Monday, March 29, 2010

Fun and Easy Way to Personalize Your Bags!

Good morning!!!

March is National Crafting Month and every Monday of the month the Limelight Papercrafts Team have been sharing tutorials with you.

Today is my day and I am sharing a fun and easy way to personalize your bags (purses, luggage, kids backpacks, etc) using stamping and paper-piecing.

Supplies used for Hey Chick tag:
Nestabilities Labels 13 diecut,
kraft paper,
StazOn Jet Black inkpad

Today's project is a project that I stumbled upon a few years ago when I was making Altered Trading Cards and was looking for a way to show them off. I found these id badge holders on base and an idea occurred to me that I could tie an ATC onto my purse as a pretty decorative element. Since then, I have made them to tie onto all my bags including luggage (makes it MUCH EASIER to spot your luggage on the baggage claim turnstile...you can make it pretty on one side and put your identification info on the other side) and even fun decorative tags for the kids backpacks.

The actual construction of the tags is super basic so I decided to make my tutorial about a stamping technique....paper-piecing. I think that this is a technique that looks way more difficult than it actually is and it is a perfect technique for the paper-pads that Mandy carries in the Limelight Papercrafts store (because these paper pads are scaled down, the patterns in them are smaller in scale than the 12x12 papers and makes them perfect for cutting into small pieces for paper-piecing.)

When I paper-piece, I like to use several different patterns...


Step 1. Choose your papers

Step 2. Stamp your image that you want to paper-piece onto all of your papers and a neutral base paper (which is where you will be layering on your patterned papers)


Step 3. Decide which sections of your stamped image you want to use the different papers in and trim accordingly


Step 4. Use a glue pen to adhere your patterned papers onto your stamped image


Step 5. Assemble your project using your paper-pieced stamped image as normal.

Supplies Used for Find Joy Tag:
Unity Stamp Co. Could I be Any Cuter,
kraft paper,
StazOn Jet Black inkpad



Supplies used for Travel Tag:
Unity Stamp Co. Destination Happiness,
kraft paper,
StazOn Jet Black inkpad,
watercolor pencils

Hint: I am NOT proficient with an exacto blade, so I simply cut out more pieces to layer on top for sections that should be plain like the windows on the camper.



28 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:08 AM

    OMG, I have been wanting to do this for my work lunch bag and you have TOTALLY inspired me! Love that ID tag idea! Fabulous project Christi!!!

    lisa a.

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  2. All the tags are amazing and so inspiring. You can see all the love and time you put into each one of them. What a great idea. Thanks for this inspiring project and tutorial.

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  3. These tags are adorable!!!

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  4. this is such a cute idea, christi! thanks for sharing!

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  5. Your paper piecing is so cheerful, I love it!

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  6. WOW!!!! I am super impressed with the paper piercing..WOW :) Have to try these tag ideas.

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  7. oh these are adorable! What a great idea!

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  8. These tags are SUPER cute!! I love the great paper-piecing work you did with them. I'm flying with my kiddos over spring break and this idea is so timely. We'll definitely have to give this a try!! Thanks for sharing it :)

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  9. Super cute idea! I have a ton of old id badges from work.... now I know what to do with them! Will make great gifts!!! TFS!

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  10. beautiful.. I love them!!!!

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  11. Love the tags. They would be great for luggage. No matter what I do I can never find my bag on the carosel.

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  12. Anonymous8:37 AM

    Love them! What a super idea...

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  13. Too cute! I will be playing for sure!

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  14. I love making bag tags! It is fun to make them for each person's unique personality! :o)

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  15. Your tags are Adorable!! Love the paper piecing.

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  16. These tags are adorable! I love paper piecing.

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  17. What a cute idea!! I love how you can easily personalize a tag. I'm going to have to make up a few of these for my mom. She'd love them!

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  18. Great paper piecing tutorial! I love to paper piece!!!

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  19. I love paper piecing--it isn't always fun to cut those little pieces out...but it does look GOOD! Thanks for sharing:)

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  20. Wow Christi, this turned out great! Love the Cosmo Cricket dp you used :o)

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  21. oh what a fun item to make! your paper piecing is fantastic and i love the camper :)

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  22. These are super cute Christi! I need to find some of these tags!

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  23. This is so cool, I love how you use different papers to do this.

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  24. oh, Christi! these are fabulous. Paper piecing is always a fave of mine! love all your tags. great tutorial.

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  25. Those are fabulous! I haven't experimented with paper piecing too much. It is wonderful though!

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  26. Wow! I've always been a bit scared to paper piece but you've made it look so much fun! Love your work!

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  27. I did some paper piecing, but wasn't sure if I was supposed to make a bag tag. I made a card and here it is :)

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