Key Notes

Are you one of those people always looking for a scrap of paper to write down a reminder or telephone number and then losing it in the bottom of your purse or in the car? Me too! Well these little beauties are a great way to keep some paper handy.

They are key ring notepads! I received one from a stamping friend over the summer and thought it was the neatest idea I had seen in a while. So, I decided to make a few....80 to be exact. :) I will be selling them at some upcoming craft fairs.



The Big Shot does all the work, so you can make several of them in a short period of time. Each notepad has approximately 40-50 sheets of paper. I used one ream of standard copy paper to make all 80 notepads. I probably could have gotten about 85 of this size, but I messed up a couple of times when running through the big shot. Butterflies aren't so pretty when the tip of their wings are cut off. :( I do have enough paper left over to make some smaller notepads too, but not sure I will get to that.


Since I knew I was going to be making a large quantity of them, I used full 12 x 12 sheets for most of these. However, if you are only making a few at a time and have a pile of scraps that you keep ignoring, making these is a great way to use them up.

For the covers you want something a little stiffer than just DSP, so I used the thin cardboard sheet that comes in the DSP packages and just adhered the DSP to it before cutting. To save on paper when using 12 x 12 sheets, cut the DSP covered cardboard to a slightly larger square than your shape, then run it through the Big Shot. Do the same with your copy paper.


To continue to keep the cost down, I kept the embellishments simple. I again used scraps of paper or covered cardboard. You should keep the embellishments as flat as possible anyway so that they don't get caught on items in a purse or pocket and get ripped off. Even unadorned they look quite nice. I tried to make a few of them a little more masculine for the boys too.

The most expensive item to complete these was the o-ring. I bought mine at Staples in a pack of 16 and it works out to 26 cents per o-ring. Obviously, you can watch for sales or use coupons to get them cheaper.

I hope you are inspired to make some of these too. They would make great stocking stuffers or gifts for your children's classmates.

Kym