A Brown Paper Bag Full of Sugar

I'm part of a group of crafty friends, where each month one member of the group sends everyone else some supplies, with an instruction to make a project using what we receive. This month our mission was set by Cathy, who asked us to decorate a brown paper bag. Now I had never done this before although I did receive a totally fabulous one as an image wallet from the lovely Marcea, so I couldn't wait to get started. I really enjoyed doing it, and hope to make more in future.

Now I hope you'll humour me over the number of photos in this post, but I really was quite chuffed by how it turned out. It was a big project which took me quite a few hours all bank holiday afternoon and much of the evening, and it has 4 sides fully decorated, which is rather more than I usually manage.... So on that basis I would like to split it into two for challenge purposes - I hope the challenge blogs think that's fair...

I'd like to enter the OUTSIDE (front) for the Sugar Bowl Challenge #18 - Kathy's sketch + buttons ...

and as a totally separate issue I'd like to enter the INSIDE into the Spoon Full of Sugar challenge # 67 - distressing, Everybody-Art-Challenge #55 - brown & blue, and Dutch Dare #25 - Back In Time: I would like to tie it in to Challenges #8 "Pimp Some Packaging" and/or #11 - "not a card".

So .... here's the front .....


Seeing as the paper bag was brown, I decided to go for an overall vintage look and feel. I stamped Sugar Nellie "Basket of Happiness", coloured her with watercolour pencils and decorated her hat with tiny pearls. The shape was cut using large deckled rectangle nesties, and I distressed the edges with Antique Linen & Walnut distress inks. I cut all the edges of my K&Co papers with deckle edge scissors and then layered them onto dark blue pearlised card, which gave a bit of sturdiness when stuck on to the paper bag.

I also used crocheted ribbon from Quixotic Paperie, Prima flowers, blue, cream and tan tea roses from Hobbycraft, a cute bonnet charm from Dolls Made Up, and pearls, ribbon, dragonfly brad & button from my stash. the dark blue swirl was cut using Shapeabilities "doodles".

And here's the back ....


I also partly followed the Sugar Bowl sketch for the back of the bag. The papers and techniques were similar to above, and the sentiment stamp is from Great Impressions.

Here's the inside ...

On the inside, I used more of the same papers. On the left I used the lighter paper (no rigid card) tucked under the bottom of the paper bag, which I secured to form a "pocket". I then used the dark paper matted into blue pearlescent card to give a bit of structure and shape to the pocket, and slightly tucked my sentiment inside. The sentiment is Penny Black "... dreams..." (2711F) and the flowers are Penny Black "Aspire" (3381K), stamped in champagne gold ink. Nestie shapes, distressing and other decorations are as before.

.. and a closeup of the sentiment - I really love this stamp but the opportunity to use it doesn't seem to arise that often.


Here's another view of the front and back when the wallet is laid flat .....



.... and the inside when the wallet is standing up ....


Lastly, here's a view of the wallet with the opening - just ready to pop some images into!


I daresay it will be quite some time before I manage to sit down to a mammoth project like this again ... but i really loved doing it and really think it is a fab idea for an image wallet - so thanks Cathy for the inspiration.