The largest diameter it cuts is 12.6 inches.
Here is our first circle in red. Perfect. You just set the size you want (I chose the lowest setting at 4"), hold down firmly on the blue housing, then rotate the arm around. Before you know it, you have cut a perfect circle for your project.
The cutting blades and tool used to insert and remove the blades are housed in this compartment on the underneath side of the main housing. Very handy. Perfect spot. Great idea to keep all the parts together in one place.
Here we have the cutting blade placed in the tool used to set it in place. Cutting blade is inside the tool so that you can set the base of it snugly in place in the arm.
Blade set in place and you simply slide the little placement tool off and place it back inside the storage compartment on the underneath side. Simple. Easy to use.
Here, our blade in place, we were ready to start our project.
I cute two circles since I have two boxes that I'm sending this year. I'm just showing you this to let you know that both of these circles were cut out perfectly the first time. These are not the result of many attempts to get perfect circles cut. This tool really does work as described. Easy peasy.
Once the circles were cut, it was time to move on to the next step in this project and that was to do some stamping. Love this stamp. Not fussy. Love the font. And it turned out to be the perfect size stamp for this project, as you will see. A jet black ink pad and I was ready to get started.
A word of caution or just some good advice. When doing a stamp project, always make sure to test your stamp on a scrap piece of paper first. This will save you a lot of frustration if the first stamp is too light or if it is spotty and does not pick up the ink evenly from the pad. Even if your stamp pad is brand new, you do not know how long it has been sitting on the store shelf or in some warehouse. Test first. Make sure the stamp is absorbing plenty of ink, then continue.
And here is the first circle taped to the outside of the box going to friend #1. I made sure this was completely covered in clear packing tape. The slightest exposed edge and this would never make the trek through the postal service or any other delivery service.
Both boxes ready to go. I just need to put the address labels on and drop them off at the post office. I'm going to use USPS for these. These friends are not far away, so I feel certain that if I mail them on Friday or even Saturday, they will arrive on or before next Tuesday.
In one of the boxes I placed a personal note, but in the other I placed a card with a personal note inside. This is the envelope for that card. I thought this was a cute way of embellishing the envelope rather than just writing her name.
The heart on the envelope came from Paper Source. They come in sets of 8. I think this package was in the $6.95 price range. Don't hold me to that. I can't remember specifically and I cannot find these on their website. I picked these up in their store in Georgetown.
The butterfly stickers are from Hallmark. I did not buy these specifically for Valentine's Day. I've had them for some time and found them when I was working on this project. I have no idea where I bought them, but you can get these anywhere. Walmart, Target, even in CVS.
In addition, I wanted to share with you this circle "punch" that I recently bought. This cuts circles at a 2-1/2" diameter. The rotary cutters like I used in this post usually are not capable of making cuts smaller than about 4", so if you need a smaller circle, you will have to invest in one of these circle punches.
This works like a charm. I tested it this week and it makes perfect round cuts.
I tested it on the same paper I used in this project to make the larger circles for the gift boxes.
You see here that the paper is cut and contained inside this compartment. You simply slide the clear plastic cover open and your circles await. The cardstock I used in this post is double-sided in two colors. The sheet I used was red on one side and pink on the other, so you get double-duty from this paper.
I hope you enjoyed this post. This was a rather simple project that did not cost a great deal of money, but one that I know any of your friends would love receiving. Just knowing that you assembled this on your own and that it has your personal touch will mean a lot to them.
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