Friday, September 26, 2008

Cute little tote bags

Aren't these cute little tote bags? They were last week's 3D demo challenge. The original design is by Lauren Meader. I've included photos for a tutorial because I think my way of cutting the angle was a little easier than hers (at least for me). The cool thing about these is that it would be easy to make them any size. I made mine from 6X6 squares. These bags are big enough to hold a gift card or some candy. The actual measurements of the finished bag are 4" across, 3 1/2" tall at each side and 1" deep.
Cut 2 sheets of CS or DSP the same size. Mine are 6 X 6. Score down each side and across the bottom. The sides and bottom should be the same size; I've used 1" on mine.
Lay the 2 pieces on top of each other and punch a hole for the handle. Here I've used a 1" circle punch. You could use a larger one for a larger bag. (I also saw a cute one on SCS where someone attached a scalloped circle first and then punched out a smaller circle in the center. Way to go, Amy!)
I used the Coluzzle to cut the handle around the hole. As you can see, I lined up the smallest circle line with my hole. I cut the 2nd line out from that. The Coluzzle makes it easy to make an exact half circle!

I measured down 2 inches on each side of the paper and made a tiny little mark. Then I lined up that mark and the end of my Coluzzle cut inside the track of my cutter and cut straight up. Repeat on the other side and do the same on both pieces.
On each side of the paper, cut along the vertical score lines from the bottom of the paper to the horizontal score line. Use sticky strip to adhere the 2 pieces together. Put the sticky strip on the INSIDE of one piece and the OUTSIDE of the other piece. (I learned this the hard way. The bag made with the Urban Garden DSP has extra strips attached to the sides to cover up the sticky strip on the outside of the bag. Oops!) Line the 2 pieces up and attach the sides together. For the bottom, fold in all the little flaps and adhere the 2 long flaps together. This is what the side of the finished bag looks like. I just love these. If you use the 6X6 squares, you can get 2 from one sheet of DSP. You could also use rectangles of paper. I think if you start with 6 X 12, it would be big enough to hold a DVD. These are fun and really easy once you get the hang of cutting the angles!
Happy stamping!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are such cute little baskets. Thanks for the tutorial!

Brandi Wiggins-Côté said...

Those'll be great for halloween treats! Thanks Jana!

Unknown said...

Thank you for the tutorial. I can't wait to try this!

Pat S. said...

Can't wait to try one of these...thanks for sharing!

Chrissie said...

Just made one and it is oh so cute! Thanks for the tutorial!

Anonymous said...

These are super cute!

Julia said...

Cute simple baskets. TFS