Valentine's Day Green bag/envelope Tutorial

In the latest issue of Stampington's Green Craft Vol. 2, I just love, love, loved this heart bag by Becky Shander. It is made out of brown paper grocery bags! I don't normally use paper, I'm more of a plastic Momma (sometime I want to try that 'fused plastic' technique from Green Craft Vol. 1) But after I saw this magazine and was at the store picking up just a couple of things I decided to get paper bags instead.



So I made a heart bag myself following Becky's directions:



Step 1 ~ Gather any brown paper sacks that you got when grocery shopping. Cut the front and back panel and lay one on top of the other on your work table.
Step 2 ~Draw a large heart on one side of the brown paper. Hold the 2 pieces together and cut the heart shape out.
Step 3 ~ Sew the 2 pieces together leaving an opening at the top. NOTE - I don't know if it was just my sewing machine, but the stitches facing up horrible (as you can see), but when I turned it over after I had already collaged it, I found the stitches were perfect. So after you sew look at both sides and decorate the one with the better stitches. Oh and sewing on this paper broke my needle, so be prepared!
Step 4 ~ Color the heart with pastels. Blend the pastels with your finger. NOTE: Becky used chalk to color hers and I think that worked better than my oil pastels, chalk spread better and looks more romantic.




Step 5 ~ Gather some decorative paper and fabric scraps for a collage. (The heart is what is left over from when I added foil to a Sticky2 heart)
Step 6 ~ Arrange and then glue down your collage in the center of the heart.
Step 7 ~ Add some rubber stamps with Staz On ink. This stamp is from the Romance Heart Cube by Stampington & Co.
Step 8 ~ Punch 2 holes in the top of the heart.





Step 9 ~ Cut a long piece of 28 gauge jewelry wire (I love wire, it is so cheap, only a couple of $ per spool and this light gauge cuts even with a scissors, so no need for any jewelry tools and can be used for lots of projects)
Step 10 ~ Slip this wire into one of the holes thread it onto a bead. I doubled the wire up.
Step 11 ~ Twist to secure.
Step 12 ~ Add beads by twisting them onto the wire along the handle.





Step 13 ~ Add charmed to one strand of wire.
Step 14 ~ Add fibers to one part of the handle.


This was my favorite type of craft to make - simple but very cute. I am going to use it as an envelope for my husband's VD card. Then I went ahead and made some mini ones to give to my kids this Valentines Day, filled with candy hearts and a little love note!



Thanks so much to Becky for the inspiration! Go check out her blog, it is lovely.