For a long time, I used to horde my favourite cards I made and not hand them out.  It’s not that I didn’t want to give them away, but I felt like the card would be ruined if I wrote inside it.  Then, one day, I received a beautiful card from a fellow crafter, Lynsay, and she had written a message on a separate piece of paper and inserted it in the card.  A little note at the bottom suggested spreading the joy and regifting the card… what a brilliant idea!

I started making these card inserts a few years and have them tucked into my card box to use as needed.  But wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a whole note pad of them?

As if someone was reading my mind, I saw a tutorial a few weeks ago from Jessica Frost-Ballas on how to create a DIY notepad – this was exactly what I was thinking of!  I was finally inspired to turn this idea into reality!

I won’t repeat the instructions, but if you want to try this DIY yourself she has a great tutorial and a video here.

The notepad turned out great and the best part about doing something DIY is that you can make it any size or colour you want!  The paper in this notepad is sized to fit perfectly inside my handmade cards.

I liked the idea of having fun, patterned note paper, so I created designs in Photoshop CC, printed them, and cut the paper to 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″.  There are 4 different designs, and the watercolour note paper is actually made from my own watercolour designs that were turned into digital brushes.

I love being able to combine the digital aspect of design with paper crafting to create a hybrid project!

Of course, I couldn’t stop at just one notepad… I made 2 more with different designs inside.

And then… I created a custom notepad for a friend with her business logo on it.  These card inserts will work perfectly for Thank You cards given out to clients.

If you are not up for making your own notepads, I am selling the watercolour, geometric, and birthday notepads (25 sheets of paper) for $8 CDN each.  Please email me at lfedynak@gmail.com to order.  Also contact me for more info if you would like a custom notepad with business logo.

Leah