Postmarks

You will never guess what today is. So I'll just tell ya. My *favorite* day of the year. The day the sun comes back. Insert happy sigh {here}. I know some of you would prefer the extra hour of sleep, but I'll take the sunshine over the sleep any darned sunny day of the week :)

And, today's the first Design Team countdown post for March's release, so it's a double happy day for me. Can I just say... dude. This is a seriously fun set. There are so many stamps in this set that it's kinda mind boggling. I used a whole lotta stamps in my project and I bet I didn't even get close to using half of the entire set. Seriously. And this set is so open-ended... this is one that you can use for so many different occasions. I went a little out non-traditional and took it in a holiday direction... a little Christmas postcard set wrapped up and ready to give. {Christmas gift in March? Whoa. The sky must be falling down somewhere, right?} My goal was to make a set of holiday notecards that would be easy, flat (obviously) but still fun and interesting, as well as sturdy. I paired Postmarks with Year of Flowers: Poinsettias and stamped the blooms on PTI's new Postmarks patterned paper. I love this pattern... it adds so much interest to the background without being overwhelming. The little detail images are from Postmarks. The stamp image in the upper right corner is actually 3 separate images... a little "perforated" edge, an inner frame, and the tiny snowflake. There are lots of little images to dress up the inside of the "stamp;" they're all so cute! I know this spot will need to be covered with a real stamp, but at least the sender gets to enjoy the cuteness, right? I also added the little First Class Mail image using the lighter ink from the Tea Dye Duo. I often use that ink when I'm looking for softer brown. To give the postcards some oomph in terms of weight and color, I adhered each of the the patterned paper panels to a panel of cardstock... Simply Chartreuse, Ocean Tides, Raspberry Fizz, and Aqua Mist. I really went to town with the Postmarks set on this side. I actually started with the main "Postcard" stamp and the bottom detail stamp first. I stamped those images with Dark Chocolate and then worked from the bottom of the cards up after that. It went really quickly because I just lined each panel up and stamped the same image on each one.

Note the little Happy Holidays postmark... lots more postmark circles to choose from. And the Special Delivery with the dates... yup, a whole set of months and numbers, too. The sentiment at the bottom is from Tree Trimming Trio. My thought for this gift is that it will be perfect the perfect hostess gift... a little set of post-holiday thank you cards. I used the new Label Basics set to create a little 4-pack of embellished labels. The sender can just write the address and stick them on. I tucked them in one of PTI's tiny glassine bags along with a set of stamps. {I figured I'd wait on the new stamps pick up a few new ones closer to the season.} This way everything that's needed is all in one place. To package everything up, I added another Label Basics image along with a holiday sentiment to the outside of a large glassine bag. I stamped a few more Postmarks images to the bag for a good hint as to what will be found inside. If I could wrap every gift up in glassine bags, I totally would. I love the semi-transparency and how you can just make out what's inside without totally seeing all of it. I thought the baker's twine was the perfect touch. {And look... I still totally have all of the Christmas cards that were sent to me. I would like to tell you that I will be cleaning them out, but actually... I keep most of them. Seriously. It's a sickness.} The Postmarks love doesn't end here, my friends. Check out everything the rest of the Papertrey team has for you today... Nichole Heady Betsy Veldman Erin Lincoln Maile Belles Lisa Johnson Dawn McVey Heather Nichols Melissa Phillilps Michelle Wooderson Danielle Flanders Signing off for today (but back tomorrow!)... {Air Mail} Postcard set Stamps - Postmarks, Label Basics (both to be released 3/15/11), Year of Flowers: Poinsettias, Tree Trimming Trio CS - Simply Chartreuse, Raspberry Fizz, Ocean Tides, Aqua Mist, Kraft PP - Postmarks (to be released 3/15/11) Ink - Dark Chocolate, Raspberry Fizz, New Leaf, Vintage Cream, Tea Dye Duo Other - Chocolate Baker's Twine, small and large glassine bags