Lunch Paper Bag Book

Another craft from this week, a lunch paper bag book.

You will need three lunch paper bags. (They come in lots of colors besides brown. However, they might have a wax coating on them which may make it difficult to use glue stick for adhering decorative papers or embellishments.)

A hole punch, glue stick and a length of ribbon, twine or yarn

Stack the lunch bags alternating the bottoms and the open top flap.

Fold in half.

With the hole punch, punch three holes. One in the middle, one at the top and one at the bottom. I didn't bother to measure, but go ahead if you need to be exact. Lace the ribbon through the holes and tie with a knot or bow.

The paper bags I used folded to 5 inches square.

You can write on the bags as is or you can cover the pages with decorative paper. The open tops of the bag make handy pockets to hold ephemera.

The book can be used as a journal, a photo album, or storing ephemera.

Paper Bag Purse

One of the crafts we made this week was a a purse made out of a brown paper lunch bag.

While working on the template, I found not all brown lunch bags are standard in size so I had to alter the dimensions for the cardstock. I also found printed cardstock at Walmart so that eliminates cutting decorative paper and gluing to the card stock, though you can still do that to gussy up plain cardstock if you wish.

You will need a brown paper lunch bag cut 4 inches from the bottom

One piece of cardstock measuring 5 1/2 inches wide by 6 inches high. This is the back of the purse. Score and fold two inches to form the flap of the purse.

One piece of cardstock measuring 5 1/2 inches wide by 4 inches high.

A length of ribbon, string, yarn or something to be used as the handle.

A hook and loop closure (Velcro)

Decorative paper and stickers used for embellishment.

You can follow the directions by LilSweetPea on YouTube.

Won't this make a cute favor or gift bag?

Counting Blessings

This week I'm teaching calligraphy at a summer recreation program.  I have a group of 12 and 13 year old girls. 'Tweeners. The girls are bright, talented and funny. How fortunate to be able to play at work.

Do you get to play at work?

Monday Night at the Movies - A to Z

This week's pick The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.  Jimmy Stewart as newly minted lawyer, Ransom Stoddard comes to the West to bring law and order with his law books. Before Stoddard even steps foot in Shinbone, he meets the silver handled whip of the terror of the territory, Liberty Valence (Lee Marvin). Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) the only person in Shinbone able to stand up to Valence comes to the aid of the young lawyer.

The territory is up for statehood and an election is to be held to choose two representatives to attend a convention at the territorial capital. Valence tries to bully the townsfolk into picking him. Stoddard and the publisher and editor of the local newspaper are chosen. Valence viciously attacks the editor and calls Stoddard out to a shoot out. A legend is born, but who is the man who shot Liberty Valence?

What's your pick for me this week?

Alphabet Sunday

Tools, Gadgets, and Widgets - Favicon

If you love tweaking and customizing your Blogger layout, Blogger has added a new feature. You can now add your own favicon to Blogger. What's a favicon, you ask? It's sometimes called a short cut icon, URL icon, or website icon. It's a tiny 16 x 16 pixel picture located in the address bar of your browser.  Blogger uses a B on an orange squarish background. Do you see it? I created a favicon using my pony express rider. Ain't he cute?

From your blogger dashboard above the Navbar ribbon, you'll see a place to edit the favicon. Upload a 16 x 16 pixel image and save. Ta Da! Instead of the Blogger B you'll have your own icon.

If you don't have a tiny image to use, you can create your own using image editing software (Photoshop, PSP X3). If you don't have image editing software you can download Picasa 3 for free.

Don't want to fuss with creating a favicon, but still want one? You can generate and download your own favicon from Favicon Generator and Gallery and it's free!

The Friday Five

My letter is C

Something I like: cowboys

Something I don't like: cheese

Someone I know: Mrs. C, The Young One's 3rd grade teacher

Something I want: chocolate

Grab your jump rope and chant along. What's your letter?