Peace Angel Bag

This bag was so much fun to make and a real challenge lol.  You know when you get an idea and then have to work out how to achieve it, well that was very much the case here.  I wanted so much to play along with the Aurora Wings FB December challenge and then an idea sprang into my wee head which really put smiles on my face hahaha.  Before I talk about the bag I have made let me share with you the reasoning behind it - this Christmas is the first Christmas in about 20 years my hubby and our 2 grown up daughters along with me will be together on Christmas Day, between hubby working overseas for many years, the kids leaving home and starting their lives etc. we have not managed to be in the same place at the same time for many many years until now.  My Mum joined the angels last year and my youngest daughter and her wife (who are in the army)  changed their long term plans of moving to New Zealand and bought a house about 40 minutes from us in Scotland, my other daughter lives about 5 minutes away from us :).  One of the things I always gave my Mum at Christmas was a box of Maltesers, she loved them and it was a real sharing event between us so I thought, what would be a beautiful way to help us know Mum is also there with us on Christmas Day would be to have some Maltesers from her for us all to share.  With that idea making me smile and knowing it will be a touching moment when the kids see and share on the 25th it was then to set about making the gift bag.  I have loads of small gift bags to decorate but nothing the right size for the Maltesers. My best choice was a big bag but it was green and I just could not imagine the digi on it.  That led to me hunting through all my rolls of A1 size wrapping/hand made papers and just as I was about to give up on that when one roll jumped out at me - the perfect blue.  My Mum was a spiritual healer with White Eagle and the main colour that was associated with them was blue, the gowns worn were blue too so I had to colour the Peace Angel gown blue.  The White Eagle group are peace loving, respectful of Mother Earth and all that lives on her.  The teachings are from White Eagle, a Native American leader from times gone.  Another thing associated with White Eagle is a 6 pointed star so I designed the gift tag for the bag as that - more symbolism.

I disassembled the bag to make the covering easier.

When Mum died I had a letter to read out from her to family and friends and in it she mentioned several times that when we wanted to be close to her we would find her amongst the trees, hear her in the bird song (there was a lot more but those two things really stick with me) - so with the Peace Angel dressed in blue, holding a dove all I needed was to add some trees to complete the gift from Mum.  

Enough chatter so here is a quick recipe of what I did : - 

• Covered bag with blue patterned paper and reassembled.
• Printed image - PEACE ANGEL SPRITE approx 19cm and coloured with Copics, completed by masking dress, face and hair so I could add spray gold glitter varnish to the wings.
• Designed a sort of scene for the snow area and cut with die cutter.
• Used tree die cutting pattern from Treasure Box Designs - Snow Place Like Home.
• White heat embossed snow on lower edges of tree layers and dots on the snow background.
• Die cut in several sizes snowflakes out of white vinyl - snowflakes from rom Treasure Box Designs - Snow Place Like Home.
• Added blue ribbon handles, bow, recycled pearl string and snowflakes on twine wrapping and attached the tag too.

I was trying to work out how to get about 500g of Maltesers into the bag, should I aim for one big box or several then the brain kicked into action again and it was out with the 'boxer' by Crafters Companion and I made a lovely big box which fitted perfectly using 2 A3 sheets of card.  A super simple decoration but a bit more symbolism lol to complete it.  When I started card making I managed to get Mum to make some too, she did not colour etc. but used to love taking photos which I would get printed for her, she then added these to card blanks and used stickers to embellish.  With that in mind it could only be peel off stickers that were used for decorating the box.  Now it is fingers crossed the box is big enough for around 500g if Maltesers lol.  I have put a pencil in front of the box so you get an idea of the size.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the rather symbolic background of this bag, how it all came together and is still making me smile.

Challenges entered

• Artsystamper Challenge (2W) - #5 WINTER HOLIDAYS  (Week 2)
• Colouring in Scrapland  (M 1st Mon, 2E, No digital coloring, must have a hand-colored image) ANYTHING GOES OPTION CHRISTMAS (WEEK 2)
• Double Trouble Challenges  (2W/1W, 4E) #44 - "WRAP IT UP" opt. 1 - INCLUDE RIBBON OR BOW |opt. 2 share at ARTSY STAMPER - WINTER HOLIDAYS
• Path of Positivity  (M, 1st Monday, any positive/inspirational project or idea welcome)  #74 ANYTHING GOES OPT. twist PEACE
• Addicted to Stamps 4W, winner + Top Picks, Must include digi or rubber/clear Stamping (no precolored digis) - Cold and Frosty (Week 1 of 3)
• We Love 2 Create  - 2W (ends Tuesday) - Always Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes
• Die Cut Divas (M P1, E4, die cuts) December - Winter/Christmas
• Sweet Stampers (M, P10, E3, use stamp or digi) #38 - Christmas
• Allsorts  W,3E  - #549 - Snowmen and/or Snowflakes
• Challenge Up Your Life M - December - #118 - Christmas Packaging
• My Time to Craft 2W  - #411 - Christmas Scene (W2 of 2)
• Alphabet Challenge - 2W, 1E -  S FOR SNOW (W1 of 2)
• Crimbo Crackers 2W, Must Be Christmas Related #199 Gift Boxes (W1 of 2)