Spring Purses!

Hey, thanks for stopping by as the Winter weather is slowly dripping away. I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of Spring! It's time to get rid of the dreary and lookout for the fresh, new, fun colors, sights and sounds of Spring. What better way to celebrate Spring, then with a colorful new purse. Today I'm going to show you how to create a cute little purse with some papers inside for a little notepad or to put some spring photos on! Valentine's Day is just around the corner and it would be great to put some LOVE coupons inside it, or poems expressing your feelings, the possibilities are endless. I've also used these purses and stapled a little bag of candy inside it for a party favor, and as a thank you gift for teachers and teachers aide's. See how many ideas you can come up with to use this idea for and then please write me a comment about it. I LOVE to hear from you!

Supplies:
Pencil
Cardstock
Stapler with staples
Scissors
Adhesive
Ribbon
Inside paper (cardstock or copy paper)
Velcro
Embellishments
Purse Template or Coluzzle Purse Pattern and coluzzle swivel knife

Instructions:

1.) Trace the purse pattern onto your cardstock (I fold at 12x12 piece in half so that I can cut 2 purses out at once)
2.) Cut out your purse

3.) Fold your purse up from the bottom and down from the top

4.) Cut the papers you will put inside the purse into 4x9" pieces
-these pages will be folded so that 2 4x9" pieces will make 4 pages
5.) Fold the inside pages you just cut, in half
6.) Open up your folded pages and place them on top of your opened purse
-the bottom fold of the purse will line up with the fold of your pages

7.) Staple the pages inside the purse

8.) Put adhesive along the fold (over the staples) and put a piece of ribbon over the staples. Turn the purse over and put adhesive over the same fold (over the staples) and put another piece of ribbon over it
**You may want to use a 1/4" strip of paper instead of ribbon to cover the staples. Sometimes I will use ribbon over the staples on the outside and paper over the staples on the inside. Do whatever you think looks better with the cardstock you chose to use.

9.) Lay your purse down so that the notepad papers are facing up. Place a piece of velcro onto the middle of the top flap on your purse.
10) Fold the bottom of your purse up, and place the other piece of velcro onto the middle of the bottom flap on your purse.
11) Cut ribbon 12" long and adhere it to each side of the top flap of your purse (this is the handle)
12) Embellish as desired!

Faux Suede Embossing Technique

Who wouldn't like a suede looking purse? Here are instructions on how to make your purse look like it's made of suede! It's super easy!

Supplies:
Versamark Ink Pad
Clear embossing powder
Heat gun
Stylus

Instructions:

1.)Cover the area you want to look like suede in versamark ink

2.) Cover the ink with clear embossing powder

3.) Use your stylus to make your design

4.) Heat the powder and watch your suede design appear!

(The above "suede" purse was made using the coluzzle purse template.)