Birmingham Regional – Paper Bags
My Workshop Wow at the Stampin’ Up! Birmingham Regional was a demonstration on how to make paper bags using the recycled paper that comes as packing material in our Stampin’ Up! orders. Every box gets filled with paper to keep the items inside safe during shipment. I always hate to throw out the brown paper. Last year I used a bunch to wrap our Christmas presents, we also use it for a fire starter in the fire pit, but not too long ago I realized I could make my own little paper treat bags. And this is how I made them.
Brown paper from the Stampin' Up! boxes
I take the brown paper out of my Stampin’ Up! boxes and I smooth it out flat and then fold it on the perforated lines like an accordion so I can store it. To make four bags tear off one of the perforated sections. Fold it in half matching up the short ends. Then fold it in half again matching up the short ends one more time.
fold in half twice
Now fold in half in the opposite direction and then place the folded stack on your Clear Scallop Square Die so that the fold is inside one edge of the die and doesn’t get cut.
fold in half in the opposite direction
position on the die so that the fold is inside the edge and doesn't get cut
Now run through the Big Shot Die Cutting machine with a cutting pad on the bottom and on the top. When you cut through you will end up with four folded bag pieces.
cut with the Big Shot
To make each bag add glue to either side – leaving the top with the scallops open and the fold is at the bottom of the bag. I also took each edge and ran it through the Crimper a little bit and then back out.
glue sides of bag
Crimp edges of bag
So that makes the little bag and then its time to decorate. I had lots of fun creating all different themed bags. The one I showed at the Birmingham Regional was this one –
For this bag I pulled the edges through a Whisper White Craft ink pad. I stamped snowflakes (from Season of Friendship stamp set) in Whisper White Craft ink. In the top corner I added the phrase from Sweet Season stamp set in Early Espresso. I pulled a piece of Bashful Blue Satin Ribbon around the bottom of the bag – tie a piece of White Baker’s Twine around the ends. I cut snowflakes from the Northern Frost Sizzlet Strip Die. I added the snowflake with Stampin’ Dimensionals and then added a pearl to the center.
And what do you think is inside? Something sweet of course….
A snowflake cookie – made with the new Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps. I made a whole batch of cookies – actually two using two different recipes. I wrapped them in plastic wrap and put one in each bag. These were my swaps at the regional too.
Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamp cookies
The cookies on the back portion of the tray are the made using the Sugar Cookie recipe that comes with the Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps. The cookies on the front portion are made using a Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie recipe that I found on Stampin’ Connection (a site for demonstrators). For both recipes I had to add more flour than the recipe called for – I’m not sure if that is because I live in the south and it is humid so the dough was too sticky with the regular recipe. Anyway the cookies them selves are very good. If you got a swap from me at regional you had the Cream Cheese cookie recipe.
I’ll be back later this week to show you the rest of the ideas that I came up with for these little bags. I had a whole bunch.
Thanks for stopping by!
