Bag and Capture

I really really love when people turn things-that-are-not-bags into bags. I've seen people do AMAZING stuff with nontraditional materials - juice pouches, chip bags, you name it. My project was a little simpler (win for making a bag from a rice bag that already had a zipper), but I'm still pleased with how it came out.

I made a lining with orang and colored-pencil print fabric, plus a pocket out of the colored pencil fabric. Bags like this *need* and inner pocket for me, unless I'm using it as a grocery tote or something. The lining is a little baggier than it needed to be, but it doesn't bunch up quite like this picture when there's stuff in it.

This is the D-ring where the strap attaches - it can be unhooked and tucked into the bag if one wants to hold it by the short handles the bag comes with, like this:

This is the corner of the bag - the original bag was sewn together completely flat, so I turned in the bottom corners and sewed them to give the bag a flatter bottom and a bit more structure. It's a few inches wide on the bottom. Height and width-wise, it's big enough for my 13" Macbook with a little extra room, although it won't fit my Macbook case, as mine is a little bulky. :P

I've used it a couple of times since making it, and I'm pretty pleased. It's really great for a notebook or two and some pens on the days when I have a light class load and don't want to haul a backpack around. I think that's pretty much everything there is to know about this bag! So I'll leave you, but not without one final picture of the finished product:

Tea Box Wallets

I love tea. I love everything about tea. The taste, the ritual, the feel of a warm cup in your hands.. And of course, the tea boxes. There are some really amazingly cute tea boxes out there! Hello, Celestial Seasonings! Trader Joe's has some cute stuff, too - I may or may not have bought this tea based on the fact that there was a lemur playing with Christmas lights on the box. But it's silly to just leave the boxes lying around, right? (At least my roommate finds it strange.) So inspired by some creative wallets I've seen on the internet, I decided to tackle turning a tea box into one.

And I'm in love! I've made four now, three of which I've used and have photos of here. (The fourth didn't turn out as well as I'd have liked, but hey, learning experiences, right?)

I made one largish one:

Money pocket + 4 pockets for cards.

Clear ID pouch on the right.

When it started to wear out, I made a new one, but decided that I wanted it to be smaller so that it could fit in my pants pocket. I don't carry a purse often, unless I have a *lot* of stuff (or am toting a book around), and often all I have with me is phone/keys/chapstick/wallet, which I don't feel is really worth a bag. So this wallet was born:

Unfortunately the glossiness makes them very prone to glare from the flash. But what an adorable cottage, right?

First time playing with velcro on these - not perfect, but kinda cool.

I really, really liked this one. It's small and compact - enough pockets to hold what I need, but not enough space to tempt me into carrying a bunch of useless stuff in my wallet.

So when that wallet wore out, it was replaced with one constructed exactly the same way, just from a different type of tea box.

Outside of the wallet. Both sides look like this. Epic castle wallet FTW.

Inside - two pockets for cards and such, and of course a money pocket.

One of the outer flaps flips up to reveal another card pocket and a clear pouch for IDs.

I save most of my tea boxes now so I can make wallets with them. There are, in fact, 7 empty tea boxes sitting on my bookshelf at this very moment! Some boxes don't work as well as others because of the dimensions, but if nothing else, that's incentive to play with new designs. Eventually I feel I'll end up with more of these than I can use, but I haven't come up with a cool idea for something else to make with them yet, though I'm sure there's something out there.

Pie Hole Box

I am a pretty big Pushing Daisies fan. I own the series, of which I have seen every episode multiple times, I often wish I could pull off Chuck's wardrobe in my day-to-day life, and I think I would quote it on a regular basis if I thought anyone I knew would get the reference.

So of course the little wooden box that I use to hold my pins/buttons has been telling me for ages that it is just waiting to become a miniature Pie Hole box. (The box came to me as a teacup box from Tea Forte.) At first I thought that I would just get a picture of it to print out and glue it on, but my printer has been out of ink for months and doesn't look to be refilled anytime soon. And then in the middle of a crafty mood the other day, it suddenly occurred to me that I should just paint the thing. So I did, and here it is! (You should be able to click on any of the pictures to enlarge them a bit.)

Starting out - note my high-tech tape roll circle stencil.

Season 1 DVD = very handy reference picture. 

The finished product! (If the background looks funny, this was taken outside after the coats of acrylic sealant I sprayed on.)

It's primarily acrylic paint, except for the outline, which was done with a black drawing pen. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out (even with the not-quite even circle..) - yay for things that are both cute and functional!