Another perfect gift for Mother's Day - personalized stationery in a matching box! Make sure Mom can keep in touch with everyone! But this gift is not limited to Mom…have a high school grad going off to college in the Fall? How about stationery as a subtle hint to write home? Or how about customized stationery for the newlyweds? Or a friend about to move away? This set has notepaper about the size of a half sheet of paper (size will depend upon the size of the box you use), invitation sized envelopes that have clipart on the flap that matches the paper, and a cardboard flip-top box covered in polysilk adhesive backed paper printed with the same design on the top and all sides. The polysilk paper (see Products>Fun Papers) makes the box look as if it is actually covered in satin and the white cardboard boxes are available at most craft stores for under a dollar. MATERIALS White cardboard flip-top box (available at most craft stores) Polysilk adhesive-backed inkjet paper (see Products>Fun Papers) Invitation sized envelopes (see Products>Envelopes>1/4 Fold) Regular inkjet paper Paper trimmer or scissors 1" wide Sheer ribbon in a color that coordinates with your clipart Color coordinated pen (optional) INSTRUCTIONS 1) Open a blank page in your graphics program in landscape orientation. Measure the inside length and width of your box to get the correct sizing for the stationery sheets. Draw a rectangle in that size with no fill and a light gray outline. Add your clipart and text. 2) Group the rectangle, clipart and text and move to the left of your page. Now copy, paste, and CTRL-Drag the second stationery sheet to the right side of the page. You now have two stationery sheets per page. 3) Print out as many sheets as you need for your stationery set. 4) Open a blank invitation size envelope in your graphics program. Copy and paste the clipart from your stationery sheets and place it on the envelope, centered horizontally, and move it down just below the top unprintable margin. Load the envelopes into your printer the so that the envelope will print on the back rather than on the front. Print a test envelope to make certain the clipart is aligned properly on the rear flap of the envelope. 5) Print out as many envelopes as you need for the set. Remember that each page of stationery you printed will actually yield two sheets of notepaper. So, if you printed ten pages of stationery, you will need twenty envelopes. 6) Open a blank page in your graphics program in landscape orientation and measure the top of your cardboard box. Draw a rectangle with the same dimensions with no fill and a VERY light gray outline (these are the fold lines). Center it on the page. Copy and past this rectangle and resize so that the length and the width are each 1" larger than the first rectangle. Give this rectangle a slightly darker gray outline (easier to see when you're cutting) and also center on the page. This will serve as the flaps that will fold under the inner edge of the box top. 7) Add you clipart and text to the smaller rectangle. Save the file. Print on plain paper first to make sure it fits the box top. 8) Once the size is right, print one copy on a sheet of polysilk adhesive-backed inkjet paper. 9) Open another blank page in landscape orientation. Now measure the front surface of the box and draw a rectangle the same size, again with a very light gray outline. Center on the page. Copy and paste and resize as above - 1" longer for both length and width. Make the outline a shade darker and center on the page. Add your clipart to the smaller rectangle (you can't see it from the photo, but we ran a row of three azaleas on the front of the box and two on each of the sides. Just make certain that that they are fairly centered horizontally. 10) Group this rectangle and move to the top of the page, watching for those unprintable margins. Copy, paste and CTRL-Drag the copy to the bottom of the page. Save the file and print on plain paper again to check the sizing. Once you have the sizing correct, you can print one copy on the polysilk paper. 11) Open another page in your graphics program, again in landscape orientation, and using the measurements from the side of the box, draw another rectangle to match the size, no fill, very light gray outline. Center on the page. Copy, paste and resize so that the second rectangle is again 1" larger in both length and width. Center and give it a slightly darker gray outline. Add clipart. Group the whole thing and move to the top of the page. Copy, paste, and CTRL-Drag to the bottom of the page. 12) Again, print this page on plain paper to test the size. When the size is right, print one sheet on the polysilk paper. 13) Okay, now we come to the cutting part. Using your paper trimmer or scissors, cut out all the pieces from the polysilk paper along the darker of the gray outlines. Score or fold on the lighter of the gray outlines. This is where the polysilk will fold over the edges (and where the trimmer with the scoring attachment comes in very handy!) NOTE: The two side pieces will need to be CUT along the score line on one end - which end you cut off depends upon your clipart. You don't want to have a folded edge covering your front panel. Wait until you are ready to apply these pieces before you cut! Apply the pieces in this order: front panel, side panels, back panel, top panel. 14) Take all the polysilk pieces and cut out the little squares that resulted in the corners after you scored them. This will give you clean "tabs" to fold under and around. 15) Peel the backing off the front panel piece and CAREFULLY place it over the front of the box before pressing into place. Once you have it positioned correctly, press the face into place and then wrap the tabs around the sides, under the bottom and into the inside front of the box. Smooth as necessary. 16) Now take a side panel and after figuring which way it needs to be applied to the box, cut off the tab that will be at the front of the box. Peel the backing off; position the polysilk and press into place as in Step 15. The lack of the tab on the front will leave a nice clean edge on that front corner of the box. 17) Do the same with the other side piece, paying attention to the orientation of the piece. Make sure you don't cut off the wrong side! 18) Now you can apply the back panel, but before you do so, you will need to cut off both of the end tabs, leaving only the top and bottom tabs intact. Peel off the backing; position correctly on the back of the box and press into place. 19) Time to apply the top panel. This time, the only tab you will be cutting off will be the one that would have folded over the back of the box. The front and side tabs should remain. 20) Again, peel off the backing, position carefully, press into place and fold over and adhere the three tabs on the underside of the flip-top. 21) That's it for the box. Now you can cut out the stationery sheets to fit in the box. (Once again, a paper trimmer will make shorter work of this task than a scissors.) 22) Tie the paper sheets together with a piece of color coordinated sheer ribbon. (You can also do the same with the envelopes, if you desire). Place the envelopes in the bottom of the box and place the tied stationery on top of the envelopes. You can add a color coordinated pen as well, and even throw in a book of postage stamps for good measure! Wrap the whole box with the same sheer ribbon and tie into a pretty bow and you have a personalized gift that truly says, "I care!" Boxed Stationery Set Instructions For a print friendly version, click on this link. The Crafty PC - Matching Your Creativity with Today's Technology Copyright © 2000-2008 The Crafty PC, LLC. All Rights Reserved.