Lil Something Sunday by Lucy Edson - Go Green!!

With all of the emphasis on going green these days it really makes you think before tossing that bag in the trash.

I created the background on this layout using a heavy weight brown paper bag for the back and a lace paper ruffle with a light weight brown bag. For the background I guess it is pretty obvious – I cut a 12x12 square for my background and with the Hambly layered on top it really helped to stabilize and make it sturdy enough for a layout.
I love lace and the die cut paper lace you can buy these days is beautiful but I wanted to make some of my own – here is the quick and easy process:
Brown Bagging It
1. Cut your bag into strips – about 1 ½ inches wide.
2. Use a border punch to decorate the bottom edge – this is the Martha Stewart Embossed Zig-zag.
3. Sew about ½ down from the top, using a long stitch and loosen the tension a bit – 6-7 stitches per inch.
4. Pull the top thread only and slowly work the gathers toward the center of your strip – you can work from both sides to gather your strip.
5. Attach the completed gathered strip to your project!

I misted mine with an orange mist and some ink to accent before gluing it down. One quick tip is to keep your strips fairly short – not longer that 10-12 inches or it is hard to gather. Almost any border punch would create a beautiful paper lace and you can punch both sides of the strip for even more detail. Let me know if you give it a try.