Retirement gift

so...it was more like a week than 3 days...but if I hadn't been a slacker, I might have knocked someone over from surprise...and I wouldn't want to use my blog for evil ;)

Here's the basket that I made for the MCHS school secretary that was retiring. Sanford really likes her...and she is always BEYOND appreciative of any little gifties that I send in. She is also crafty, so maybe that's why she's thankful...she actually understands how much work something is ;) Anyway, I wanted to make something special for her but it needed to be useful and tie into her retiring...

So, since she's a stamper...I made a basket designed around a color scheme and a stamp set.

I gifted a Papertrey Anniversary set from this year and chose my new fav color scheme...Hawaiian Shores and Pure Poppy...okay, aqua and red for those of you that don't speak papertrey-ese. I packaged up buttons and ribbon and flowers and all kinds of embellishment goodies.

Here is the stamp set packaged up...

Here are the buttons and a nugget tin done a la Nicole Heady...

I also wrapped up a chocolate bar and a clear box holding a set of blank notecards and cuttlebug embossed paper to use as bases on the cards.

This gift was ridiculously inexpensive (I think I spent $8 on the crinkle wrap and the tin it's all placed in). The stamp set was free because of the Papertrey deal where you get a free anniversary set with every 12 sets you buy throughout the year and I had the plastic packaging, nugget tin, paper, ribbon, buttons, felt, and small red tin...but I spent HOOOOOURS cutting and embossing and die cutting the labels and tags that matched the stamp set.

I would NOT have done this for most people. They just wouldn't appreciate the time and effort that went into it. I was happy to do it for her though. I just hope now that she's retired she has more time to stamp...that's what we're all looking forward to right? The day we can roll out of bed, stumble into the craft nook, and make a big, sticky, colorful mess before breakfast!?! I mean, we only work to support the craft habit...I swear sometimes I think it's worse than crack!