Folded Bag by Jane Johnson

Hi! Jane here and today I am going to show you how to create gift bags from 12x12" paper.

You will need:

12x12" patterened paper (one sided)
two 1" x 12" pieces of cardstock
Ribbon
Edge punch
Hole punch
Glue
Scissors
A book less than 6" wide

1.

With your paper white side facing use your edging punch along the whole of one edge.

Your paper will then look like this.

2. Fold the punched edge over so that you have a white decorative edge for the top of your bag. The amount you fold over can be varied - I have folded over 2 1/2" as I am going to be decorating the white area.

3.

Turn the paper over and place your book in the centre with the top of the book at the folded edge.

4.

Now you wrap the book up just like wrapping a present! First wrap around the book and glue or tape in place (careful not to glue to the book!).

5.

Run your finger and thumb firmly along the edges of the book so that the creases are nice and neat.

6.

Now continue to wrap like a present at the opposite end to the punched detailing. Fold the top section down ......

........fold both the sides in ensuring all the folds are nice and neat and apply glue under the triangle sections to add strength to the bottom of the bag.......

.......finally, glue the last flap up as shown above.

7. Slide the book out of the bag. Pinch each side in half by bringing the creased edges together and continue to pinch together all along the side as shown above.....

.....stop creasing near the bottom when you get the triangle effect shown above.

8. This step is optional but makes the bag easier to decorate. Fold the bottom of the bag back on itself as shown above.....

....here's a side view to explain this fold further.

9. Punch holes in the top of the bag, evenly spaced. (punch the two edge holes straight through all the folded parts of the bag through to the other side so that you also create holes in the sides of the bag).

10.

Thread ribbon through the holes and tien in a bow at the front of the bag.

11.

Punch along both edges of each strip of 1"x12" cardstock and attach to the inside of the bag to form handles. You are now ready to decorate your bag!

Here's my finished gift bag using one of the gorgeous new images from the Winter Kit which will also be released tomorrow as single stamps. I have decorated my bag for some Christmas cookies but of course you can create these bags for any other ocassion too! Hope you have enjoyed my tutorial and if you would like any further details of how I have embellished my bag please see my blog post here.

Jane x

http://janeslovelycards.blogspot.com/

Paint Resist by Alice

Hello, all! It's Alice here and I am sharing a technique that I am using more and more these days. It's a resist technique with acrylic paints. I first learned of this technique from the almighty Tim Holtz and here is how I do it.

You will need:

• Cardstock you intend to use for your card. I am using my white card base here.
• Background stamps. I am using the versatile Essential Backgrounds - Spots & Dots.
• Acrylic paint. You can use the color of your choice. I am using Snow Cap Acrylic Paint Dabber from Ranger for this since it's such an easy way to apply them.
• Inks. I am using my beloved Distress Inks in Vintage Photo, Barn Door and Wild Honey for this background.

First, apply paint to the background stamp of your choice. I am using the polka dots with script from Essential Backgrounds - Spots & Dots set. Try to coat the stamp with a even thin layer of paint.

Stamp on the paper you intended to use. I am using this as my background, so I stamped them right on the card base. 

Here is the card base all stamped. I usually walk away to wash the acrylic paint on my stamp with water after stamping and it gives the perfect time for the paint to dry.

All you need to do now is to ink your stamped piece for desired look. I used Vintage Photo, Barn Door and Wild Honey distress inks.

After inking, I grabbed a damp paper towel and lightly wiped off the excess inks sitting on the acrylic paint and the white showed up better. Now you have a piece of costume background ready to go on your project. Easy Peasy, huh? =)

Here is the finished card made using the background I created with this technique. 

I used the beautiful Willow with Cookies for my card and she is colored with Copic markers. Since the craft area set up that I have right now doesn't have an easy access to electric outlets, I think this technique is a wonderful alternative to the embossed resist technique. Hope you will give it a try! =)

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

hugs,

alice

Origami Gift Card Holder Tutorial

Good Morning Everyone! I hope you are having a good week. I (Jane) have a tutorial to share with you today to show you how to make these quick and easy origami gift card holders which are great to make at the last minute to make a gift card a little bit more special.

To make the gift card holder, you will need:

Double sided sheet of paper cut to 8x8inches
Stamped and coloured Mini Santa Whiff of Joy image
Sentiment ticket
Ribbon
Bone folder and embossing/scoring tool
Paper trimmer or embossing board
Wooden snowflake and stick on pearl

To make the gift card holder:

1. Starting with a piece of paper measuring 8x8 inches, score at 1.5, 4 and 6.5 inches

2. Rotate the paper 90 degrees to the right and score at 1.5 and 5 inches

3. Fold in the 4 corners



4. Cut out section at the top between the folded in corners up to the 1.5 score line

5. Fold in the sides on the 1.5 score lines

6. Turn over and with the cut out section at the top fold up on the 5 inch score line

7. Tuck in little folded triangles

8. Both should be tucked in to complete the gift card holder.

9. This shows how a regular credit card size gift car fits into the wallet.

10. Fold in half and decorate as desired to finish!


Have a great Thursday!
Jane
x

Recycled snowflake decoration

Goodmorning to you all! It's me, Ingrid, and I'm very excited to be here today to show you my very first Whiff of Joy tutorial :-) I hope you like it!

I created a snowflake decoration, with toilet rolls. I love to recycle things and this way it's also a low budget project! Beneath I will show you how I made it using photographs.

 These stuff you need:

- 4 toilet rolls

- a stampler

- white paint (I used acrylic paint) and a brush

- a snowflake die and white paper

- stickles

- and a colored image (I used "Bird of Peace" from the October release)

 Fold the toilet roll in the middle, this way the openings keep round.

Fold it double... 

and secure it with the stampler. 

 Do this with all 4. 

Now you have to secure the folded rolls to each other so they will make a circle.

 This is the result.

 Paint the rolls and let it dry.

Make a hole to fasten a ribbon. 

 Now you can decorate. I used blue self-adhesive crystals and add stickles to the punched snowflake.

The bird holds a mistletoe twig and I decorated the berries with my cream Perlen-Pen.

I colored this image with copics and used these colors: 

brown E44, 43, 42, 41, 40

blue B95, 93, 91

bird face W7, 5, 3, 1, 00

bird feet E04

mistletoe BG99, 96, 93

I hope you liked my first tutorial and I would love to see you here or on my blog again!

Hugs,