Tutorial: Mini Paper Bag featuring Simply Scored

Well it's about time, right?

     I know some of you have been waiting for a few days for me to post this, but I have been super busy preparing for and taking my Life in the UK test along with the other umpteen commitments I've had, so have only just had the time!

   If you were at Regional Training in Leamington Spa this past Saturday, hello again! Thank you so much for visiting my blog!

     For those of you who aren't demonstrators or weren't at the training, hello to you as well! And thank you for visiting my blog too!

     At the training, each demonstrator who chose to participate made some swaps, which as I've explained in an earlier post (What's New in May 2012) are things we make to trade with other demonstrators in exchange for something we've made, to collect ideas and the like. I made 42 of my swaps, hoping to get 42 ideas back, but by the time I got there, out of the 64 attendees most people had already swapped and so had run out of something to trade. No matter, I had made the things and I wasn't coming back home with them, so I just gave the remainders away.

     Because I wasn't able to comfortably figure out how to put the diagram onto the "recipe" sheet enclosed, I included my blog address so people can find it here. So, here we go...

I created this Little Bag of Thanks in the style of a mini paper bag, like a paper shopping bag or similar. I was able to use our new product Simply Scored to construct it, and because of this fabulous tool it was very easy to do so. The hardest part, believe it or not, was putting the string through it to tie it at the top! (Along with finding where all the chocolates had gone to, as I was sure I counted them before I started, but by the time I finished some were missing! Apparently Hubby couldn't help himself...)

     Here is the diagram, something I thought up as I was trying to get the most out of each sheet of paper. One sheet of Calypso Coral yielded FOUR bags. Score!  (See what I did there? I made a funny!)

     I created this diagram with an application on my tablet device, I apologise that all the dimensions don't use the same unit of measurement. I listed what was the most exact.

     I took the sheet of A4 Calypso Coral cardstock and trimmed an inch off one side, so the page was skinnier but still just as long as before. From the Everything Eleanor set, I used the large background stamp to stamp Soft Suede in a random pattern all over the sheet. I hate random stamping as I feel I'm no good at it, and kept trying to find a system to stamp it in a more organised way, but soon decided it really didn't matter. I was done stamping before I knew it!

 

I then placed the sheet vertically onto my new best friend (Simply Scored), and scored first at 2.5", 5" (like the second and third placemarkers show), and then at 1.5", 2", 5.5" and 6".

 

Next, I cut the page into four more pieces, each 7.4cm wide, perpendicular to the score lines.

     After cutting, I took each piece and scored perpendicular to the prevous score lines at the 3/4" mark. Notice the place markers make it easy to see where I need to score, thus saving me time! 



 

To fold into bags, trim along the score line from the bottom of the bag until the perpendicular score line, like the diagram at the top of this post shows. Holding it in front of you horizontally, fold along the first line and the fourth line and use a strong adhesive such as Sticky Strip to hold it together at the seam. Then just manipulate it to make the other corner folds, and fold the lines in between the corner folds to make a concertina effect. For the bottom, first fold in the two small flaps and then the long ones, and hold that together with sticky strip as well. You now have a little paper bag!

     For the decoration on the front of the bag, I used the leftover strips of Calypso Coral I cut off in the beginning, and coloured the word "THANKS" from this stamp, of the Thank You Kindly set and stamped it onto the paper. I then punched the words out with the small oval punch.

     To distress the ovals, I simply dragged them over my Soft Suede ink pad. This gives a harsh-looking effect, for a soft effect it is better to use a sponge dauber. I was trying to go for a very vintage feels, so skipped the dauber.







     With the new Blossom Punch from the Summer Mini Catalogue, I punched blossoms out of Crumb Cake cardstock. I cut off two of the petals, one at the top and one at the bottom, to make them look like butterflies. I also dragged these over the Soft Suede ink pad, to get some darkness around the edges of the wings.

     With all my pieces prepped and ready to go, I set to work on assembling everything.

     I used Snail adhesive to stick the oval onto the butterfly and stick the butterfly onto the front centre of the bag, and once the bag was in its baggy shape, I punched two holes through both the front and back panels at once, so I could thread the string through and tie the bag shut. And of course, I stuffed each bag with some chocolate!

     And there you have it! 42 Little Bags of Thanks.

     What I was hoping to show in my swap was mainly the use of the Blossom punch (transforming blossoms into butterflies), and that it is super easy to construct packaging using Simply Scored. Thanks to the launch of this new product, we can now make virtually anything with this one fantastic tool!

What have you made with Simply Scored? Please share!

Thanks for reading, and Happy Crafting!