MATCHING GIFT BAG.

This is a matching bag for one of the gifts I decorated in the last post. It's made out of a recycled A4 envelope. I co-ordinated the papers with the gift and used a sketch design from Clare's Challenge at DO CRAFTS. Again I used a sheet printed from a free download at Activity village
I added a PC printed quote, some old buttons and embroidery thread. I stitched the buttons on but this was very fiddly as it was not possible to see exactly where to stitch (my fingers seemed to get pricked more than the paper!!).
The circles were made using the method in the torn circles post. N.B. tearing on inkjet printed paper will cause the ink to bleed...this worked in my favour as I wanted to create a distressed look, and while the edge was wet I used a dauber to add some ink..same colour as mixed in my previous post.

TO CREATE THE BAG:-
Trim the top flap off an old envelope.
Score round three sides - you can make the sides and bottom as narrow or deep as you require - score approx a ruler width across the top opening. Score on front and back and crease along score lines.
THE PICTURE SHOWS THE MIDDLE FOLDED...THIS WAS ONLY BECAUSE IT WAS A USED ENVELOPE WHICH HAD BEEN STORED FOLDED

Open the envelope and shape into bag, nip along folds and reverse the original side fold lines so that they face inwards.



This will leave a triangular piece each side, these can be tucked under and glued down...or more fiddly, pushed back inside the bag
THE PICTURE SHOWS EACH METHOD


The top can be finished two ways.
1. Fold the top flap in, which can then be left as an open bag.... this can then be punched and ribbon threaded through to create handles
OR

2. The top can be folded over and fastened front or back to create a sealed bag.
It's surprising with a bit of creative thinking any damaged and marked bits can be disguised with decoration.

GIFTS - Labels and tags

I wanted to create a tag for my daughter's Easter present (I filled a biscuit tin with lots of her favourite goodies) and as Creative Craft Challenge is anything Easter related I hope to be able to join in with their challenge.
I created a chunky tag from a piece of board from the back of a file paper pad. To decorate it I took inspiration from Scrap the Art's challenge.This week's challenge had a very interesting picture and I used the idea of creating shaded stripes which was useful for adding dimension to the cupcake case. (I also used it to shade the background). The colours were inspired by Clare's weekly challenge at Docrafts. It has a picture of a phone box in snow, I don't know why but it reminded me of icing on a cake, so I dug out some old Christmas decoration angel hair, which I coiled round to create the frosting on the top of the cake (good old PVA was all that was needed to attach this to a cloud shape of scrap white card). The gingham paper was a free download from Activity village, I had some scraps left over from my other project which was some thank you presents for some friends. I make Raspberry Vodka (just sugar and raspberries left to soak in vodka for quite a few months....the vodka is lovely served with lemonade and ice in the summer!!).

I decanted some of the Vodka into little bottles, recycled of course, then decorated them with brown paper and strips of the gingham paper (one A4 sheet did all the wrapping and decorated all the tags), I tore the strips to create a rustic feel. I had bought the green ribbon, but I class this as reusing because when the ribbon arrived it was not the beautiful lime green colour I expected but a very violent fluorescent colour and I never used it in my card making, but, teamed with the rustic papers and some raffia (this was from a beautiful hand tied bouquet that my husband gave me) I actually felt it looked ok.


I used an old plastic wallet as a stencil to create the stripes and shaded areas, which were coloured with ink and lip gloss, I applied both with daubers. To carry on with the make-up theme I created the cherry with red nail varnish painted onto a piece of plastic lid

I didn't have the right colour of green ink to compliment the papers but it was was easily made by blending some of the colours I had.

The board was too thick to put in a paper trimmer so I had to hand cut the tags and round the corners by cutting round a coin, but sanding round the tag got rid of any raw edges, plus distressing with ink round the sides, also disguises any irregularities in the hand cutting.