One of the last things presented at the Oakland Regional was this really cute card tote. Shannon West was the presenter and she gave us measurements and walked us though the making of it.
The tote actually has two compartments and A2 cards will fit inside. Shannon used Friendly Flowers stamp set to decorate the front.
Shannon actually made some great glittery embellishments from the Friendly Flower stamp set and put those in one compartment. I don't own this stamp set so I had to do something different.
In the back compartment she placed a cello bag filled with blank A2 cards so the receiver of the gift tote could make their own cards.
Here are pictures and instructions on how to make this tote. You will need a 12" x 12" Designer Series Paper, 2 pieces of 5/8" wide grosgrain ribbon that measures 10" long, 4 Silver Brads, 15" of either 1/4" wide or 5/8" wide grosgrain to wrap around the front of the bag, a slot punch, bone folder, double sided tape, and something to measure and score with. I don't own a Scor-Pal so I used my Fiskars Paper Cutter with the score blade.
Score opposite ends of the paper at 1".
Fold and secure the 1" flaps.
Turn the paper and score opposite ends of the paper at 3 1/2".
Fold one end up.
Fold the other end over. Secure these 2 flaps together, making sure that it now becomes a flat tube. In other words, put the tape on the folded pieces where they overlap only.
Fold the piece in half, with the seam on the outside.
Open up the piece and score 3/4" from the fold line on either side. OR you leave the piece folded and score on both sides at 3/4".
Fold your scored lines so the seam is now on the inside.
It will actually look like this, with the seam on the inside. Place about 2" strip of double sided tape in the center of one piece. Now place the 2 pieces together to seal. You don't want the piece of tape going all the way down. You need to let the pockets have a little ease.
I marked the open side of the pockets 1/2" from the opening and a 1/2" from the sides for the handles. You want a little more than 5/8" wide slot.
Place the slot punch at the end of your mark and punch.
Move your slot over so you can punch the rest of your line out.
Thread one end of your ribbon through the slot and secure with a brad. I just pushed the brad through both pieces of ribbon. Now all you have to do is decorate the front of the tote!
Here's my card tote. I used the flower from the On Board Blossoms & Basics Chipboard, covered it with Craft Brilliant Blue Ink and then used Heat N Stick Powder to adhere the Chunky Glitter. Next I punched a scallop from Certainly Celery card stock and layered a 1 3/8" Brilliant Blue circle. To adhere the scallop piece to the Chunky Glitter, use Mini Glue Dots. Stamped the Happy Thoughts circle from Think Happy Thoughts in Brilliant Blue and punched it out with the 1 1/4" circle punch. The flower is from One of a Kind stamp set. Stamped the image in Brilliant Blue onto Certainly Celery card stock and punched it out using the Boho Blossom Punch.
I put my Chunky Glitter Card inside the tote. This is a project that my adopted group and my downline will be doing, along with the Chunky Glitter Card.
It looks harder than it is to make. Try it for yourself and let me know how you did. If you have any questions, please let me know. I would love to see hundreds of these totes and especially how you decorated the front.