Looking for a handmade gift idea? What about this?

If you’re looking for a handmade gift idea, here’s one for a friend or loved one.

Do you like receiving happy mail? Me too, I’ve been given a few packs of beautiful postcards and notelets which I can now send to some of my friends when I want to say hello, or thank you in the post.

I wondered if I could make my own notelet kit for my friend who LOVES sending little cards and notes. So I made this little kit filled with lots of love and decorated paper to use to send to people.

You’ll need:

• 2 sheets of A4 card
• Alphabet stickers
• String
• Pretty paper
• Double sided tape

All of these can be bought from most craft shops like Hobbycraft. Take one piece of A4 card and cover it in your decorated paper, I used this pink stripy paper shown in the photo below. Use double sided tape to stick it to the card (I find you get less air bubbles/glue bumps). This will become your cover of your writing kit.

Now lightly score 2 parallel lines where the cover of your book will fold. I made mine to have a spine of about 1 inch thick which is just enough to hold several letters and envelopes.

Next take the second sheet of card, hold it landscape, and cut a vertical line down the middle of the card so you end up with 2 equal sizes of A5 card.

Score 4 parallel lines along each sheet of A5 card of where you want the folds for the pocket to be. See the photo below for help on how I folded mine. These 4 fold lines will create a ‘tab’ that will be the actual bit that sticks to the inside cover of your book.

Before you stick it down, cover in your decorative paper, maybe use a different one to the one on the main cover. No need to cover the whole of the tabs as these won’t be seen. I then used double sided tape on the tabs of the pockets, and stuck them down.

Once stuck down, I stuck a little bit of string on the inside of each pocket at the bottom which ensures nothing falls out. I used Sellotape for this. You shouldn’t be able to see the string on the outside of the kit.

Next the fun bit… Decorating the letter paper and envelopes! I used my alphabetical stamps, washi tape and some embellishments I had in my craft box. See some ideas you could create…

Then, cut a piece of string to go all the way around your book plus extra to tie a bow. Tie it into position, tying your book firmly shut. Then cut out a rectangle of decorative paper and stick this on top of the string on the front cover, holding the string in position. I then decorated this rectangle personalising it for my friend using lettered stickers and ribbon.

Fill up your writing kit and your sorted! You could add a loop of material to hold a pen if you’re keen. Add stamps to the envelopes and you’re good to go! A lovely little handmade gift idea for any budding writer!

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