Earth Day Blog Hop with The Robin's Nest

Welcome to the Robin's Nest Earth Day Blog Hop! You should have arrived here from Erika Taylor's blog. The blog hop starts at The Chattering Robin's Blog and you can visit there if you lose your way along the hop! Along with featuring beautiful paper and products from The Robin's Nest, we are swapping products with Want2Scrap this month, so I was able to add a bit of their chipboard shapes to my project too! There are also prizes for this hop, each blog will be giving away a package of mini dew drops and the grand prize is a leather binder, to be entered just leave a comment and a way to reach you!
My project for the hop is a paper purse. This is such a great project for Earth Day for so many reasons:
1) You can use recycled chipboard for the sides and bottom of the purse. I used the chipboard packaging from Creative Memories products, but I have also used cereal boxes and left over Christmas gift boxes for this style of purse!
2) I always have supplies for this on hand.
3) I found hardware that is renewable! Every piece of hardware can be removed from this purse when it wears out and used to create a new purse! I even found oversize grommets that screw in. So, I will be recycling these for my next handbag!
4) Sometimes the paper from The Robin's Nest is SO pretty, I don't want to cover it with photos! So, this is a great way to use a pretty paper and enjoy it!
5) This is a great gift idea for Mother's Day at a GREAT Price!
Now onto the details.
Supplies
The Robin's Nest Glitter Writing Paper
The Robin's Nest Calamity Jane Diagonal Glitter Paper (purse lining)
The Robin's Time Flies Rubon
The Robin's Nest Glitter Teal Journaling
The Robin's Nest Calamity Jane Roses Paper
Want2Scrap Chipboard Shapes Style D (swirl)
Ranger Stickles Turquois
Tim Holtz idea-ology Foundations Metal Feet
Everything Mary Plastic Handles with Large Rings
Metal Grommets
Rings
Fringe Yarn
Clear Contact Paper
Size F Crochet Hook
Instructions
Cut two pieces of chipboard into 7 1/4" x 7 1/4" squares (front and back of purse). Cut three pieces of chipboard into 4" x 7 1/4" rectangles (sides and bottom of purse).
From one sheet of The Robin's Nest Glitter Writing paper, cut one 7 1/4" x 7 1/4" square, and two pieces of 4 " x 7 1/4". Cut one piece of the Calamity Jane Roses paper into one 7 1/4" x 7 1/4" square, and two pieces of 4 " x 7 1/4". This will make up your bottom and one outside piece of the purse. I actually used the plan brown side of this paper, because I wanted it to match the Glitter Writing paper. BE sure to distress your paper with ink at this stage if you like at this point! Adhere the cut paper to the chipboard using a quick dry liquid glue or Xyron.
Scrap the brown side of the purse at this time. I fussy cut a bit of The Robin's Nest Teal Glitter Journaling, added the rubon from Time Flies, a favorite photo, a scrap of paper doily, and a fussy cut piece of The Robin's Nest Glitter Writing paper. I glittered the Want2Scrap with Ranger's Stickles in Turquoise and set it aside to dry and apply later.
For every piece of the purse, I cut clear contact paper to fit the inside of each piece exactly (7 1/4" x 7 1/4" for the squares and 4" x 7 1/4" for the rectangles). I then cut a piece one inch bigger then each piece for the outside of the purse (8 1/4" x 8 1/4" for the squares and 5" x 8 1/4" for the rectangles). Carefully apply the exact piece to the inside of the purse, pressing out any bubbles with a credit card or scraping tool. Then apply the larger, piece to the outside of the purse allowing the excess to hang off. Carefully miter the corners with the scissors and wrap the excess contact paper to the inside of the purse piece. The contact paper will help keep the glitter from rubbing off the purse and lengthen it's life.
Now punch holes in your purse pieces to prepare for assembly. I used We Are Memory Keepers Cinch, but any other binding tool can be used for this project, such as a Zutter. Don't have a binding too? You can cut these holes with your electric cutter (Cricut, Silhouette, etc.), a Crop-a-Dile or even an anywhere hole punch. Just keep your spacing even and placement along seams matching. So, holes where your front meets the sides, must be matching for when you crochet, and where the bottom meets the front and sides as well. Pictured below are the pieces before assembly.
Now add your stickled Want2Scrap swirl on top of the contact paper with glue (I used liquid glass).
Add the grommets as per the packaging instructions. These grommets, required I cut a hole using an Axcto knife, and then screw into place. To determine placement, I used the center of the ring at the bottom of the handles. I got my handles and grommets at JoAnn Fabrics with coupons and clearance sales for under $5.00!
Crochet the sides and bottom of the purse together using a fringe yarn (this is from Michaels) and a Size F crochet hook. I chained twice between each hole. I love the relaxing rhythm of crocheting! And don't worry if you are not an expert or have even stitches. The fringe yarn is very forgiving! Just keep your tension loose enough that the sides are perpendicular and tight enough that they don't come a part.
Add the Tim Holtz idea-ology feet at the corners of the purse using a hot glue gun, or other glue. Don't these pretty feet look beautiful with The Robin's Nest paper?! Add the handle using rings. Your next stop on the hop is Amanda Marks blog. Check out her great project HERE.

Souvenir Keepsake with The Robin's Nest

I love to make gifts for the people I love! This year, I worked made a souvenir box/mini album purse using The Robin's Nest products. The purse is made with a vintage wooden handbag I picked up at a garage sale over the summer.

Above you can see before pictures of the purse, inside and outside. To make the purse into a mini album/souvenir box, I notched a doll rod with a saw and added round binder clips. I then nailed it to the inside of the purse. I created three pages one for each country visited using Italy Stickers,

Germany Stickers, and France Stickers. For the papers I used Ocean colored Fleur (on Germany page), on the Italy page, and for the France page.

On both sides of the purse, I lined the insides with Calamity Jane Stripe. I cut my lining a bit off on the left side, but added a bit of the paper, some ribbon and some Lullaby Tear Drops to make a faux beaded trim. I then sandwhiched a bit of organza between the side of the purse and the paper on one side. On the other side, I lined the purse with more paper, and added some adhesive hook and loop tape. To the organza I sewed some more of the paper and the other side of the hook and loop tape. The idea is for this side to hold some souvenirs such as ticket stubs, Eurail passes, loose foreign change, etc.

On the outide of the purse, I used the Ocean Fleurs striped side and pleated it to look like ribbon. I sewed it on to some ribbon that I think is by Anna Griffin and hot glued the ribbon onto the sides of the purse. I created a label using Glitter Gold Journaling, and Glitter Gold Letters. I hand cut around the journaling block and matted it on more of the brown paper.

I cut some flowers using the Ocean Fleur, and love paper using My Favorite Things Mini Rolled Rose and Rolled Rose dies, the leaves are just fussy cut from the brown paper. The tag I made with the Robin's Nest Veranda Love Stripe paper, and my Microsoft word on my computer, was used to print "Europe." I love that I can change my ink color to match my project!