The results of my 9th grade aptitude test came with a suggestion for possible career choices. These included:
Mechanic Every 14 year old girl's dream. "Hey Eric, can you bring me the washi tape, I need to re-attach a hub-cap."
Mover Yes that is a job choice. Although I can squeeze as much into a box as anyone except Mary Poppins, my weak little arms can't ever lift them afterward.
Home Organizer This one is just so funny I needn't say more!
With this selection, what is a girl with great Spatial Reasoning scores to do? Well, it just so happens that being able to organize shapes is handy as a designer and being able to fold up little drawings in your mind and know what they'll look like makes creating packaging much, much easier. Funny though, artist/designer was never suggested.
Lucky for me, I found my calling and with my mental box folding skills in mind, today I'll show you some of my tricks for making your very own gift bag.
You will need two pieces of 12" cardstock. I used my favorite print from Evangeline. To begin, you will need to score your cardstock. I used a scoring board, but if you don't have one you can simply use a ruler and the BACKSIDE of a craft knife.
Score both sheets of paper at 3" and at 9".
Next, you'll turn your paper 90 degrees and score at the 10" mark. Do this to both sheets.
Use a craft knife to cut along the folds below the 10" score line. Then go back with your knife and eyeball 1/4" away from the 10" score line and cut away a slightly angled sliver from either side of your first cut (in the photo I still need to do this on the outer edges). This will make your bag fold look crist and neat, like it was store bought.
On the second sheet, you will cut off the two smaller sections. It will look like this.
It's almost time to glue it together, but first we want to make our top border. Trim off 1" from the top of your bag.
Cut it apart on the fold lines too. (The yellow print is on the backside of my cardstock.)
Now, we can glue it all together. Start by putting adhesive on the side panels as shown.
Adhere this to the other half. Then glue together the bottom. If you are putting something heavy in your bag, you may want to cut a 3" x 6" rectangle to adhere over the bottom as reinforcement.
Add your border. If you like, make a tissue paper ruffle.
Punch some holes in the top and add a ribbon handle. I also made a fun tag using the Baby Jane Element Deck and Chipboard.
Tomorrow we'll feature another Thrifty Thursday. Drop by to see what we do with these books we picked up at a yard sale for $1 a piece!