ACOT Father's Day ensemble tutorial

The following is a tutorial that I shared at A Cherry On Top.  It's great for Father's Day, but you could easily make it for a birthday or graduation too.  The layout is SO simple, and easy to tailor to whatever product you have on hand! I hope you like it! 

And don't forget. . . I have a bright and cheery new package of Bazzill Card Shoppe cardstock to giveaway, so be sure to also read the previous post! You guys are crazy not to throw your name in! 

Today I'd love to share a little gift ensemble that I created, featuring a gift bag, a pennant, and a card.  It's perfect for Father's Day, but it would work well for a masculine birthday, or even a graduation gift.  

Let's start with the gift bag.   Either pick up a solid gift bag from the store, or do what I did - recycle a shopping bag. (Or recycle a gift bag given to YOU!) 

Trim strips of patterned paper, in assorted widths, as shown in the photo below.  (I chose the most neutral newsprint to be the widest, because it will have the sentiment stickers attached.)

 Then, trim a piece of dark cardstock, slightly wider than your strips, for matting.  Lay the strips out and play with order until you arrange it how you like it.

 After adhering strips to the matting, affix stickers (I chose a sentiment and a really cool globe from the Echo Park stickers.)

 Now that you've done the bag, the card will be a cinch. . .. it's the exact same process. Cut strips of patterned paper, dark cardstock matting, and adhere it to your card.

 I wanted a dark brown matting on my sticker sentiment, so I stuck it down on a scrap of cardstock, trimmed around it, and then attached it to my card with foam tape.

  Here's a closeup of the finished card!

Okay, onward to the pennant.  I love the way this looks sticking out of the gift bag! I'm showing you a sample created on white cardstock, so it's easier for you to see what I'm doing.

First, start with a square or rectangle of cardstock.  Mine was 5.5x6 inches, but you can make pennants in any size you want!  First, fold in half, just to crease the very edge (I did this on the 5.5in side.)  Make a small mark.

Next, line up your paper along the cutting edge of your trimmer, with your mark at one end, and the corner of your paper at the other end.  I drew lines all the way, for clarity sake, but you don't have to. After you cut one side, go back to the top where you made your mark, and cut all the way down to the other bottom corner.  Are ya with me so far? ;)

 This is what you'll be left with.  One perfect pennant!

You'll use this same process to create your pennant.  I created mine from dark brown cardstock, to coordinate with the rest of my ensemble. Then I created a just slightly smaller pennant from patterned paper, to coordinate with the matting on my other projects. Embellish your pennant with stickers, and patterned paper however you'd like! 

There are a number of ways you can attach your pennant to a thin dowel - I chose the easiest way I could figure. . . .HOT GLUE! (You could also punch a hole in the top and bottom, and feed the stick through.)