january artful bag challenge

Welcome to The 2011 Artful Bag Challenge.
First I'd like to wish all of you a very Happy New Year. I hope this year will be fun, inspiring and creative for all of us and what better way to start it off than with a brand new challenge.

January's theme is Playing With Paper. This month we are crafting our bags and purses from paper. Any paper you like can be used: scrapbook paper, book and magazine pages, card stock, etc. Embellish your bag however you like. Try here for a little inspiration.

For January I created a paper 'Winter Opera Bag'. It's inspired by vintage opera bags that are usually highly embellished with beading and jewels. I imagined going to a winter ball or enjoying a night at the opera watching La Boheme. I used a matte silver embossed paper which I dry brushed with gold shimmer and burnt umber paint. I also used a dark distress ink pad in Vintage Photo around the edges. The 'jeweled' borders are a glitter covered snowflake which I cut up and also dry brushed with paint for an antique finish. Finally I added tiny blue paper flowers (my latest addiction) also brushed with gold shimmer and burnt umber paint. The handle is a silver pipe cleaner folded in half, twisted and attached to the back.

I'm also posting the preview bag I made in December to give you more ideas.

To add to the fun and to kick off this challenge I also have exciting news! This month The Artful Bag Challenge is being sponsored by Sandy's Space. The lovely Sandy is kind and gracious enough to offer the book Purse Pizzazz by Marie Browning as a prize. How wonderful is that?! Sandy makes amazingly exquisite paper art so if you haven't visited her yet make sure to go over and say hello.

 

The winner will be determined by a random drawing. Everyone who creates a paper purse and adds a link will automatically be entered. The winner will be announced when I post next month's project.

To play along this month just add a link to your bag post below. Make sure to add the permalink to your actual post and not just to your blog. Email me if you need to know how to do that.  I added my link first to test it. The Linky is open all month so you can join anytime. However, it's best to join as early in the month as possible as everyone tends to make their rounds the first few days.

For more information on The Artful Bag Challenge
please visit the challenge page here.

Have fun and join me again next month for a new theme!


Update: If you participated in the January challenge and you're wondering
where your bag is please click here.