the largest nestabilities' "labels eight" die is the perfect size for michaels' smaller shopping bags, isn't it? i fancied them up with chipboard trees, scraps of punched borders and my all time favorite stickers: old skool basic grey alphas!
this one is bigger, but equally simple:
(giftbag & tissue paper: michaels; patterned paper: basic grey, mme, fancy pants, ki lace paper, staples; alpha stickers:dcwv xmas stack; fancy fabric sticker: recollections; chipboard snowflake: maya road; paint: folk art; glitter glue: stickles; ink: colorbox; pen: copic outliner; adhesives: tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)
my favorite bit is the oversized scalloped "photo corners" that i improvised by cutting a square of paper in half diagonally and using a border punch on the long edges. i'd've never even thought to make those if the piece of patterned paper with the ornaments on had been a solid rectangle--but it had a big "bite" out of the upper left corner where i'd cut or punched something out of it and thus i had to innovate! the other papers are not even xmassy...in fact the white is plain copier paper trimmed with fancy scissors! this bag took approximately 10 minutes to make and i believe the recipient secretly liked it more than the gift! so instead of putting those leftovers away, why not sling them on a bag and practice blushing whilst being heaped with praise?! it's quite fun, actually! ♥♥♥
*admit it, you'd forgotten all about austin powers, hadn't you??!?! (me too! exactly why i revived him NOW in a papercraftin' context is still obscure...) :)
You have got to be the queen of bags...a bag lady...haha...crackin' myself up....anywho's...they are in themselves a gift...the actually giftie is just icing on the cake......
ReplyDeleteI do believe you are the queen of packing tape too....you managed to 'almost' cover every square inch of my fantabulous happy mail....thank you, thank you, thank you...for the happy mail...not all the tape:)
I am totally lovin' the pink Christmas thing. You ROCKED these bags, they look amazing. Hopefully the recipients keep them and add them to their Christmas decorating :)
ReplyDeleteI also have to mention how much I enjoyed reading Amy's comment, cracked me up!!
Your ideas are stunning! The bags are fabulous; too bad my name isn't Jess because my favorite is the pink bag :) ( just kidding). You should open a shop; I know for sure you would sell a lot of them!
ReplyDeleteYour bags are FUN! Who wouldn't want one of these? It doesn't matters what's inside...
ReplyDeleteThese are fabulous ... I love the improvisation ... shows how a problem can be turned into something so eye catching ... Brilliant!!!!
ReplyDeletebeautiful bags, lauren!!! i think i would be happy with the bag, no gift needed inside, hehe.
ReplyDeleteoh, i love austin powers. we used to quote from that movie all the time. hehe.
thanks for sharing and have a wonderful day! *hugs* steph :)
wowzers! these are so fantabulous!!!
ReplyDeleteTerrific bags, Lauren. It is wonderful you like to make them as you will always have one ready for a gift. So much nicer than expensive bought ones!
ReplyDeleteGreat use of Scrap paper Lauren , these bags are fabulous . Really love the happy colors and the big photo corner!! Congrats on 200+ followers
ReplyDeleteVery cool, I need to start making those gift bags look pretty, just like yours!!!
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