#24 No Christmas cards, but a few gifts

Despite the fact that I continue to buy wonderful Christmas stamps, I don't make my Christmas cards. I'm not sure why, other than the fact that there are so many exquisite cards for purchase at holiday time, I've never felt I could do better.

I did make a few small gifts this year, more by chance than design. Louise at KardKrazy (http://kardkrazy.blogspot.com/) had a wonderful idea to make a personalized stocking stuffer with a Post-It note pad she found for $1.00. I agreed that they were pretty neat and shuffled off to buy some, myself.

I decided that it was about time I did something creative with the stack of coasters I've been hoarding and ended up making little notepads for my sister, Deb and my daughter, Beth. (Please note, however that Beth's pad says "Liz." Her real name is Elizabeth Clare, and our family calls her Beth. Somewhere in middle school she was nicknamed Liz and it stuck. It gets a bit confusing at times...)

Anyway, I covered the coaster with patterned paper, measured the width of the pad and the height in order to score it. I then attached a back coaster to extend beyond the pad and attached a golf pencil with one of those great pen/pencil holders that Sue Nelson so kindly ordered for us a few months ago.

I liked how the pad holders went together; Deb and Beth/Liz like the way they look. I know I'm driving myself crazy being anal, but I think I put the "Z" in Liz upside down! (I used the Sizzix Lollipop Alphabet to cut out the vinyl adhesive letters for the names and it's sometimes hard to tell.)