Penny Black Paper Bag

At last weekend's craft retreat, my friend Cathy presented us each with a brown paper bag...it was her turn to set our friendly challenge, and she challenged us to create something using the paper bag...the rule being, that it could still be used to put something in. I decided to have a go at making a paper bag card...and started working on it while I was at the retreat. I used Penny Black hedgehog images (from the 'Wonderful' and 'Hugs' sets) and My Mind's Eye '29th Street Market' papers...keeping the same layout throughout. The brads, flowers and ribbon are all from Poppicrafts. I borrowed my friend Samantha's distressing tool at the retreat to distress all of the edges...liked the effect so much I had to get one! lol That kind of made it look like material, so I then used my Cutter Bee Bug to make the holes for the faux- stitching.

*Warning* - there are a LOT of photos! lol

Front View:

Inside Left:

Inside Right:

Back View:

Inside 'pages' together:

Front & Back 'pages together:

I've decided to give this to my Nan for her 90th birthday...so I've made a little tag with the sentiment on to put inside the bag. I used the same label Nesties to make this...the sentiment stamp is from the CCSR set by Papermania (stamped as two separate words), and the numbers were cut using the Cuttlebug 'Olivia' alphabet dies. I added a ribbon tab (to make it easier to remove from the bag), and have added a plain white panel to the back to write my message on. I'll probably be adding a few more things to the bag...but her birthday's not 'til November...so I've got plenty of time to sort all that.


I'm going to enter this for a couple of challenges: the Penny Black Saturday Challenge to use 'Stitching' on our cards; and the Pollycraft Challenge, which this week asked us to use our 'Favourite Things'...my favourite things are: Penny Black stamps, these My Mind's Eye papers (love them so much...I've just got some more!), and flowers.

Thanks Cathy for a fab challenge...I really enjoyed making this! ;0)