The Paper Room: Birthday gift ...

During our vacation last year, we went for dim sum and dropped by a store I found that sells bags, boxes, ribbon, etc. Basically, it's a place the sells items for packaging. I went there to get some plastic bags to store some of my dies. They were still in it's original plastic packaging and a few just stuck on the piece of cardboard ... anyway, I wanted to put them in plastic bags, so if the dies fell off the cardboard, I would not need to fish for them at the bottom of the container. In the end, I found the perfect size bag, which takes a lot less room ... reduced by 50%! Hubbie asked if that meant I would be buying more stuff now! What a great idea ;)

Anyway, I also bought this lunch box from the store for my neighbor's daughter. Initially, I was going to decorated and fill it with craft things, but I figure it would be more fun if she decorated it herself ... a project she could do with her mom on a rainy day ... or these days a snowy day! I got the smaller one since they did not have any of the larger ones left at the time. The smaller one measures 7.875"x5.87"5x3", so it's still a good size. Isn't it cute :)

I included 4 notebooks ... the 2 larger ones are made with 110 lb watercolor paper, so she could draw and color with various medias. The smaller ones are just for her to write little notes or make mini cards with. The initial 2 notebooks I made with watercolor paper did not fit in the lunch box, so I made 2 other ones to fit perfectly in the lunch box. I know I could have just not put them in the lunch box, but I had my heart set on putting everything in the lunch box ... yeah, I'm a bit weird!

I decided to include some of these stickers that I got during a sale at Magenta a while back. She could use them to decorate the lunch box. I hope I didn't give these to her last year ... I forgot to do a post last year to include everything I gave her, so I can't refer back to the post ... oh well. However, I don't think I gave her any stickers last year ... well if I did, who doesn't love stickers!

I remember when I was younger I loved stickers ... who am I kidding!? I still do ... I just don't really use them anymore. This reminds me of a gift one of my aunts gave us ... I was so thrilled by it when we go it ... personalized stationery and stickers!! I think it was my Aunt A ... I confirmed with my sister, who remembers it being Aunt A as well :) We had some good times in Ohio when we were kids ... memories are mushed and blended together ... but they are great memories and we were lucky our aunts and uncles took the time they did to give us those wonderful memories ... thank you!!

Ok, back to the gift ... I included this cute little stamp that I bought at Fran's sale. Fran's a fellow instructor at the scrapbooking store I "teach" at (I put teach in quotation marks as I have only had time to teach one class ... however, I do intend to give more classes!) I went to the sale really to see Bonnie but figure I would browse to see if I could find anything to include in the lunch box and for Tiffany :) The stamp is brand new ... either that or she cleaned it pretty well after using it. It was $2 ... what more can you ask for!

I included some embellishments ... little flowers and pearls, which she could also use to decorate the lunch box. I chose pink since she likes pink ... hubbie calls her "little pink" since she's dressed in pink most of the time ... lol ... oh and her mom is "mommy pink" :)

I decided to add a bunch of die cuts for her. When I did the craft activity for her last birthday, I had a bunch of die cuts left ... I asked her mom if they could use it as I could just make more when I need it. Her mom said that she would definitely use it, so I know she would have fun with this :)

I included this tube of glitter I found at Dollarama ... I find glitter gives your projects that added wow factor. Oh and of course, it's pink!

While I was going through my stuff, I found more stickers to add to the gift. I decided to make an envelope for it since I did not have the perfect size bag :) I just love my We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board!!

Lastly, I got the idea to make her a gift card which allows her to come over and craft at The Paper Room. I remember she loved playing in the room when she and her mom came over to work on her birthday invitations last year.