You can assemble beautiful gift bags with nothing more than anaglypta (an embossed wallpaper) and a little paint, glue, cardboard and cording. Although you can purchase templates, craft expert Carol Duvall explains how to make a pattern from a cereal or cracker box. Materials:
Cereal box or cracker box
Anaglypta
Brown acrylic paint
Gold Rub 'N' Buff® paint
White glue or rubber cement
Cord
Cardboard
- Wrap a piece of anaglypta around a cereal box or cracker box with 1/2" overlap around; the piece should be long enough to cover the bottom of the box when it's wrapped like a package. Leave about 2" extra at the top to turn inside. Crease the paper at each corner of the box to make crisp edges. Glue the paper in place where the paper joins along the side edge. Fold the bottom as you would wrap a package and glue in place.
- Paint the paper before or after wrapping, whichever you think is easier. Carol used brown paint, then applied Rub 'N' Buff over the paint for an attractive antiqued effect (figure A).
- Cut a piece of cardboard the same size as the bottom of the box, and place it inside the new bag.
- Cut two strips of cardboard, each the width of the front or back of the bag and 2" deep. Measure 2" from the top edge of the bag, and fold the edge to the inside, creasing along the measured line. This will create a finished edge along the top of the bag and a 2" pocket on the inside for inserting the cardboard strips. Slip each cardboard strip under the 2" flap on the inside front and inside back of the bag, and glue in place (figure B).
- Punch two holes 1" from the top edge and approximately 2" from the side edges in both the front and back of the bag for the handles. String a piece of cord from the outside to the inside of the bag through each hole on the front of the bag, and tie a knot inside the bag on each end of the cord. Do the same for the back of the bag (figure C).
Variation: Turn the bag into a vase by setting a plastic bottle inside. Use stacked pieces of foam board cut the exact size of the bottom of the bag to hold the bottle in place.
RESOURCES :
Gold leaf finish (AMACO)
Rub 'N' Buff
American Art Clay Co. Inc. (AMACO)
Indianapolis, IN 46222
Phone: 317-244-6871
Fax: 317-248-9300
Email: catalog@amaco.com
Website: www.amaco.com
Videocassettes
American Traditional Stencils
Website: www.AmericanTraditional.com
| 
)
)
)
)
