One-Sheet “I love Lucy” Designer Purse

I call this my "I Love Lucy" purse because those big Polka Dots remind me of Lucy! The papers I used for this project are the Bella Rose DSP for the full-sized ones, and the hostess Patterns Pack, Kraft color for the little ones.

A customer of mine went to someone else’s SU event (gasp!) and was gracious enough to show me the cards and this cute little purse they were given to hold them in. There were no instructions or anything, so I took a few minutes before club that night to figure out how to do it and IT ACTUALLY TURNED OUT. (bigger gasp!) And it’s pretty easy! And it holds several cards!

I’ve been attempting to find out the name of the demo who invented it so I can give them credit, but no such luck so far. I will update this post if I do. Until then, you can think of me as a genius. EDITED TO ADD: Demo JoAnn Marsch contacted me via Splitcoaststampers and said she is the orginal creator of this purse. She designed it specifically for this event and gives credit to two demo friends for helping refine it. SU demos ROCK!

You take a sheet of 12×12 and fold it point to point (big triangle) with the side you want to see the most of facing OUT. Lay it so you’re looking at it with the long side closest to you and the center point straight up. Then you figure out the center of the longest side of the triangle (it will be 17 inches long, so 8.5 is the center) and mark it with a pencil dot. You fold both of the sides in to within one inch of that center dot.

Open up the whole thing and fold those two flap back on themselves so the wrong side of the paper is showing. Then fold both those sides back on themselves one inch. That one inch is the part you will Sticky Strip-shut after you’ve folded it back into the purse again. These are the gussets in the sides of the bag.

You should have something that looks a little bit like an envelope shape, square on three sides with a triangular flap on the top. Fold that top flap down equally on both sides. You want to retain some of the slope or it won’t look like a purse, but you also need to fold down enough that you’re able to use the Oval punch to punch out the handles. I found it goes through four layers of DSP just fine, so you can punch once and have all the handle-holes be lined up great. That’s it!

So I got to thinkin’ (always dangerous) after I made the 12×12 one, that any square sheet would turn out fine, as long as you can find the center point. So I whipped out my handy pack of hostess DSP and turned out a little one just the right size for business cards or a gift card. You have to alter the measurements a dab so that the "gusset" flaps on the inside are only a half-inch wide instead of a whole inch, but that’s it!