Vintage Upcycled Paper Bag

Upcycled Paper Bag for YPP I just love the Upcycled bag swaps. We take a regular everyday lunch bag and make it lovely. You can make it with the bottom still square to fill with a gift. I did some like this to give away garden herbs this summer. Or you can make it flatter for a gift like a card or certificate or with a really flat back to add to a mini album with some tags.

I made this one more as a mini insert in mind. I didn’t make the tags, because I just thought it would be better to make tags to coordinate with what the recipient’s theme was. To start, I pulled the bottom flap up and this created a pocket. At the top of the pocket (and not real visible here I added a trim punched with a simple edger on black cardstock. Next I layered that red on red piece from K&Co Engraved Garden paper pack. If you look closely – you will see perfume bottles, corsets, martini glasses, shoes, all girly treats. Before I adhered that piece down I took a buckle (that used to be silver but I colored with a gold dauber). Then I set it on an angle. We usually use a straight line, or I do at least. But I left this open in the front to hold a tag or photo. I made that stickpin to pull in all the colors I was working with and secured it in the ribbon (Nero by Stampin Up). On the top potion I started with a piece of black cardstock run through a script cuttlebug folder which I lightly ran a versa pad over and dusted on some gold perfect pearls. And a touch of vanilla smooch spray to set it. Next I found the image (always a requirement on the YPP paper bag swaps). It is a corset layered over sheet music. I was looking for a great vintage corset to stamp sheet music on… or maybe I would have printed it on a piece, but it came already put together…yeah. I edged that in two shades of reddy/pink from SU (Riding Hood Red and Cherry Cobbler) I like the effect of two coordinate colors giving a darker line to the edge. Then, I tipped the very edges with walnut stain from TH. I distressed the edges with water, I saw this on a youtube vide and just love the effect. After the reds and walnut are both applied just dip a brush in water and pull that dark brown in towards the image. It grabs the reds with it and really makes a nice blend. Also, it curls the edges a bit for a truly old look. I used some leaves from the bridal section at Michaels (I only go there in that aisle I swear!) The little mulberry roses are IAmRoses and the larger brown and cream are velvet ones from prima I found on CloseOutGirl’s etsy shop. I added a gold brad in the center to bring in the gold of the buckle. That left a hole on the left side which I filled pretty easily. A SU punch of red cardstock, a crown stamped with versa mark and touched with gold perfect pearls. I also ran a versa mark pen on the edges and gave it the gold pearls, too. I though this made it look more like a frame, though it doesn’t show well in the photo. A smooch spray to set and gold brads to make it look anchored to the image. I think these turned out nicely and I can’t wait to see what comes my way!!