At convention, Pam Morgan showed us a trick for adapting our new Tag a Bag gift bags.  I brought home my Make ‘n Take projects (they were Take ‘n Makes for me!  Much easier to bring home on the plane) and used her technique to step up my Tag It project.

• Tag It (Ronald McDonald House Charities) stamp set
• Tag a Bag Gift Bags and Accessory Kit (tags, coral twine, clothespin)
• Calypso Coral card stock (I added the background flag)
• Calypso Coral and Coastal Cabana Stampin’ Write markers
• Coastal Cabana Ruffled Stretched ribbon
• Subtles Candy Dots
• Uniball Signo White Gel pen and black Sharpie marker

Didja see his EYEBALL?

I had a little giggle fit over this one, I guarantee ya!  This is a Maui Stamper Original Idea 🙂

Pam showed us how to put the gusset in the bottom, and I’ll give you the instructions for that too, but I also want to show you one more Maui Stamper Original Idea (MSOI – you knew that was coming, didn’t you?)  She suggested we put a little piece of grunge chipboard inside the bag (that kinda junk cardboard that keeps your Stampin’ Goodies from getting bent when they’re shipped.)  My MSOI was to wrap that little bad boy so when you look into the package it’s pretty, not grungy.

The dimensions for converting the bag are at the end of the post – here’s the how to wrap the base:

Cut your grunge chipboard just a hair short of 2″ x 3″.  Cut a piece of DSP to 3″ x 4″.  (This is Quatrefancy Specialty DSP.)

Apply a thin coat of Tombo (the Wonder Adhesive) to one side of the grunge chipboard.  You want it to be spread smoothly and evenly to avoid any bubbles in the finished product.  Center the chipboard over the wrong side of the DSP and use your fingernail or a bone folder to create the DSP at each edge (you crafters with the beautiful manicures will  already have that bone folder in your hand).  Trim the corners on the diagonal.

Spread a little more Tombo on the flaps and use your bone folder to press them over the edge and firmly across the bottom of the grungy cardboard.

When Pam put her bag together on stage at convention, she made it look really easy to get it squared but I had a little trouble until I had this MSOI.  I put some SNAIL on one of the short flaps on the side of the bag and attached the bottom side of the covered grunge chipboard to the flap.  This gives you something to wrap the bag around when you assemble the bottom.  Once the first flap is secured, put SNAIL on the opposite flap, turn it under and stand the bag with the base squarely on top.

Doesn’t that little wrapped base look pretty?!  And see how the wide flaps are pressed to the outside?  Reach down into the bag with the bone folder and press the two narrow side flaps in place, then add a little more SNAIL to the two wide flaps and fold them in to finish the bottom of your bag.  E-Z!!

To make the flat bag into a gusset bag, trim a narrow strip off the bottom – just to open it up.  Score at 1 1/2″ from the bottom of the bag across the short end (I actually scored on both sides, flipping the bag over on my Stampin’ Score to be sure both score lines were solid.)  Then score your bag at 1″ from each long edge.  Snip along that 1″ score line on all 4 sides up to the 1 1/2″ score line – when you open up the bag it will resemble the open bag in the first couple of photos.  Be sure to really press each of those score lines in well with your bone folder before attempting to assemble the bag.  Don’t forget to invert and score the “gusset” fold on each side. Here’s a shot of the Big Screen at convention:

And there you have it!  A package all ready for Iggy the Eyeball Iguana and some very special treats.

Be sure you stop by this weekend for another RemARKable Stamp of the Month tour featuring Tag It, the stamp set chosen this year to benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities.  Stampin’ Up! will donate $3 for every single Tag It stamp set sold.  We’re proud of this support, and Stampin’ Up! as a company has donated over $1,000,000 to RMHC.  In addition, Stampin’ Up! demonstrators world-wide lend their hands and hearts to RMHC, putting smiles on the faces of families in crisis.  It’s just another way we’re Making a Difference.