"Emergency Use Only" Gift Bag Topper

I had an event this past weekend and made these survival bags to pass around.  I wanted to make sure everyone would be okay.  : )

I made 25 bags in a short period of time.  One of my recipients asked if I stamped each of the letters at a time.  I told her, "No, no no.  I'll be blogging how I put this together."  : )

I'd like to think I work smarter than harder -- even if the results don't show that.  So let me show you how...







The bags I used are from Joann's.  They are the Wilton bags, but you could use any bag.  I determined what size would look good for the bag size.  In this case, finished 4.25" x 2" which means for each topper I needed a 4.25" x 4" piece of paper.  Since I have 12" x 12" paper, I calculated that I could fit 6 toppers on one sheet of 12" x 8.5" paper.   I cut my 12" x 12" White Daisy cardstock to those dimensions.

Next, I "randomly" stamped my whole paper.  "Random" is in quotes because as I stamped, I created triangles with the image.  And I started with the largest stamp image.  Once my Cotton Candy large circles (Oodles of Doodles) were stamped over the paper, I repeated the process with the medium circle with Pear ink.  If you can't tell, my colors were inspired by the Lollydoddle paper.  Finally, I completed the random stamping with a small circle (from Hooray Bouquet) in Twilight ink.

I'm going to inject here to say that I HAD to buy and use Oodles of Doodles stamp set just because of the name!!  I'm super excited that I like the set!  : )

So now that my paper is stamped, and to cut down on time, I scored the paper where it's going to fold before I cut it.  This way I only have to score 3 lines -- one at 2" (not shown), 6", and 10" (along the 12" side).  Now it's ready to cut.  I cut along the 8.5" side at 4.25", rotated the paper and cut at 4" and 8".  Done.  I now have 6 pieces ready to be layered upon.

 I scanned these smaller pieces and filled in some gaps with the colored circle stamps.  When I cut the paper, some of the white space turned out to be too large for the smaller paper.



 The next layer was the Whisper paper.  This measures 1.5" x 3.75".  Again, I calculated how many I could get from a 12" paper.  I cut strips of 3.75" width from 12" cardstock.  I'd get 8 finished pieces from one 1.5" x 3.75" strip.  I placed the strip in my Dot Embossing Folder (z1924) and ran it through my embossing machine once.  The folder is only 7" long, so I took it out and moved it up in the folder (there is a slit at the fold - how awesome is that!!), I lined up the circles, and ran the strip through once more.  So two passes for 8 pieces -- not shabby.  Before I cut the paper to proper size, I sanded it with our Sanding Kit (z1294).

Next layer is the banner.  I took Oodles of Doodles banner for that.  When I stamped with the scribble, it was too much scribbling for my taste.  But I liked the look the banner provided.  I enlarged the banner to 1.25" and cut those out of Twilight cardstock.  The image can be found on Artiste Cricut Cartridge on the Accent 3 Shift key (<Ac3><Shft> Column 8 Row 3).  Got the banners cutting and got ready for the next step -- the words.




A Typeset (A1117) was the font I went with.  To assure my words fit, I took a cut banner and laid the letters on the banner as they'd appear after stamping.  When I came to a letter that repeated, I moved the letter after the following letter was placed down.  In essence there was a hole left.  Once I was satisfied with the placement of the

 letters, I took my block and attached my saying to the block!  It was then easy to stamp the saying on all of my banners in Twilight ink.  When that was done, I went back and filled in the missing "e" and "y".  The beauty of clear stamps and blocks!!

Finally, I sponged the banner and mounted it with foam tape.  I glued everything together and I finished my topper!  How's that for working smarter, not harder.  : )