Glowing bags for Halloween with Sarah Hodgkinson!

In the words of my kids, “One more sleep until Halloween!” Last night we carved up our pumpkins, complete with eyebrows this year, and cracked open the boxes of mini-chocolate bars. Quality control, folks. I’d hate to give out stale treats at the door :)

Today’s little trick involves good old vellum, Core’dinations Black Magic cardstock, a Tim Holtz embossing folder and a flameless light. These little glowing bags can be made on a larger scale to adorn your front steps or porch tomorrow night.

Step One:  Gather your supplies. You will need:

• Core’dinations “Abracadabra” Black Magic ColorCore Cardstock (one sheet per bag), Sand-it Gadget Tool and Dust Buddy
• Tim Holtz “Rickety Fence” embossing folder (from the Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Texture Fades Thankful Background Collection)
• Spellbinders Nestabilities “Five Star” dies
• Embossing machine (Sizzix Big Shot)
• Diecutting machine (Cricut) and bag cutting cartridge (there are several options but I used Plantin SchoolBook)
• Other: vellum, glue, raffia, Halloween diecut, flameless lights with batteries

Step Two:  Cut out the bag. Place the “Rickety Fence” embossing folder from Sizzix along the bottom of the bag. Run the folder and paper through an embossing machine. If you are worried that the paper will shift, use some repositionable adhesive to keep it in place.

Step Three:  Gently sand the cardstock using Sand-it Gadget Tool to reveal the white fence. A Dust Buddy does a wonderful job of cleaning up the black dust and bringing out the white of the fence.

Step Four:  Next, we need to add the stars. For this project I used Spellbinder’s Nestabilities “Five Stars” but you could also use a punch. My BSF (Best Scrapbooking Friend), Kim, has the Martha Stewart Crafts “Confetti Stars Punch” that would also work really well. 

Step Five:  It’s time to dust off that good old vellum and trim a piece to fit the star holes you have created. Apply the glue to the back side of the cardstock, NOT the vellum. That way you won’t have glue show up in the star holes. Yes, I l found that out the hard way...learn from my mistake.

Step Six:  You’re in the final stretch. It’s time to add the flameless lights. I found these little babies at the Giant Tiger (also known as “GT Boutique”) on the clearance rack. Watch for them on sale in the next few weeks as they clear out Halloween supplies. Hang on to them and you can use them to make a special Christmas decoration. Here’s a link to a project which I made for the Core’dinations blog. http://www.coredinations.com/index.php/2010/12/25/merry-christmas-from-coredinations/#comments

From our family to yours, have a spook-tacular Halloween!

~ Sarah Hodgkinson

Comments

[Judy]

OMG!! Sarah ~ This project is SPOOKTACULAR!! and the instructions are AMAZING!! Thank you for such awesome inspiration!!

Could you tell me how large you cut the bag from the Plantin School Book cartridge? I definitely want to give these a try!!

Judy
lifesabeach32940@cfl.rr.com

[Renee VanEpps]

Wow, beautiful bags!!! Thanks for the great tutorial!

[Gisele]

Gorgeous bags, so fun!

[Dorina D]

fabulous project and so cute and a great tutorial. Love the tip about buy the lights and saving them. Thanks for sharing

[RachelV]

LOVE this! And the Christmas one using the takeout boxes was great too! Thank you for sharing!

[Brenda B]

Fabulous project and a super tutorial. Thanks for the inspiration. Happy Halloween!

[Sarah Hodgkinson]

Hi, Judy,
I cut them out with my Cricut set to 5 1/2" but, if you are fortunate to have a Cricut Expression or Imagine, you could make them a lot bigger. I won my Original Cricut at a convention in 2006 for $2. I bought the Plantin SchoolBook cartridge on eBay. Have fun making them.
Cheers,
Sarah

[Joan]

These are sooooooooo neat! Too late for me to make them this halloween but might be an idea for next! Thanks for sharing Sarah!

[Ruza]

These are sooo cool!