A Way With Words ModaScrap

Making A Tote With The Leaf Pocket

March 2, 2019

Do you make more cards than you can send out? I certainly do –– especially now that I am trying to make more than one card at time when I try a new layout or product.

I normally make a little box or just tie a ribbon around a few as a gift but I’ve discovered that the Leaf Pocket die is PERFECT to make a small tote! The front side is a bit bigger than 4.5″ x 6″ so it can perfectly fit as many A2 cards as you want – just change the thickness of the side base. This will make more sense in the instructions below.

These 4 pieces will make up the foundation of your tote
  1. Start with 2 strips of white card stock 2″ x 10 5/8″ and diecutting 2 leaf pockets. Score the two strips at 4 1/2″.
These are the sides of the tote.

2. Fold along the score lines of the leaf pockets and the strips of paper. The shorter piece of the strips of paper are glue together as above.

Glue the pieces together to finish the tote.

3. Add glue to the flaps of the leaf pocket and adhere them to the inside of the pieces from the previous step. I found it helpful to lay the pocket flat and secure the bottom flap first. By keeping the leaf pocket flat, the sides of the tote will be flushed to the front of the tote.

Tote before embellishments and additional layers.

4. Now you can embellish the tote as is, but I decided here that I wanted a liner against the leaf side to strengthen the tote and to better see the die cut. In hindsight, it would be have been easier to add a liner first before gluing all the pieces together. However, the process is the same before or after.

These are the liners before adding them to the tote.
This is a second tote I made and this is adding the lining before gluing the pockets on.

5. To add the liner, cut two sheets of cardstock 4.5″ x 6″. I penciled in where I needed to cut out a half circle out. As it happens, the circle die in the Love Live tag is the perfect size for this step. You can also use a punch or any other circle die you have.

Much studier with the liner.

6. I nestled two circle dies together to make an open circle as a handle for the tote. Die cut 4 of these and glue them on the inside and outside of the tote for a finished look.

All embellished!

7. I used the Love, Life Tag as a simple embellishment for this bag. The A Way With Words “for you” was die cut 3 times and glued together. You can be done here, or add something to the other side like I did. I had just received the bougainvillea die so I was itching to use it!

Love this color combo!

8. The bougainvillea was made with pink and green cardstock. I touched the center of the tiny flowers with an yellow-orange Zig markers before adhering them the the stamens. I couldn’t help but add a butterfly to the side where the tag wrapped around in the same pink cardstock.

Side view of tote

Thank you for indulging in a long blog post! I hope you are inspired to think outside the box with the dies you have. I’m off to make some more of these totes!

Diana Nguyen

Elizabeth Craft Designs Products Used:

Other products used:

Zig markers

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  • Nancy March 5, 2019 at 8:06 am

    That’s really beautiful…front and back!

  • Sandy Diller March 2, 2019 at 12:38 pm

    What a great project – I’m going to try it.

  • Audre G March 2, 2019 at 11:08 am

    Very clever. I have the leaf pocket die—yea—a great way to use it. Love your color choice.

  • Beverly March 2, 2019 at 7:24 am

    How simple. Very nice.

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