This "In & Out" gift bag was the first gift bag I made. It was a class taught in Kansas City by Kit Cropper several years ago.
I wove the 1/4" scale wicker from kits (Kit Cropper, I believe). Mary Ellis wove the floor basket.
The bag shown below I made as a Christmas gift for my hairstylist. The pictures are of his wife, his son, and his Westhighland Terrier, Sadie. You can barely see the picture of Sadie taken with Santa sitting behind the Coke (his favorite soda). The licenses next to the phone are reductions of his licenses. This gift was a surprise because I took the pictures on his day off. My husband made the chair and the shelf under the phone. The chair is made of wood with leather covered cushions on the seat and back. The foot rest is from a metal clothes hanger. The styling station is the bottom half of a "Michael's" hutch.
I didn't want to try to reproduce labels of real hair products, so I made his own line of products for him using his initials, R.V. (similar to what I did for a daughter's mini beauty salon). The sign on the right wall is a reduction of one by his station that says, "I'm a beautician not a magician." The blow dryer, curling iron and shaver are plugged into the right wall (kind of visible in the above left photo). The little table holding the American Salon magazines is from a pizza box (to keep the lid from resting on the pizza).
The scissors on the styling station and in the shelf unit, are reduced from a picture in a salon magazine advertisement that I scanned, reduced and printed on photo paper, then cut out and glued down. The book on the styling station has pictures of possible hair styles available (it has pictures inside also).
As you can tell from some of my projects, I like to make rooms in gift bags. They are a great way to make special gift without having to build a roombox (remember--I don't do wood). Here are some pictures of my gift bag projects. For a tutorial on making a gift bag, go to Gift Bag Tutorial.
I made the bag shown below for a friend's 50th wedding anniversary. The invitation to their party is on the back wall and framed with gold ribbon.
The anniversary invitation had their picture and it became the perfect accessory to this gift bag.
I tried to make the cake in the gift bag close to the cake for their party. A friend made the "real" cake and she sketched her plan for the cake for me to follow for the mini cake. The "real" cake top is glass with two hearts and butterflies. Mary is a Fimo floral artist and her trademark on all her flower creations is a butterfly (you'll see many of her flowers in my dollhouse). I couldn't find a glass mini top with double hearts, so I used one with a single heart that was donated to my project by James Roberts, of Roberts' Miniville Hobby & Crafts. I added the butterflies to the cake top by punching butterfly shapes from a clear plastic sheet, shaped them, edged them with gold paint and attached to the cake top.
The little bag on the table to the right of the cake represents the "favors" Mary made for each guest--a gold bag filled with pastel almonds. (I had an "inside tip" from her daughter.)
I used one of the gel candles for the punch (thanks to Jackie F. for this suggestion). A reduced copy of the invitation sits to the right of the punch bowl.
In the giftbag below, I bought the gazebo from the Dollar Tree and wanted to make an scene in a giftbag to use the gazebo. The garden bag also came from Dollar Tree. I cut out the front and the back in order to see all around the gazebo. I added some flowering vines to the gazebo to blend into the scene and made the trees using a tree structure from LadyBug. The little cart with the flower pots was made by Mary Ellis and was a birthday gift.
This project was a Christmas 2002 present for friends who were married in May of 2002. I found this lovely bag (the design was even on the inside of the bag, but the room insert covered it up) and the floral design was so delicate I knew it would be the perfect bag for this wedding memory bag.
I scanned and reduced their wedding invitation and it is to the left of the reception table. The pictures were taken at their wedding, the one on the left wall was taken as they were saying their vows and the one on the right wall is with Nancy, Bob and his daughters, and of course, the one over the wedding cake is of the happy couple.
The napkins were cut from a "real" napkin used at the reception. The little matchbooks had their names and date engraved on them. The wedding cake is a miniature of their cake. There are two champagne glasses awaiting the wedding toast. The tiny spoon in front of the glasses is a replica of their party favor which held two candy kisses wrapped in bridal net and an attached poem. Of course, the wedding gifts are wrapped and waiting to be opened.
Two friends and I created this bag for friends' 40th wedding anniversary. Mary Ellis made the flower on the wire stand and the floor plant. Louise Levitt made the paper plates, napkins, wrapped some of the gifts, make the cards and envelopes on the top shelf of the stand and donated the little house. The house represents Judy & Dave's miniature interests. I made the champagne bucket, the cake, wrapped some of the gifts and made the anniversary cake. I also reduced the invitation to the party that is next to the wine glasses on the table.
This is a giftbag for the 50th anniversary of Louise & Seymour. Their daughter, Cheryl, created the invitation to the anniversary party. Four of us got together and made and donated items for it. Marian donated the table, chair, and wrapped all the packages and made the cards and envelopes. Marian also arranged to get the photos from Louise's children to be reduced for the bag. Joanne made the floor plant. Mary made the flowers in the vase on the table and the arrangement on the wall shelf. I made the room, donated the rug, made the champagne punch and cake, reduced the invitation on the table, and the reduced the wedding photo and the photos of their three grandchildren on the wall shelf.
This was a gift for a friend's (Elaine) birthday. I used one of the Dollar Store bags, but I cut away the windows and doors to be able to see the scene a bit better. I reinforced the bag with foamcore back and sides. I sacrificed a bag to make copies of the back scene (with the windows and fireplace) in order to put the scene on the foamcore room insert. I also cut one of the copies in half in order to extend the scene onto the sides on the foam insert. I used paper flooring for the floor. I added a woven Oriental-type rug that picked up the color of the chair.
The little house on the table behind the chair represents Elaine's interest in miniatures (there are Dollhouse Miniatures & Nutshell News magazines on the floor by the chair. On the chair is a cross-stitch in progress and a miniature copy of Annelle Ferguson's new needlework book.
The left side of the bag includes a table with a birthday cake and presents to open. There is a gift in a shopping bag from the Miniature Museum of Greater St. Louis and from Bitty Abodes. Bitty Abodes is the name of a miniature shop (in miniature, of course) that Elaine created for the Street of Shops.
I made this garden scene in a giftbag for a charity auction. Te background garden scene is a print and I added plants and trees in front of the print. There is a small ond with a duck on the right side and a squirrel sitting on the chair.
