personalized note cards

Every holiday I'm looking for nice (but inexpensive) gifts for teachers, coaches, etc. Even though I only have 2 kids, I have a lot of people to buy for ~ 2 teachers, 2 parapros/teachers aids, preschool director, gymnastics coach, 3 Sunday School teachers, art teacher, music teacher, nurse at school (who my daughter visits several times a year!), and on and on. I don't like to just go out and buy stuff at the store because it seems so impersonal. Plus, I can usually save money while giving a nicer gift if it's handmade.

One of the easiest things to make are personalized note cards. You can make them as fancy or simple as you want. And who wouldn't want to get a set of personalized note cards? The great about these is that the recipient can use these cards for anything...birthday card, sympathy, thinking of you, etc.

Here's a few simple ones I came up with today:

Excuse the lighting, it's pretty dreary out today. The alphabet stamp was a fun stamp set I found in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby. The dotted circle is from the Think Happy Thoughts set. Colors are real red, always artichoke and elegant eggplant. Punches used were the scallop punch & 1 1/4" circle. Add that to a strip of cardstock and voila! Card is standard size.

Oh, and don't forget to personalize your envelopes. No naked envelopes!!

I've given these to teachers for Christmas and they always seem to enjoy them. I'm thinking this year they may be end-of-year gifts, not sure yet.