paper bag alpha

 I'm all about getting the most mileage out of products. That is why a lot of times I will use the same tag as a mask & an embellishment on two different layouts (see this post), deconstruct an embellishment to get more out of it, or take apart an envelope to use as a photo mat. When it comes to getting my monthly scrapbooking kit from Studio Calico, I decided to challenge myself to use the one thing I get every month and usually throw away: the brown paper bag.

If you've been getting a kit for awhile now, you have several (or had--you'll want to keep them now!) brown paper bags. And if you are like me, they usually end up in the trash. Sometimes the alphabet that comes with your kit just won't go with the layout you have in mind. You can totally hand cut a title out of patterned paper, but if you want to save that pretty patterned paper for your project, try this!

The color of these bags remind me of kraft paper. So it's very versatile. (Of course, if you don't have a brown paper bag you could use kraft paper for the same look.) I had a farm-y type layout in mind and thought this would go perfect. I left the bag as is, which gave me two sets of each letter I cut.

I freehand cut the letters on the bag with my precision pen. The gingham paper below is the width of my layout. Having it under my letters gave me an idea of how big to make them. You can see I did some letters more than once. That way, I had options when putting the layout together. I think a mix of upper and lowercase makes it look more interesting.

It's like alphabet confetti! I went through and picked which letters I liked the best. Because I used the bag as it was, I got two layers. That allowed me to used the letters that were cut on the second layer, without any of the black outline showing.

Once I had my alpha where I wanted it, I sewed it all down. I alway love the look of stitching on a layout and especially here, with the "homegrown" freehand title, the kraft and gingham.. it gives the layout a fun, homespun feel. For this layout, I used pieces from September's Poet Society kits, as well as South of Market and a few random pieces from my stash.

So simple and cost effective. You could do several things different here--like outline each letter or even sew around each individual letter. These bags would also be great for punching out shapes, cut into tags, even folded in to a paper bag mini album. The possibilities are kinda endless (and cheap)! Thanks for checking out this paper bag idea. I'm already thinking of ways I can use next month's brown bag. Hmmm.....