Brown Bag Album

First a little Thank You

I first started blogging to share my crafts with my friends and family and was not really thinking beyond that. Little did I know that there was a whole world waiting for me called Blogland and that there'd be so many people interested in what I made and the stories I tell.

Fellow crafters who take the time to write me comments to encourage me.   Little did I know that I would develop friendships with incredible people whom I may not have ever gotten to know otherwise.  I have been told that I'm like part of the family, I have been told that they see me as a neighbor, and many refer to me as a blog friend.  I feel like I came to Blogland with little to offer but in return have received so much from all of you.  

There are many blogs in Blogland that have captured my interest and from time to time I mention them on my posts. Some for their creativity and others for their inspiration. It is quite surprising to me when my own blog gets mentioned by a fellow blogger.  It's the most amazing feeling when someone takes time off their day to mention me. I am truly thankful to all of you who have left me messages and to those of you who have posted about my blog. I want to share a more recent post that Sonia Barton of Modista Modesta shared on her blog.

You can read it here

Now on to my Brown Bag Album:
before I get into the pictures, I want to apologize.......once again.  My rinky dink camera broke in the middle of my project and had to use my seven year old's, Toys R Us camera!!! don't laugh, he thinks his camera is better than mommy's.

 You would never think this photo album was made using brown lunch bags!
And I am not that creative to have thought of this on my own.  I was actually surfing Ebay and came accross a vendor who sold paper lunch bags "ironed" by the dozen!!! I said, whaaat?!!! Yes, curiosity got the best of me.  Why would anyone on earth want to buy ironed pressed lunch paper bags? I guess it would be the same people who would iron their under clothes, pajamas, socks and towels right?

 Well, after a little research  I found that some crafters are making albums out of these lunch bags, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Here's what you'll need:
lunch paper bags

also, double sided tape, ribbon

and a crop a dile or any tool for an eyelette setter

 A few eyelettes

And lastly, some scrapbook paper

First, you'll need to fold your first bag which will act as your front page and also last page of your album. This bag will end up being a different size than the rest as I will explain later.
Fold like this:

 keep going

 To look like this:

I will write on it FRONT and LAST PAGE as a guide for viewing but you don't have to.  The area that says FRONT, is the area where my fingers are placed on the picture above.  The black line indicates where you will sew....yes, there's some sewing involved but not too much. 

At this point, you'll want to create the hidden pockets in your album.  This is where you'll need an eyelette setter.  Take your bag and lay it down bottom side up like this:

 next, use a whole punch to punch out the whole where the eyelette will go.  You'll need to go through the first two layers:

 Then set your eyelette

 When you're done, it will look like this picture below, see the hidden pocket?

Next, You'll want to gather all your bags layer them facing opposite direction for interest.  Notice that the one you place in the very back will be both your front page and your last page:

Fold them in half.  This is the area you will sew, where they all fold in half.  But, once again, remember, your last bag will not be equal length as the rest.  You'll need to glue it to the one before it when you're done and cover with scrapbook paper. 

Also, notice how the last bag will be a little shorter than the rest, it's okay, you can just glue it to the back of the previous bag.

Sew down the center, make sure you sew along the half way area of the bags (remember, your last bag is not the same size as the rest because of that fold we did earlier).

Sew the bags together and then iron them so they lay nice and flat.

Next, decorate your bags using scrapbook paper, here's how the front of the book looks.  Notice how the back page is concealed by the front page:

 

 

you can add your pictures to all these pages with double sided tape

 

some cute pockets for love notes.

And don't forget the bags for mementos

I'd like to spotlight a blog I stumbled upon sometime last week.  Susan is the creative author of My Place To Yours  .  Her pictures say a thousand words and they will captivate you from the moment you arrive.  Visit Susan so you can see for yourself what a fun, creative and inspiring blog she has.  



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