OOT Bags, Part Two: Success and a Tutorial

Alright, now that I've shared the saga of just how annoying these bags were to make, I'm happy to share how I made them and the final result!

My materials included white paper shopping bags ordered from Paper Mart, yellow grosgrain ribbon, a basic hole punch, a custom stamp worth more than it's weight in gold, the only light blue 6" stamp pad in the entire world and most of my patience and sanity.

(Personal Photo)

The giant, aqua stamp pad that I ended up using for the majority of the bags is not shown here because it had not yet arrived when I decided to give these a go...

First, I stamped. Here's a close-up of my custom stamp that was ridonky-donk over-priced (yes, I'm still bitter, can you tell?) But I do like the design and the flower matches nicely with the image on our invitations.

(Personal Photo)

Even though the majority of my stamping efforts were unsuccessful, I managed to get a picture of the one of the few that did...

(Personal Photo)

(Personal Photo)

These two did not come out very well but I wanted to show you the light blue color too.

Then I punched two holes in the top of the bag, threaded the ribbon through and spent many minutes tying and re-tying a bow, trying to get it straight.  Tying bows is a crafting mystery to me; about half of the bows I tie come out crooked and I am forced to re-tie and re-tie until somehow, it's straight. 

As good a bow as I can manage...

(Personal Photo)

(Personal Photo)

Hmmmm, that bow looks pretty bad, I guess I did get better after oh, about 50 or so.

Anyways, a few shots of the finished product...

(Personal Photo)

(Personal Photo)

And that's all, folks! See, it seems simple in the tutorial but don't be fooled, there was much crying, gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair to make these.  Oh well, they are quite pretty though and they will get the job done.

And as for what I'm going to put in them? Puh-leeease, I have not gotten there yet.  I'm still too busy tying and re-tying bows and using more Wite-Out to deal with that little detail. But be assured, there will nothing personalized, cute, homemade or handmade involved because at this point, I just don't have it in me to deal with the stress of another DIY project.

What's been your most stressful project thus far?