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Make something really decorative but also practical: a box to store stuff that looks pretty too - alhamdulillah!
This is a great project for all ages. The youngest can be presented with a pre-made box, perhaps even with a bag that has already been cut out and glued onto card (if they are very young!) and then all then need to do is colour it in. For older kids - even up to late teens - they could enjoy this as a creative paper-crafting project: making the box themselves, cutting out, layering and collaging paper to make the 'handbag', and so on.
It is also a versatile project: we did handbags, but you could just as easily do something else. Cars, boats, submarines or trains would work very well for boys, and you could do a cottage or a window with a window-box full of flowers for the girls... really, whatever you can think of!
What you will need:
colouring pictures of handbags. We used some of the excellent selection available from scissorcraft.com [ http://www.scissorcraft.com/bags.htm ] but you could just as easily draw and design your own. You will need two pictures each - one for each side of the box
a box - you could use any old boxes you might have that are a suitable size (old teabag boxes might be good, for example), but it is not difficult to make your own. Instructions below show how to make a good size box from a piece of 12"x12" card (easily available from craft shops)
coloured card to back the handbag onto. You will also, of course, need large enough pieces of card to make the box if you are making your own
patterned paper if you want to do a 'collage' decoration of your handbag (and also to cover your box if you wish - especially if you do not make your own and are using old teabag boxes!)
tracing paper and an ordinary pencil (if you want to do collage)
felt-tips if you want to colour in your handbag
scissors & glue. Note that if you are making your own bag then PVA or strong double-sided sticky tape will be needed. These are also the best options for glueing your handbags onto the box. Ordinary paper glue (such as a glue stick) is fine for mounting the bags onto the card and for any paper collage you do.
decorations, embellishments & glitter glue - to decorate your handbags and boxes even more if you want
How to make your own box
This is the thing to start with since, if using PVA glue, it will give it time to dry while you then get on with decorating the handbags. Below (left) is a plan of how to cut down, score and prepare a 12 inch square piece of card to make a box of the right size for the handbags from scissorcraft.com
It might look complicated but insha'Allah is actually really very simple.
Step 1: trim one edge of your card by 2" (2 inches). This means you now have a piece of card that is 12"x10"
Step 2: score a line down the card 3.5" in from an edge. Turn the card 90 degrees and repeat till you have 4 lines, each one 3.5" in from an edge. These lines are marked as dashes on the diagram. This will leave you with a rectangle marked out in the middle of the card that is 5"x3". This will become the box base. It would help if you have a scoring tool/mat (see picture below) but you can do this without - closed scissors and a ruler will do the job as well if done carefully. Otherwise, mark out a line and fold along that line.
Step 3: cut away the areas marked with pink hash lines in the diagram above to make the 'flaps'. It helps if you FOLD your score lines first before you do this, but don't worry if you forget. The picture above of the green card shows this process halfway through. Once done you should insha'Allah have something that looks like the piece of white card below:
Step 4: put glue or tape to the OUTSIDE of each flap and then secure it against the INSIDE of each box side. For a really strong hold it is best to use a wet glue for this (such as PVA), or else really strong tape (such as the sort with the red peel off plastic, not the sort with the paper that peels off). If using wet glue, then secure the glued flaps with paperclips or bulldog clips or even mini pegs while the glue dries. (see picture below)
Now make your handbags!
You will need two - one for each side of the box. Choose your design and get decorating! There are various choices available on how to go about this, with perhaps the simplest being to just colour in the bag. This is especially so if you choose a very decorative or complicated design, as in these two examples below (left).
The other option is to do 'collage', using the shape of the bag as a guide, or even following the original design on the bag. Even if you colour in the bag, cutting out a handle for it to stick on top looks very effective. Here are some examples of collage handbags:
Step 1 - trace the shape of the bag, handle shape and (if you want) the pattern/design on the handbag:
You can see that one (left) has just the shape of the bag cut out, a second (right) has the shape of the bag and a strip at the bottom and the third (centre) has layers of paper in stripes which mirror the complicated pattern underneath. All of these will then have a separate 'handle' stuck on top.
Step 2 - turn the tracing over and place onto your chosen patterned paper. Make sure the patterned paper is FACE DOWN if you do not want the pencil marks to show. Then go over the tracing (on the back of the tracing paper) with your pencil. The tracing should transfer onto the back of the patterned paper. If it is faint, you can always go over it with your pencil, but insha'Allah so long as you can see it clearly enough to cut out, then this is all you need.
Step 3 - carefully cut out your piece of patterned paper. It helps to cut on the line, or even outside it, to make a good fit onto your drawing, though do remember you can trim any excess off later when you glue it onto the backing card, so don't worry too much if it's not quite perfect!
Step 4 - repeat exactly the same process with however many more elements you wish to add - handles, closure flaps, etc. Then glue each one down with ordinary paper glue.
Step 5 (for ALL handbags, not just collage) - No matter how you have decorated your bags, you now need to strengthen them a bit so they can be glued to the box. Glue them onto colourful card and carefully cut round them. You might need an adult armed with a craft knife to cut out the 'space' inside the handle, but if you are careful you should be able to do it with scissors too insha'Allah.
Step 6 - Glue your two bags to either side of your box. You could decorate your bags even more - maybe add a flower or a bow or some sequins, if you like. You could also decorate the other two sides of your box too. Once you are happy then you are done, alhamdulillah! How pretty! (And how useful too!)
Here are some examples to help give you some ideas, masha'Allah tabarak Allah!
by Myriam
aged 7
by Assiyah
aged 4
by Hafsa,
aged 7
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