Folded Paper Pouch

I forgot about making these cool folded paper pouches at Ronda's a while ago, sorting thru photos today I came across them and thought I'd share - looking thru my photos I realize I am quite behind blogging a bunch of things! Apparently I make more than I have days to share hahah!!

I still love the other open top pouch I made for Ronda (all 120 of them - click here for that post) and continue to make them; the last time was at Christmas when I made one with a cover which I figured out how to do all by myself (!) to hold a few gift cards. See it at the bottom of this post (I forgot how cute it turned out!).

For this folded pouch you'll need a piece of cardstock 4 1/2" x 12".

Score both of the long sides 3/4" in, then turn the paper and score across the narrow side at 2 1/2" and 8". Starting at the top where the 2 1/2" score line is, remove 8" of the long sides as shown (leaving 3/4" x 4" piece that forms tabs at the bottom edge where the other score line is - see picture).

Fold the two side tabs in, apply adhesive to the back sides of the tabs (the white strips in the below picture shows where I applied double stick tape), then fold at the bottom score line so the tabs stick and create the opening. You can notch the top corners if you want a little more detail. Once again, look at the picture to try to figure out what I'm saying - it's not hard I just have issues describing what I'm doing!

To finish, put whatever goodie you want into the pouch (Ronda's held Stampin' Up gem embellishments which fit perfectly) and fold the top part down at the remaining score line (the one that you made at 2 1/2"). It will overlap the pouch opening a little bit.

She had me make these cute tags to stick on the front overtop of some twine I wrapped and tied to hold the flap down.

A few days later I made the same pouch to hold a gift card using double-sided patterned paper, I like the contrasting pattern on the inside. You can see I didn't notch the corners, tied pretty ribbon around to keep the flap closed and attached a card to finish it.

Here is the other paper pouch that I learned to make from Ronda, I added a cover over the open end to sort of turn a gift card holder into more of a present. Cute, right?

Paper Circle Garland

My niece Paige is graduating from cosmetology school tonight and asked me to help decorate her station for her last day. Hello, of course I'll help - happily! Her colors are black, gold, and cream - she didn't care what we did as long as it's "creative and cool", and doesn't involve tissue paper - apparently that's what everyone does which makes it not creative and cool.

I got the idea for circle garland on Pinterest, some for purchase and some homemade - of course I'm going to make it (!) - it'll be cute to drape over her mirror. Initially I planned to hot glue the cut out circles to some black and white bakers twine I have, but then I saw someone sewed the circles together and I wanted to try that - don't think I've sewn on paper before...

The hardest part of this project was cutting out the circles - and that wasn't hard, just time consuming. I have a circle rotary cutter and that was helpful, you could do them by hand but that's gonna take even longer of course. I cut out 21 small 1 inch circles from 3 different cardstock papers (black, shiny gold, and cream), for a total of 63, 6 2" circles (total 18), and 3 3" circles. Then I figured out the pattern I wanted which ended up being one 2" circle then 3 small circles, interspersing the largest circle every now and then, and started sewing - between every circle I continued to sew for a second so there is a little space between the circles.

The sewing of the garland didn't take long at all and look how great this turned out! I'm going to be making these often now in different colors - and will be on the lookout for pre-cut paper circles!

To finish her station we put up the shiny gold paper across the top and used black letter stickers to put her name on it, then attached black balloons that I decorated by brushing on glue and sprinkling with chunky gold glitter. I'll show you how I did the balloons and what the final project looks like tomorrow after I take pictures tonight!

my mock up of the plan for her station