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.

BasicGrey and shades of sepia

I needed to make an image wallet for friend, and was inspired by my new Penny Black "vintage" stamp called "Rain or Shine Friends". As luck would have it, when I rooted around in my stash, the paper that came to hand to best fit with this theme was a BasicGrey sheet from the "sugared" collection; so I'm entering it for this week's BasicGrey Challenge #8 which is shapes - I have used offset rectangles for my image and matting, plus squares on the inside covers. I am also entering this one for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge DT call - I know it will be up against a lot of awesome talent, but fingers and toes crossed!!

I decided to try something new so did my best to create a sepia coloured image, using a Marvey brushstroke pen watered down to form different shades, and I stamped the image with brown Stazon rather than black. The paper with hearts on is BasicGrey "sugared" and the other front cover paper is by DCWV - I have done some faux stitching to compliment the vintage feel, and slightly ditressed the edges of the DCWV paper. Inside I have used more of the BasicGrey paper and a beautiful "friendship" paper that was hiding in my stash. Lace is from Hobbycraft, flowers by Prima and tiny pearl gems on the umbrella from Create & Craft.

Sarah Kay Treats .... and a cupcake

Until yesterday I had only ever made one Sarah Kay card with a swapped image from Cathy, but I loved the image so much I bought my first Sarah Kay stamp on my outing to Port Sunlight craft fair, and was raring to go with it ....

This week's Sarah Kay Challenge #16 is Treat Yourself .... make something that ties in with your favourite treats eg. chocolates, cakes etc. Now I love chocs and cakes as much as the next woman, but my imagination and talent failed me when it came to making stuff like dinky boxes and bags to pop treats into. So ..... I took my mind off in a different direction - I needed to make another image wallet for a friend .... and what is more of a "treat" for us crafters than getting an image wallet through the post (all the joy of the stamp without the credit card bill LOL!!) So that is what I have made!



I also used the sketch from this week's Cupcake Craft Challenge #10, which I thought seemed particularly apt seeing as we're talking about edible treats :-) Unfortunately my eyesight must be going, cos it is only now as I load the pic that I have noticed where the sentiment should go - oops!! My excuse is that I was distracted by the logo LOL!! Well anyway - I did my best !

I used: stamp by Sarah Kay; background/inner papers by BasicGrey "Two Scoops"; flowers by Cardology and Prima; pearl brad and flower gem by Papermania; peeloff greeting, buttons and ribbon from my stash.

A Spoon Full of Sugar makes a Cupcake!

This weekend I have found myself with a bit of a backlog of image wallets I need to make for various friends/reasons, so I thought I would try to tie one or two in to this week's challenges.

First up, I loved the sketch for this week's Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge, so have used it for my first wallet.

I am also entering this one for this week's Cupcake Crafts #9 which is Turn Up the Heat - you can use any heat tool/technique or hot colours. I took the opportunity of heat embossing both on the main image and the sentiment, plus the sun is obviously a form of heat itself LOL! It's quite a while since I made an oriental card so I enjoyed doing something a bit different.

I used: main image is Hobby Arts "Oriental Sunset", stamped with Brilliance "lightning black" ink (black with a hint of gold) and clear embossed. Sun and blossoms are coloured with Cosmic Shimmers and the sun is decoupaged. Sentiment is Hero Arts "happiness wish" embossed in gold. Background paper is DCWV "Far East" stack; flower is Prima; dragonfly brads, peeloffs and shimmery ribbon from my stash. The wallet is made from Papermill black cardstock with a gold shimmer finish, and the central band is also papermill black cardstock with a shimmery "animal skin" finish.

Penny Black Challenge #11 - No Cards Allowed!

This week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge #11 is an interesting one for me , as cards are all I ever make! However as luck would have it I needed to make my first ever image wallet for a Docrafts image swap, so I've had a go. I used a technique from a Youtube video here: I made the base wallet from Bazzill bling card, decorated with two double-sided foiled and pearlescent papers from the s.e.i. "Poppy" range. The wallet wrapper is decorated with prima flowers pinned with a Papermania pearl brad, and the sentiment and tiny dragonflies are from the PB transparent set "Salutations".