One Brown Bag Brag Wallet.

Wow! Try to say that(one brown bag brag wallet) 5 times! I'm always browsing YouTube to find new and different projects to make that will inspire me. I'm finally just now (after moving) finding some time and motivation to craft again.  I found this really CUTE little wallet/photo holder that seemed simple and easy, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Right now, I'm just going to show you the pictures of this cute little wallet that I made as my "practice" project, and briefly explain how it was put together. It measures about 5" x 6" and has room for 9 photos. And, get this...... the base is a brown paper bag! So this is NOT a tutorial, as I didn't take photos along the way as I made it.

A full YouTube video by Dawn's Inspirations can be found HERE on YouTube. Be sure and go watch it if you want to make one of these. She gives a very complete, step-by-step tutorial.

Here's what it looks like inside. You open up the top flap upwards. Room here for two photos, one on the top flap, one on the back of the bottom flap:

Now flip the bottom flap down. Room for another photo on the bottom flap, and you will see two tags in a pocket on the left (room for smaller photos, front and back, or writing.

This was made with the brown paper bag, which was folded in thirds. Two pieces of cream cardstock were cut out and tucked into the top and bottom of the bag, forming the top flap and the bottom flap. I then matted the cream colored flaps with decorative paper and rounded the edges.

Here are the tags pulled out.

The below photo shows the top of the brown paper bag. That makes two pockets to put the two tags into. Pretty ingenious.

I did a little stamping on the cream cardstock and inked most of the edges of the little wallet, to give it an antique look. Mind you, this is NOT my best work. I was doing this for practice and was in quite a hurry. I also used a paper bag that had a few flaws, that I didn't notice at first, so it's not real even in some spots.

Here's what the wallet looks like with the left flap opened out to the left. You can see the underside of one of the photo mats on the left, and the center of the wallet is a pocket (the cream colored part) with another photo mat inside of it! Pretty nifty!  I stamped a little box for writing something in.

Here I am pulling the photo mat out. You could put a small photo underneath it, and also to the left on the burgundy patterned paper.

The right side of the center of the wallet (above-cream colored) is the bottom of the paper bag glued down, which makes a little pocket to slide the photo mat into. You can see a little bit of the bag sticking out below the cream colored cardstock, which really should not show like that, but what the hey... this was just practice, right?  Here's the center area with the flap folded up again, where I left more room to write.

This was really fun to make! Not all paper bags are exactly the same size, so you almost have to measure as you go, to make the mats for the flaps and tags. My bag was from a package of cheap lunch sacks from the grocery store! You can buy really nice, heavier ones, from the craft stores. My lunch sack measured 5" x 9-1/2". Some sacks may be 6 inches high and a different length.

I'm going to write down measurements for the flaps and mats for this 5" x 9-1/2" sack.

Magnets are used on each flap so that it snaps shut. See below:

Dawn, on her YouTube video here, shows you how to insert the magnets. That was really helpful to me.

I'm going to take pictures as I make the next little wallet. If anyone wants my written measurement sheet, or wants me to post a tutorial on making this, let me know and I'll post one. My next one is going to be a Christmas themed wallet, to hold some of my little Christmas pictures.

And voila! here it is finished. It's just not my style to leave it plain.. so I'll probably decorate it up a little bit.  I do like the simplicity of it though.  I'm thinking how cute a set of three would be, put into a little mini magazine holder box that is decorated to match. What a sweet gift that would make for someone.

If you make one of these, I would really love to see it! Email me at pinkpapercottage@yahoo.com and send me a photo, and if you like, I'll post it/them on my blog.

I had fun making this, and it really DID get me inspired and motivated. And now I'm excited to start crafting again..... and more in the mood to start on my Christmas cards.

Enjoy!  I hope you'll try one of these. They are really fun.