I was asked to make a gift bag for wine bottles as one of Personalized Christmas Gifts. Should be easy, right? I looked for videos or samples and all those that I found were extremely over the top (they looked like gazebos – no seriously!) and then I finally found one on YouTube by Scrimpingmommy (“Reinforced Mini Bottle Bag Stampin’ Up! products”) but it was for a mini wine bottle. I’m not a wine drinker so I didn’t have any wine bottles handy to measure. I sent out feelers to some of my wine drinking friends to get the standard measurements for a wine bottle and I got this:
Here is what I created. Fair warning that it is not at all perfect (let’s just say I learned what NOT to do the next time I try to make one of these) and I could have spent a little more time decorating it but I am just glad to have finished it!
This “bag” starts out with a square bottom made from cardstock. Since the information I was provided indicates that a standard wine bottle is 3.00″ in diameter, I wanted my bag bottom to be 3.25″ in diameter. Each side of the box is 1.00″ so to allow me to score 1.00″ on all four sides, I cut a piece of thick Whisper White card stock to 5.25″ square and then scored at 1.00″ on all four sides. To create the box itself, you will cut up on the score lines on the right and left opposite each other as show in the photo below:
Put a strong adhesive (I used Tear Tape) on the outer side of each tab on both sides. The tabs will tuck in and attach to the long panel to create the box.
Since the diameter of the box is 3.25″, a 12″ x 12″ piece of paper will not be long enough to wrap around the entire box. You will need to piece together an additional 2.00″ of matching paper to a 12″ x 12″ piece.
To reinforce the top of the bag for handles, cut a 2.00″ strip of paper and extend to the same length as the larger piece. Score at 1.00″ and attach as a cuff around the top (that is the blue that you see on my bag which is the reverse side of the designer series paper that I used). (My mistake is I forgot to do this before I wrapped the box – not easy to try to do afterwards!)
Put a strong adhesive at the top and bottom edges on all four sides of the box. On the paper that you are going to wrap around the box, you will need to put a strong adhesive on the inside end of paper that will wrap over on top at the end.
To assemble the pieces together, start approximately in the center of the paper and adhere the box as close to the edge of the paper as possible. As you get to the corner, give the paper a pinch to bend it but do not crease it all the way up. Once you get to the last piece that will cross over and close off the bag, put your hand inside the bag and carefully press. If you used an adhesive with a backing, i.e. Tear Tape, it would be a good idea to remove a little at a time to allow you to control the seam.
I will definitely try this project again, hopefully with better results!
Here are the Stampin’ Up! products that I used in the design of this project, all of which can quickly be added to your shopping cart by clicking on the thumbnails below:
If you have any questions regarding any design elements of this project, do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you leave here inspired to put stamps to ink to paper. Until next time, stamp on my friends.
Linda
