DIY PAPER BAG ENVELOPE CLUTCH

Crochet Top: Vintage (From my mom)

High-waisted Shorts: Handmade

American flag clutch: DIY

Shoes: Colin Stuart, $12

Tomorrow's the big day guys... I was planning on getting 17 hours of sleep in preparation of the SAT like I did last Friday but that would have required me to go to sleep at 2 pm... So I decided to edit some pictures instead! This top is my mom's, the shorts are one of the projects I did in my fashion design class last semester, and the shoes are from Victoria's Secret. VS online has really great deals when they have sales on shoes and swimsuits :) Anyways, after the SAT, I'll be doing the photoshoot for a birthday party, and then after that, I get to go volunteer at a crab feed with my school's Interact Club! Did I mention, I LOVE CRAB?! I have a seafood addiction! Especially shrimp, lobster, and abalone. Yum. Well, I will check in with you all later this weekend! Thank you for all the lovely comments! I have many comments to return over the course of the next few days ;) Wish me luck on my test!

And here are the instructions on how to make the paper bag clutch out of only 2 paper shopping bags:

Supplies required: 2 paper shopping bags, masking tape, and scissors.
Optional: paint (I used acrylic because it dries really quickly. For the design I did, you will need red, white, and dark blue paint, but that's kind of obvious :P), paintbrushes, a hot glue gun, studs, fringe, or any other embellishments you would like to add!

DIY Paper Bag Envelope Clutch! (see more)

Warning: There are a lot of photos to load.

 Find some paper shopping bags, you only need two but it's handy to keep some extra so you can have a surface to paint on later.

 Cut off the handles.

 Flip the bag to it's side. Cut all the way down from the crease in the middle.

 When you reach the end, cut the bottom parts (both the left and right) of the side piece from the paper bag bottom like so. Repeat on the other side.

When you spread the bag flat, the side pieces of the bag should now be separated from the bottom of the bag. It should look like a chunky "I" shape.

 Cut the bottom piece of the bag off completely. You will now have 2 large pieces, and 1 small rectangular piece.

Crumple the 2 large pieces up like this! Just be careful not to wrip it! You want to get the texture to be rather wrinkly but not so wrinkly that the paper will droop. (Tip: Pull the paper back and forth along a table edge to get more small wrinkles)

 Line both of the bag pieces (ugly side facing towards you) up with the handle parts facing eachother.

 With the piece closer to you, scoot it up towards the other piece to the point where it is covering the handle pieces.

 With masking tape, tape the two pieces together, all the way across. If your bag had a small indent between the handles like mine, secure the opening with another piece of masking tape below (to prevent ripping in the future).

 Flip the entire thing over to the other side. Now you need to tape that flap down.

 What I did, was I rolled the masking tape so that it functioned as makeshift double-sided tape. Then I just stuck the tape under the loose flap so that when you pressed it down, it would stay put.

 Place a strip of double-sided tape down the entire flap on the back and press down.

 This part is a little confusing so pay close attention. Flip your bag back so that the ugly side is facing you again. Fold it up in thirds.

You will notice that the flap on the very top is shorter than the other two. This flap will be the V-shaped envelope flap later on. It will not extend all the way down. If that is what you would like, then refold it so every third is exact. I decided I liked the way it looked now, so I kept it like this.

 This is where your second paper bag comes in. Cut everything up as you did with the first bag. The only part you will need is the bottom piece though!

With those two pieces, line them up in the bottom 2 thirds. These pieces will act to make the body of the clutch thicker and more durable. I have drawn a green line onto the photo where the creases from having folded the bag into thirds are, since you can't see them that well. Line up the two rectangular pieces so that they are almost touching between crease #2.

 Tape around all 4 sides of both the rectangular pieces. It will look like this when you are done.

 On the very bottom edge of the bag, use the tape to cover the front and back of the edge like so. This will prevent any rips from starting.

 Your bag should look like this now.

 Do the same to the left and right edges of the bag. I stopped taping when I reached crease #1 (as referred to from the previous image which I marked with a green line). If you want to add more reinforcement, you can tape all the way up; it doesn't matter if you don't though.

You should have already noticed that the outer flaps have already been creased from the way the original shopping bag was folded. Fold these outer flaps in like so. The crease from making this fold will line up perfectly with the sides of the rectangles.

Now (please excuse my poorly drawn arrows), fold the bottom third up against the second third.

 Your bag will look something like this after making the last fold. See the two green lines I have marked? These are the inner edges of the bag and you will need to tape them together to create the sides of the envelope clutch.

If you squish the two flaps together, you will start seeing the shape of your clutch take form. 

 This part is a little difficult so take your time. But use your masking tape to tape those two edges together like this. Do this all the way up.

 When you are done, it will look like this!

 Do the same to the other side. You are now done with the interior of the clutch!

 Flip your bag over like this. Now you can mark out how you would like the flap to look like. I recommend you use pencil, and not sharpie like I did (I accidently drew off the flap piece). The first thing I marked is the middle of the bottom edge.  Then measuring 2.5 inches down the top left and top right I made marks. Then you just connect the dots and cut!

 However, this leaves you with another raw edge from the previous cut. Fold this edge under about a half inch.

Flip it over and tape the folded edge down; repeat on the other side. Then tape down the last remaining raw edges.

 Now you are done!

Your completed paper bag, envelope clutch will look like this! You can leave it as is or decorate it further like I did :)

 Now you can start painting! Just paint red and white stripes all the way up to the top.

 Paint only half of the top flap with the dark blue paint. 

 Paint the remaining part with more stripes. I painted them so that when the flap was flat against the clutch, it would look like it continued on with the stripes below.

With more white paint, add some stars to the blue part! Stars are kind of hard for me to paint so if you mess up, just paint over it with more blue after the white dries. I left the back of my clutch plain because I liked the paper bag texture. You can always paint over it if you don't like the way it looks though!

 To prepare the studs, you need to push in the legs. Don't push them all the way in though because that will make it harder to glue down. Push them in to resemble a 180 degree angle.

Here is a close-up of how you should prepare the studs.

 I attached the studs like this. It's easier to apply the hot glue to the stud and then stick them on, so you can eye the placement more accurately.

 With your fringe, apply hot glue down the entire top length.

 Flip your clutch over to the other side and stick the fringe on to the bottom!

You are finally done! :D I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if you have any questions at all and need clarification, feel free to leave me a comment or shoot me a message and I will get back to you! :)