Craft a Vintage Valentine Bag
to Deliver your Treats This
Valentine's Day

(click here for a larger Vintage Valentine Bag image)

Fill this vintage-style Valentine Bag with chocolates, candy hearts, or celery (if you are so inclined) for your sweetie! The heart of this classy gift bag is a plain, lunch-size brown paper bag. Add a vintage image by Margaret Evans Price (1888-1973), and some home-made paper lace. The aged gift tag is the "key" to the whole design!

Margaret Evans Price sold her first illustrated story at the age of 12, and went on to become a very successful free-lance illustrator. In 1930, she and her husband, Irving Price, partnered with Herman Fisher to found Fisher-Price Toys. As the company's first art director, she designed some of the signature products, while continuing to create original artwork for galleries and publications.

We treated the vintage image with a paper tole technique, which means a dimensional layering of image elements. This is a simple craft to reproduce, and you can play around with the styling and embellishing. Add your own touches like glitter, ribbons, rubber stamps or maybe some small embossed keys!

Materials for this Vintage Valentine Bag

• Vintage image and template (FREE PDF download).
• Matte photo paper or white card stock, 8.5" x 11".
  
• Cardstock, red and brown, 8.5" x 11".
  
• Paper bag, lunch size, about 6 " x 4" x 12" (See Tips).
  
• Wired ribbon, red, 22" x 5/8".
• Double-stick tape, spray glue or glue stick.
• Foam mounting squares or tape.
  
• Hole punches, 1/8" and 1/4".
  
• Decorative-edge scissors, large scallops.
  
• Scissors.
• Detail scissors or manicure scissors.
  
• Paper cutter.
• Ruler.
• Bone folder.
• Self-healing mat.

Instructions

1. Print the vintage images on matte photo paper or white card stock. Trim one of the rectangular postcard images with a paper cutter. Trim, as a single piece, the woman and heart shape from the second postcard image, using detail scissors. While you are at it, trim one of the "key" tags with detail scissors, and punch a 1/4" hole at the top. (We gave you two copies of the tag image, just for fun!)
   
   
   
2. Apply 5-6 foam mounting squares to the back of the trimmed image of the woman and heart. Align it directly over the similar figure on the full postcard image, and press them together. If you want deeper dimension, double the thickness of the foam squares.
   
3. Cut two pieces of red card stock, 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" and 4" x 6". Cut two pieces of brown card stock the same sizes. The larger pieces are the mats for the vintage image. The small pieces will fold like a sleeve over the top of the bag.
   
4. Using the scalloped decorative scissors, trim away 1/4" inch from all four sides of the large brown (4 1/2" x 6 1/2") piece (keep those scallop bumps facing out!). You might want to pencil in a small guideline on the back, to keep you cutting a straight line.
5. Use the small 1/8" hole punch to punch a hole within each scallop bump, like an eyelet in a piece of crochet-work. You may want to put a small pencil dot on the back of the paper to help you position the hole punch, to prevent dreaded "wandering hole" syndrome. This is your "lace" mat that will be behind the vintage image.
   
6. Glue (or double-stick tape) the brown card stock "lace" in the center of the red 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" mat. Leave an even red border around the scalloped mat. Glue the layered postcard image in the center of the brown scalloped mat and allow to dry. Glue the mats to the front of the paper bag.
   
7. Now for the "lace" sleeve over the top of the bag. Use the scalloped decorative scissors to trim away 1/4" from the two long (6") sides of the small (4" x 6") brown card stock. Keep those scallop bumps out again.
8. Use the small 1/8" hole punch to punch a hole in each scallop bump, as you did on the mat.
9. Glue (or double-stick tape) the brown paper "lace" in the center of the red 4" x 6" card stock, so the scalloped edges are equally spaced from the edges of the red card stock. Allow to dry.
   
10. With a bone folder, score and fold the layered card stock in half lengthwise. Trim away the top of the bag, if you want it shorter. Place the closed top of the bag between the folded sides of the card stock sleeve. Mark and trim away excess cardstock if it is wider than the bag. Punch two 1/4" holes through the sleeve and the bag, about 1" to each side of the center point.
11. At this crucial turning point, you must remember to put something in the bag. Something surprising, delicious, cuddly, or deep fried.
    
12. Close up the bag, place the sleeve over the top, and line up the punched holes agin. Feed the two ends of the ribbon through the holes from the back. Feed the "key" gift tag onto the ribbon and tie the ribbon into a small bow!
13. This is a Valentine Bag that will be delightful before and after the gift is revealed! Remember, embellish away with glitter, inks, or whatever you've been dying to try.

Tips

• Brown paper lunch bags come in several sizes, but generally they are about 5 1/2" wide, 3 3/4" deep, and 10" high. You can usually find them in packages of 40 or 50 among the food storage items at the grocery store. Our bag was about 1/2" larger than the norm, and ambitiously labeled "giant size."