Taking Transparencies Out of the Box and Into the {Gift} Bag!

Fun With Transparencies: A Transparency Gift Bag
Tutorial by Cindy Gilchrist, Miss November

Transparencies are a hot scrapbooking item and the best thing about transparencies + digi is that you can MAKE YOUR OWN!

• You can find blank, printable transparencies for either ink jet or laser printers.
  
• I’ve made several projects with transparencies and one of the things I’ve discovered is that they fold really well.
  
• You need to use a bone folder, ruler or other straight-edged object to go over the folds to really crease them and they’ll become permanent - for this reason, making a box or bag out of a transparency is great project.

Since I knew I would be making this bag out of a transparency, I wanted to use a digi paper that had a design with a white background. I wanted to the design to show on the transparency but also wanted a good bit of the clear transparency to show - since white doesn’t print on a printer, the white areas will be clear on the transparency.

After selecting the paper I wanted, I printed a full 8.5x11 sheet of digi pattern paper onto my transparency (many printers have a “transparency” setting which will give you the best results when printing).

I used a simple template to make the transparency into a bag:



I printed the template onto a regular sheet of paper and then laid the template over my transparency to make the cuts and folds. With this template, cut out the small, solid triangle shapes on the sides.

The lines are the template are the fold lines. Fold the transparency on these lines and remember to use a bone folder, ruler or other straight edged-item to crease the fold lines.





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After the cuts and folds are made, your bag will start taking shape;




For the sides of the bag, I overlapped the sides slightly at the top and used a mini-stapler to hold them together as shown (you could also use brads, eyelets, or glue dots).



Now you have a bag like this:



Embellish your bag as desired.

• I printed out some coordinating papers and made a scalloped border to go around the top.
• I also added printed a sentiment which I adhered to chipboard and added to the bottom of the bag.
  
• You could also add a paper handle to the bag if you‘d like (attaching at the sides where the bag is stapled).

There you have it, a fun transparency project that is perfect for holding holiday treats!

Do you have any projects with transparencies? If so, link us up, we’d LOVE to see them!

Have you been inspired by our blog? Share with us what you create at our NEW Flickr group:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/everydaydigitalscrapbooking/

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