Playing with glassine bags

I recently acquired  a butt-load of embossing folders. Hey, what can I say–they were 80% off–someone had to buy them. For the last month they have been sitting on a shelf, singing their siren song, trying to woo me into playing with them.

So on a recent arctic afternoon, that’s exactly what I did. However, once I began playing, I couldn’t just take out one toy. Noooo, I’m an everything-in-the-toybox-kind-of girl. I took out glassine bags, paper bags, Divine Twine and every color of ink ever conceived by Ranger Industries. All-in-all, it was a perfect day.

When I was done, I just had to share with you how I made these colorfully creative gift bags.

Back of bag

Tutorial: How to ink and emboss glassine bags

I started my play date with some embossing folders and Whisker Graphics Glassine Bags.

First, I inked the embossing folder. On the relief side, I used the actual ink pad, rather than a blending tool, and made sure to hold the ink pad flat so only the raised portions received ink.

Then I slid a piece of cardstock inside the glassine bag. This helped protect the fragile bag and I got the bonus of an extra embossed image that I could use for a future project.

I carefully sandwiched the bag in the embossing plate, making sure I did not let the bag move so the ink would not smear. Then I ran it through my die cut machine and, just as carefully, removed the bag from the folder.

Although ink doesn’t easily dry on the glassine surface, I learned a handy little trick from Tim Holtz that is perfect for this project. To set the ink, I blasted each side of the bag with a heat tool for a few seconds. I then removed the inner cardstock piece.

Next, I cut two  2″ x 5 3/4″ strips from a Purple Polka Dot Middy Bitty Bag and adhered them on each side of the glassine bag above the embossed image. I then wrapped Orange Solid Divine Twine around the bag four times in a crisscross pattern and adhered it with a tiny bit of glue.

Back of bag

Here’s another bag I made using the same technique.

Back of bag

Stuff I used

• Glassine Bags – Bigger
• Blue Polka Dot Bigger Bitty Bag
• Orange Honeycomb Middy Bitty Bag
• Purple Polka Dot Middy Bitty Bag
• Orange Divine Twine
• Orange Solid Divine Twine
• Blue Solid Divine Twine
• Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad, Mowed Lawn
• Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad, Peacock Feathers
• Ranger ABP-7180 Adirondack Bright Dye Inkpad, Purple Twilight
• Darice 1218-12 Embossing Folder, 4.25 by 5.75-Inch, Tree Trunks Design
• Sizzix Textured Impressions A6 Embossing Folders , Bicycles, 2-Pack
• Sizzix Big Shot Machine Only (Powder Blue & Teal) by Ellison