Paper Bag Albums

Here lately, I've been making Paper Bag Albums. I am in the midst of preparing to teach a class on these this weekend and so I thought I'd share with you how easy they are to make!

Supplies:
4-paper lunch bags (brown or white are fine)
6-pieces of pattern paper (double sided is best) 7 1/2" x 5 1/4"
4-pieces of pattern paper (double sided is best) 3 1/2" x 5 1/4"
Stickers, Diecuts, other embellishments
Coordinating Ribbon
3- Binder Rings (found at Walmart or local office supply store)
Alphabet stickers of your choice

Tools:
Paper Trimmer
Scissors
Adhesive
Ink Pad for inking edges (optional)
Corner Rounder (optional)
Crop-A-Dile or other hole puncher

Instructions:
1. Fold all four paper bags at the bottom where the flap is.2. Take two of the bags and glue the small flaps together. Repeat for the other two.
3. Punch holes in one set of bags. Line up and punch holes into second set.4. Adhere to the two sets of bags together by placing glue/tape to the backs of the two large sides.5. Choose 3 sheets of 12x12 double-sided paper and cut them in half (6x12). Then use each half to cut one of each of the specified sizes. This will give you the six large pieces, 4 smaller pieces, and two leftover. Lay them out and decide which paper you will use for each page. Because they are double-sided, you will have plenty of patterns to choose from. * From here until the end of the tutorial, I am using different sheets of paper from the above finished albums, but you can still get the idea.6. Attach papers to each page with glue or other adhesive. Trim any edges necessary. Do not worry about it being perfect. Use an inkpad to ink the edges of your pages. Go ahead and cover all your pages first. Make sure you punch the holes in your paper after attaching to each flap.
7. Use one of the leftover pieces (or a piece of cardstock from your scraps) to use on the cover. Cut this piece 3 1/2" x 4 1/2". You many round the corners and ink the edges. Use this piece on your cover and then add title on top of it.8. Decorate your cover with sticker or die cut in the corner and anywhere else you choose.9. Now you may go ahead and add embellishments to the corners of your pages OR you may wait and add your pictures to the pages first and then embellish at the end. You may add your rings and put some fun ribbon on them to finish up your album!10. There will be openings where you can stick extra pictures or memorabilia into and attach ribbon to pull them out with.That's it! I hope that I have been able to show you just how easy these albums are and that will give them a try!