Valentine Gift Tote and Game

Everything of course, is made of card stock... the game pieces are the stamped images from the tic tac toe grid which also adorns the front of the bag.

What you need

Cardstock, Adhesive, punches, rubber stamps, ink and a smile 🙂

Instructions

To get enough game pieces (5 each) the image was stamped twice, and then each one was punched with the 1/2″ circle punch. Ten real red, and ten basic black 3/4″ circle punches were used to back the 1/2″ circles… I actually glued all the 3/4″ circles together (real red to basic black) and then glued the heart game pieces to the real red side, and the x game pieces to the basic black side. This not only made the pieces sturdier, but also made them easier to spot. I didn’t particularly care for the dotted heart image after it was punched out… so I simply outlined it with the fine tip of my stampin’ write marker to give it more of a heart shape.

To make the tic tac toe board, I stamped the image with Real Red Classic Ink and on a 2.25″ square of whisper white card stock, and then scored the square at 3/4″ on all sides. After folding on each scored line, I used the felt tip of a Real Red Stampin’ Write marker to highlight the scored lines. Isn’t it fun?

To make the bag “guts” from a 5″ x 3.5″ note card envelope:

First, dampen the envelope flap, and seal it shut. Next, cut it into two 2.5″ x 3.5″ pieces… one of the note card envelopes will easily make two bag ‘guts’. A scoring blade was then used to score 1/2″ along the two sides and bottom of the envelope. Fold and bone-fold the scored lines to make them really stand out. The bag will be easier to ‘form’ too. I highlighted the scored lines with a marker so you can see them better.

If you’ve really folded the lines well, when you open the top, cut edge of the envelope half, a bag will miraculously form! This is an inside view..

And here is a side view. You can see the highlighted scored lines here… and the little flaps which are “left over” on the bottom. Simply fold the flaps to the bottom of the bag and glue them in place. I like to use our Tombow Multi-Adhesive for this step as it sets quickly and holds very firmly, even in humidity!

Here the flaps are folded… but not glued… just to show you the bottom of the bag.

Now… all you have to do is cut out two scallop circles with your Big Shot machine and the Scallop Circle Die!! I stamped the Real Red card stock with the heart image from the “A Happy Heart” set just to give the scallop circle some texture, added a signo white gel pen ‘dot’ to each scallop, and when the dots dried, I dotted over them with the felt tip of my real red stampin’ write marker. Dotting over the dried white gel pen dots yielded a more subtle, muted affect.

After stamping the two scallop circles, score them at 1″ or 9 scallops on one end. Now, hold them together and use a crop-a-dile tool to punch holes for your tote handles. I set my crop-a-dile depth guide just under 3/4″ and punched the holes 5 scallops apart.before setting silver eyelets in the holes. To attach the gingham ribbon handles, I ran a little mono adhesive along the inside of the scallop, running the ribbon almost to the scored line. I had tried ‘knotting’ them, but it looked kind of sloppy… this way it uses more ribbon, about 14″ per handle. But hey… unlike most craft and hobby store ribbon, this ribbon is only $7.50 for 15 yards! Scroll down to see the supply list and link to my online Stampin’ Up! store.