Fun and Encouraging Lunchbox Notes

By now, most kids have started school or will start within a week or so. For both parent and child, this challenging time can fill the days with anxiety, tension, and tears. A small little note in the lunch box can bring a smile to a long face. Imagine your child’s face light up when she reads that you think about her during the day and look forward to seeing her after school. Or maybe on a test day, a little extra encouragement can give them the confidence they need to ace an exam. 

Using Cardstock Warehouse paper, stamps, inks and dies, you can create beautiful and simple notes to share with your little scholar throughout the year!

GETTING STARTED

To get started, you will need to gather some stamps, inks and coordinating paper. Here’s a list of the supplies I used:

• Cardstock Warehouse Cardstock Papers in: Pure White, Sirio Ultra Black, Gold Touch Mirisparkle, Nightshift Blue, Imperial Blue, Sapphire Blue, Purple, and Mandarin Orange
• Stamp & die sets: Simon Says Stamp Lunch Box Notes 2, Catherine Pooler Hooray for August & Hello September, Concord & 9th Mix Tape Bundle & Autumn Harvest Bundle & Florals Dies.
• Inks:  Catherine Pooler Icing on the Cake, Royal Treatment, Samba, Mardi Gras, Party Dress, Sage, Midnight, Suede Shoes, & Orange Twist.
• Die cutting machine
• Paper trimmer
• Scoring tool
• Stamping tool (i.e. acrylic block, MISTI)
  
• Strong liquid adhesive
  
  

CREATING THE NOTECARDS

You can create these notes in different ways, but generally, I started with whole sheets of paper. I am not one to keep a huge supply of scrap paper. I would like to say that I do, but generally, I do not take the time to organize scrap papers in a useable way. But if you keep scraps around, you can totally use them make lunch box notes. Our purpose is to encourage and not impress, so scrap cardstock pieces can work.

To create my notes, I score a full sheet down the middle and fold it in half. Then, I cut into 2.75” notecards down the length of the piece. This leaves me with roughly three equally sized card bases. Some were taller than I liked, so I trimmed them down a half-inch!

Simple Stamping Notecards

You can see several simple stamping notecards here. I just used an acrylic block and stamped my little heart out. This really is the funnest way to stamp. Just ink up the stamp with a tap tap tap and layout the image on paper. I find that the Pure White cardstock takes ink beautifully, this way. 

You may notice that I use complementary colors of inks and cardstock. For the simple stamping notecards, I used complementary or monotone palettes. Blues complement oranges. Pinks complement bright greens. Red-oranges go with blue-greens. Neutrals go with anything! 

Most of the simple stamping notecards include a sentiment from the Lunch Box 2 stamp set from Simon Says Stamp:  “Reach for the Stars”, “Work Hard Have Fun!”, “Good Luck on Your Test”, “Thankful you are my kid”, “I smile when I think of you” and “Have an Awesome Day”.

Die Cut Notecards

For the die cut notes, I chose a palette of paper colors that a friend had sent me for inspiration off of Pinterest. We often share color palettes to challenge and encourage each other to create.

The colors I used for the pumpkin and flower notes include Pure White, Imperial Blue, Sapphire Blue, Purple, Mandarin Orange and Nightshift Blue. The flower is a combination of two coordinating die sets from Concord & 9th called Fine Line Florals. I cut all the pieces out in their proper colors and layered them together. To finish of the flower note, I just adhered it to the front of my little notecard and did not add a sentiment.

For the pumpkin card, I used the Autumn Harvest Bundle from Concord & 9th along with Nightshift, Purple and Mandarin Orange cardstock. I stamped the image of the pumpkin on the orange die cut and added shading with Copic markers, W5 and W3. I die cut the word grateful out of the pumpkin, as well as the Sapphire Blue cardstock, inlaying the blue letters into the pumpkin. For the fronds behind the pumpkin, I die cut them from Purple and Imperial Blue cardstock. I dotted the sky with a white gel pen and colored in the the ground area with a black Copic marker.

For the Mix Tape note, I used the Mix Tape Bundle from Concord & 9th along with Sapphire Blue and Mandarin Orange cardstock. I die cut the pieces out and stamped the image of the cassette tape onto the Mandarin Orange piece. I glued them all together onto the front of the notecard and finished off the note with a sentiment, “You’re My Jam”.

Heat Embossed Note Card

For the honey bee note, I embossed the front of a Sirio Ultra Black notecard with the image of the bee and sentiment in gold embossing powder. I die cut the honeycomb pieces out of some Gold Touch Mirrisparkle cardstock and adhered them to the front of the notecard. The honeycomb die is from Simon Says Stamp. 

Thank you for joining me today for this card tutorial. I am happy to connect with you about this project and supplies I used to create them via social media: Facebook, Instagram and YouTube! Also, be sure to follow Cardstock Warehouse on Facebook and Instagram! Tag us in your creations using #cardstockwarehouse to be featured on our Instagram! 

Also, be sure to follow Cardstock Warehouse on Facebook and Instagram! Tag us in your creations using #cardstockwarehouse to be featured on our Instagram! 

Happy Crafting! 

Daniel from Del and Artie