A little Blue

I needed something pretty to drop off a little treat to a friend. Some Webseters pages, bling and a ribbon rose never let a girl down.

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!!

Playing Cards and Greeting Cards

I think this might fall into the upcycle category. I found this package of playing cards at Michael’s after the holidays last year. I think I paid fifty cents for a deck of 52+ cards. I have used several of them to tuck into swaps and various gifts to crafty friends and still find myself with a couple dozen left. I used a sketch I found on pinterest – well, loosely. And decided my little gingerbread man was just too plain all by himself. So I added some green brads where his buttons are. Then I dug out my ribbon whole punch and made two slots to pull that red ribbon through and give his bow tie some dimension. I made four of these for the OWH box.

Wine bags for YPP

I am not so good at reading directions, never have been. I see a picture and make it my own. That isn’t always a good thing in some of these swaps. This month’s Wine Group on Your Paper Pantry we were to make three wine bags – cloth or fabric… your choice.
So I went and made three bags. Super girly fun – two rows of scallops, one in pink polka dots and one in black. On the top I tied a pink ribbon and added a tiny bling at every single scallop. I layered those on top of tulle – yeah netting!! I was trying to make it look like a window…ish. The scallops made the valance and the netting the curtain.
I found a string of pink zebra beads on clearance…ok you know I am not passing up PINK Zebra! While it took a serious effort, I was able to thread that bead on to the netting and give the ‘curtain’ a band or pinch point. Really happy with that look.
That was hot glued over a sheet of zebra and pink cardstocks cut to fit my bag. To me, no bag is complete without a tag so I added one. Somewhere when I was stalking the YPP group to see who had made what I read we were meant to incorporate a cork..NUTS!

So I decided to take two shades of pink and ‘cork’ on the tag (cut with that great multi tag Sizzix die). I had a bottle stamped in black and think that was super cute.
And since these were uber girly, I decided to break into the vault and pull out some Pro31 Jumbo Chandelier drops in pink and add those to the tag. I thought about adding some more charms and blinging it up, but the bag was fairly simple, so I thought the tag should be, too. Just a double chain with the bauble at the end, tied on with the same pink ribbon.
Great right… Well, I kind of cheated on the cork, I will probably be forgiven for that… but then I read the rest of the directions.

Yep, after I was finished and looking for an envelope big enough for my bags… challenge was add a cork and grapes… NUTS! They are going to make me drink boxed wine – or *gasp* White Zin. Maybe I better send wine IN my bags!!