Nicole Stalker

My original intention was to make Lauren some of those gorgeous Paper Shoes that I was reminded about recently. When I asked her if that was okay she went…”Hmmmmm…..”. “Okay then, what would you like me to do?” Not sure that was a smart idea now.

“Can you make these handbags?” 

Remember these from a recent post.

Ahhh….yes okay.

My first thought was, great I can use up some of that retired DSP I keep hording. Then it hit me. I’d have to print up 60 sheets of DSP,  cut out 180 individual pieces, use 80 brads of various sorts + ribbons, sticky strip, etc. Now using up the 60 sheets of DSP, brads and ribbon isn’t such a big deal (could be an expensive exercise, but hey, it’s sales), but cutting out 180 pieces. Very time consuming.

Then I remembered some handbags I’d recently seen on Becky Robert’s blog here and also on Kerri Donsky’s blog here. Becky mentioned it was one of her projects from UStamp with Love and I had actually forgotten all about it. So off I went into my UStamp folder and found the tutorial….

These were going to be much easier and hopefully quicker to make which is what I wanted more than a bit more classier as I think these ones pictured are. After all I wonder how many of the children will still have them a day or two after the party……

So I showed Lauren the picture of the ‘new style’ bag and she said….”Yep that’s okay those look great too”.  Phew……

The next task was to find 20 different sheets of DSP that have either Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Baja Breeze or Rose Red in them as I needed to use the 1” Double-Stitched Grosgrain ribbon for the handles. Guess what? I did. Well I did have to include a retired ribbon too but I’ll tell you about that below.

Here’s a shot of all the 20.

Lots of Rose Red ribbon in there.

I started off with retired papers first and came across some Berry Bliss DSP, however that was Close to Cocoa in that pack, but then I remembered I still had some Purely Pomegranate Satin ribbon which is the same width. I managed to pick out 2 different sheets from this pack. Next came 1 piece from the Summer Picnic pack. This is how they look.

Next up was the retired packs of Spring Showers and Spring Flowers. I found 1 full sheet from each pack to use and here they are….

Retired Bali Breeze came next and I found 3 different sheets to use…… 

That was it with the retired papers. That’s 8 sheets less I’m hording now though. 

Moving on now to the current Designer Series Papers and first up is Sweet Always and Washington Apple with 1 sheet from each.

Followed by Urban Garden with another 2 sheets……

Then Good Morning Sunshine with another 2……

and the final 6 are from Raspberry Tart….

I don’t actually think I could pick a favourite as every time I put a new one together I liked that one too. Along with using up some retired DSP, I put some retired buttons and a little ribbon to use too.

So I don’t have any arguments over which child wants which bag I have told Lauren that I will put all the names of those attending into a hat, line the bags up and then pick out the names. Whoever comes out first gets bag number 1, second will get bag number 2, and so on. I’m going to make tags and put the children’s initials on them (using the new Timeless Type Junior Alphabet Big Shot die) so it will just be hand out the one with their initials on it as they are leaving. Even my girls wont get to choose.

I managed to get all 20 of these done (amongst other things, including a class) in 1 1/2 days. I had it down to a fine art and could quite easily have made another 20 without getting bored with it. I think having an array of designer series papers and waiting to see the end result, keeps it interesting. We went and purchased the Pinata for the party and all the lollies to go inside and in the Party bags on Saturday so apart from food, drinks and cake (which is usually and Ice-Cream cake, yummo….) we are pretty much organised with 2 weeks to spare before her Birthday.

Next on my agenda is making Mother’s Day cards for school.

Till next time…..