The Days of Wine and Roses....

Okay, not so much roses....

One of the parties we went to over the weekend was for a friend's 40th birthday. Of course,  a celebration like this called for more than a gift card, so here's what we brought instead:

Cute, no? I thought so--hope the wine tasted as good as the bottle looks. Anyway, I couldn't find a gift bag I liked, so I decided to make my own. I have to say, this wasn't the easiest project I've done of late, but I do like the way it turned out:

I used Kraft cardstock for the bag itself. As the cardstock comes in 12x12 sheets and my wine bottle was 12 inches tall, I had to do some paper piecing to make it fit. (I'll post a tutorial on how to do it at a later date.) All told, it took about 2 1/2 sheets of cardstock. I then wrapped the bag in Lollydoodle patterned paper, leaving the zip strip on the top for extra height and interest. The bracket frame is from the Lollydoodle Compliments, and "Happy Birthday" is stamped in Outdoor Denim Exclusive ink using the Vogue Alphabet stamp set. I added it to the bag with dimensional adhesive. The flower was made using Lollydoodle paper and Cotton Candy cardstock and the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Sizzix die. I layered the flowers together and attached them with a pink-bling brad from my stash. I used a double layer of dimensional adhesive to add the flower to the bag so that it would layer above the sentiment nicely. Finally, I punched four holes in the top and set a white eyelet in each hole. I then used Color Ready Seam Binding for handles. (The Seam Binding has been retired, but can be purchased during the month of June in two of the Celebrate 30! gift collections: Delightful Trim and Papercrafting Possibilities.

Here are a couple of close-ups of the sentiment and flower:

I hope you like the gift bag. Hopefully I'll have a tutorial up soon. In the meantime....