My Artful Bag and Other Stuff

Hello Everyone...  I have been having lots of fun traveling the world on the wings of OWOH.  If you are looking for my One World One Heart post and a chance to win my giveway, please click here.

Did  you see that purse? I was inspired by the challenge going on at "Frosted Petunia's Artful Bag Challenge" looks like there will be a different challenge each month, so you still have time to give this a try.  The challenge this month is to make a purse out of something else - for this challenge it needed to function like a real purse... Can you guess what I made mine out of? I made my purse out of an Orzo Pasta box - really, I did... That is really neat isn't it? I chose it because I wanted something with a window in it. :-)  I have really enjoyed this challenge.  Note: I have updated the picture to show the bling I added before I presented the gift.

I used paper from a DCWV Mini Stack and went with a primarily yellow and pink theme.  This is my stepdaughter's birthday card this year, so that is the reason for the color selection.  The flowers are punched out of a book that had fallen apart after getting wet - I know, punching a book - shivers, but I have to say that I really like the way they came out.

The side view shows how this is a "working purse" and the ribbon I used so that you can carry it with you :-)  If you look again at the front, you will see a bit of a scallop flap, I used my glue bottle to trace circles on the back of the paper and then cut around them to create the scallop.  For a more finished look, I used a piece of card stock to line the inside of the purse and came only around the back and to the flap.  I then cut, leaving a little border so that it peeks through the front.  Not sure if you can see that in this picture.  I also attached a magnet to keep it closed... I should have used a stronger magnet, this is a light weight magnet, and I wasn't thrilled with it.

In the next few photos you get to see the surprise inside... This is what I placed inside the purse, these are little tags that we will each write our birthday wishes to her on.  I am very proud, the artwork that is on the back of them is my son's - didn't he do a FANTASTIC job!!!!  I love his art teacher, he is my little artist and made these when he was 7 and 8 years old.

For the flowers... I tried following the tutorial I found here for these flowers by Cristena Bagne, but I could not get the folds to work the way she did (update: this is the link to the video tutorial) - I probably have a different number of scallops than she has or just can't fold (both are equally possible)... so I did the next best thing, I figured out how to do it another way...

I made my flowers by first punching a scallop out of paper and then inking it - I chose a pink in keeping with my color scheme.  I then folded my scallop in half and then in half again so I could find the center.  I then cut a slit along one of the folds where the scallop was not cut in half.  This is where you will begin the folding process. Fold each scallop in an accordion fashion until you get to the end.  You will need to make 2 of these for each layer of your flower.  I only used 2 layers and added a button for my center.  And yes, I used 2 punches so that each layer was a little smaller than the previous layer.  I only have 2 scallop circle punches so that is why I used 2 layers.  I will post about how I made them with pictures in another post...

Enjoy! Copyright for Personal Use Antonella DeFalco