About a month ago, we were invited to a new friend’s birthday party. Not knowing exactly what kind of stuff he likes, we decided to go to a local restaurant to get a gift card. We had never been in this particular bagel/coffee shop, but the ads we've seen for it make it sound pretty hip and cool… and they recently started offering pizza… who doesn’t like pizza?! So just a few hours before the party, my hubby and I went to the shop and asked if they had gift cards. The young woman behind the counter said “Sure!” So we asked for one for $20 and I also ordered a bagel sandwich meal (YUMMM!). We went and sat down while we waited for the order to be ready. Eventually, I got my meal in a to-go box and we were still waiting on the “gift card”. Several minutes later, a manager (or maybe it was the owner) came over to our table and handed us a wad of 4 pieces of paper and said “We were having a hard time getting the $20 certificate to print, would this be okay?” Then we looked down and noticed that he had handed us four $5 gift certificate like things that had obviously been used—they were a bit crumpled. We looked at each other a smidge perplexed, but said “Okay” and walked out, happy to get on with our day. On our way home, my hubby and I contemplated going back to return the certificates… instead, since it was a rainy day and I was ready to get home so I could eat my sandwich, I told him I would do my best to make them look more presentable…. after LUNCH!
So, here’s what I came up with:
And a peek inside:
I already had the card made, so I used that for inspiration. Instead of settling for a simple legal sized envelope, I decided to get out a handy dandy paper lunch sack and snazzy it up. I trimmed it down to size, leaving a little extra so I could punch the scallop edge and fold it over. To make it look less like a lunch sack, I cut a 3/4” x 12” strip of Old Olive Textured Card Stock and wrapped it around the top of the bag and secured it in the back. I simply stamped all over the bag. For the inside (most important snazzying part), I cut two 2” (or maybe 1 ½”) x 12” strips of the same card stock. From there, I just folded one of the strips at about 1” or 2” to wrap around one end of the wad of certificates and then attached the other strip to that flap to create the other side. I trimmed them down to about an inch or two longer than the certificates—so just a bit stuck out from the bag. Then I stamped and handwrote the labels, attached them and tied a ribbon to hold it all together. The card on the front of the bag is in a Clear Translucent Envelope, attached with some Glue Dots.
Since I’ve been a bit lax with posting on my blog, the stamp set I used on this project, Tropical Party, is no longer available for you to order. It’s from the Summer Mini… But the cool new Decorative Label punch that I used on the insert is available in the new Holiday Mini! As you can see, it mats the Wide Oval Punch nicely. Check it out on the SHOP NOW page of
my website.
So, if you ever need to snazzy up a wad of recycled gift certificates, feel free to use my idea! Please note that I made sure to put the least crumpled certificate on the outside of the wad. :)
Happy Stampin!
Brenda
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