Paper Bag Scrapbook Albums

I need a place to send customers from my etsy store to tell them all about Paper Bag Scrapbooks. There's so much to tell and not enough room in the listings, so I thought I'd blog about them.

I start with 3 paper bags that have been treated (to make them acid-free) and pressed (to get the wrinkles out). They have also been folded, sewn down the seam (to make them more durable) and 5 holes punched in the spine. I don't do any of that work! I buy them from a lady on eBay who I've been buying them from for almost 5 years. She's the best I've found for quality and a great price!

Then I choose a theme or whatever papers I want to use and I go for it! I'm working on a ballerina album and a princess album right now. My niece gave both a thumbs up and couldn't decide which she liked better. That's a good sign! :-)

Here is an album that I made for my family for pictures of our themed family nights.

The front cover:


All albums can be personalized like this one "Family Nights". The stickers were just some that I had that looked cool with the papers. You can find fun stickers at any craft store.

Some of the inside pages, with matted journal blocks and a matte for 4x5 pictures. The pages without mattes are perfect for a collage of pictures.




Sometimes I put a collage of pictures on the photo matte, but I don't trim them to fit exactly.




This shows how the pages pull out, as well as a different view of the inside pages.


My favorite thing about paper bag albums is that the opening from the paper bag creates a pocket that is perfect for pictures, movie tickets, ticket stubs, report cards, well baby check measurements, notes, etc. Each pocket has a blank tabbed pull-out page for journaling or for a drawing, etc.


These books are so easy to personalize with photos from a specific occasion or they can be given away for the recipient to fill. They can also be made to fit your specific ideas. Favorite animals, school colors, wedding, baby's first year, specific themes, anything! If you can dream it (and I can find the paper for it) it can be made! :-)

Money Doesn't Grow on Trees...

...But, sometimes it does grow on flowers.

My niece, Julia, turned 6 this weekend and I was so busy with VBS last week that I totally forgot about a gift for her. Bad Aunt! I didn't want to go anywhere because I was worn out, so I got the great idea to take dollar bills and make her name out of $1 bills.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any tutorials on folding dollar bills into letters.

So, I decided to make flowers and put them in a vase. I didn't have any cute vases, so I looked around my craft room and found some Starbucks Frappuccino bottles that I had cleaned and was using to hold buttons. Perfect!

Then I used some crinkle paper (what is that stuff called anyway?) that a friend gave me because she wasn't using it and thought I might come up with something to do with it.

I followed this tutorial for the dollar bill rose and this tutorial to make the 6-petal flower. The rose was time-consuming, but I thought the tutorial was very clear. The 6-petal one was super easy. Next time, I'll make 2 or 3 of the tulips (they kinda look like tulips, right?) and it will be faster and easier.

I put the flowers in the vase first and then held them in place with alternating layers of the hot pink and neon green crinkle paper.

Then I made a card that was so, so simple, but turned out exactly how I wanted. I stamped the image on white cardstock and colored with my Copic markers. Then I stamped the same image on a piece of velum and didn't do anything else to it. I layered them and it softens the look of the ballerina dress. Simple, but perfect.


Here's the finished bouquet.


Here's the back so you can see the fun layers of crinkly paper.


And here's the sweet birthday girl!


Happy Birthday, Julia-bug!