Altered Bag

It is time for a new challenge at Stamps and Stencils and I am the hostess this month and am calling it Tags, Bags and Boxes!  Here is what I am looking for this time:

"With Christmas coming up and the gift buying underway, we are going to need something to wrap them in. Let's make some mixed media tags, bags & boxes that will be as treasured by the recipient as the gift itself. Don't forget to include some stamping or stenciling."

I decided to alter a bag when I saw some white paper sacks at Michaels for a pretty decent price on par with the dollar store - rare for Michaels.

I started by painting a section of one side with some Deep Red Acrylic paint from DecoArt.  Next I tried to add some stenciling but since the bag is not flat with the handle inserted, it looked horrible so rather than send it to the garbage I figured out a way to save it.

I tore a piece of card stock the size of the area already painted and painted it.  Then I used a stars stencil from IndigoBlu and their Vodka Martini Metallic paint to make a deep stenciled frame of stars.

Using Jet Black Archival Ink and some elements from a Cloud 9 Design stamp set that I picked up at a yard sale, I stamped randomly around the frame.  The edge of this panel was inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  Before I added it to the bag with dimensional foam I used a natural sea sponge to add some extra paint to the bag itself.

Next I printed some Christmas music paper, tore it and inked the edges with Vintage Photo DI before I adhered it to the painted panel with dimensional foam.

The next step was to make the trees.  They were cut on the laser cutter from 100 lb card stock and inked with Evergreen Bough, Peeled Paint and Forest Moss Distress Ink.  I coated them with Wendy Vecchi Crackled Texture Paste.  When they were dry I realized that the cracks might flake off so I coated them with Mod Podge.  After they were dry I re-inked them with all the same colours of Distress Ink and then mounted them on the music paper panel.

This was an easy transformation and the only thing that slowed it down was drying time but definitely made the white bag look much more fun.

I hope you will join us at Stamps and Stencils and show us your creation.  You have until November 30th at 8:00 pm UK time.