Monday, February 6, 2012

Paper Bag Puffy Heart

We are taking part in TinkerLab's Paper Bag Challenge along with many other bloggers.  Hope you check out all the ideas other blogs have done with paper bags after this post!  We've made a few things with paper bags before,  including our Fandango Inspired Paper Bag Puppets and Paper Bag Self Portraits...hope you check those out too.  Paper Bags are so versatile and the great thing is that you can cut them apart to create a surface to paint on or create a sculpture too!  We did both!  Since Valentines and hearts have been our minds, we decided to make a three dimensional version of our Heart Blotto Valentines that we did a couple weeks ago and we also did Heart Blotto T-shirts too!!  Here is one of our Paper Bag Puffy Hearts floating on a cloud of poly-fil stuffing.



To begin, I first cut apart a larger paper bag so that I could cut two identical paper bag hearts.  You want two hearts: one for the back and one for the front. Then we folded the hearts and created blottos.  First paint on one side of the heart.



Then fold over to transfer to the other side of the heart. You can keep repeating the process until you like what you see.



Here are two hearts that will go together.  Beautiful!



After the hearts are dry,  put a ring of glue on one side,  but leave an opening to later put poly-fil stuffing, newspaper, or even pieces of scrap paper.  Let dry.



Next stuff your heart. You can use a ruler or stick to get all the stuffing back in the tight corners. After finished stuffing,  you can either glue the opening and wait to dry or staple!  We were impatient and just stapled the last bit together.



We wanted to add yarn around the heart,  so first I punched holes all around the heart.  Then C sewed around the heart.  Great fine tuning of motor skills!


When finished sewing with yarn,  tie a knot and create a hanger for the heart.  Here is C holding two of our hearts.  She loved swinging them about....an active girl....no doubt!



Here is another Paper Bag Puffy Heart!  We had a lot of FUN!  You could make any type of stuffed shape....such as a fish, person, or even a cloud shape!   This is C's "Tree Blotto With Red Apples".


Thanks TinkerLab for inspiring us to create with paper bags!  Be sure to check out all the other Great ideas in the linky below!  Please let me know what you think of our idea too!

19 comments:

  1. I can totally imagine a room or classroom full of these! Did you ever make these in your teaching days? And what a great lesson in symmetry, sewing, sculpture, etc!

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    1. Yes , they would look great. Never did hearts, but did stuffed fish and animals. Thanks for having this challenge! Lots of inspiration!

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  2. What a wonderful project that includes cutting, painting, sewing! You're ever so creative, Melissa. And you know what - I couldn't help not trying one of your ideas - the Fandango puppets - for today's challenge! Pari was so eager to do it that I though I'll keep my other ideas (for the paper bag) for another day!

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    1. Thank you Rashmie! Glad you tried the puppets and they are so FUN! Yours turned out wonderful! Can't wait to see more of your fab ideas!

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  3. Gorgeous!

    Looks so so lovely. A great paper bag craft indeed!

    Maggy

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  4. These are great, look like so much fun to make.

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  5. Melissa,
    I've truly enjoyed looking over the wonderful Valentines projects you and Cassie have been working on.
    So may good ideas, and I think I may get to the paper bag heart this week, as it looks like fun, that my group would enjoy.
    Last week we did some blotto hearts, and it was a loved activity.
    Brenda

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    1. Glad you have enjoyed all the valentine projects! I love involving the heart in art! It is a very pleasing shape. I'll have to stop on over at your blog to see what you've been up to!

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  6. This is a wonderful idea, especially love the sewing and the stuffing part:)

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  7. This is an awesome idea - easy to do and the result doubles as a toy. My daughter loves this kind of projects.

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    1. Yes, I'm sure your daughter would enjoy this! My daughter makes anything into toy! Play is great!

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  8. Love your puffy paper bag hearts, and so happy to see you again on Craft Schooling sunday!

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  9. Your daughter did a wonderful job! So cute! Just posted on Craft Gossip!

    http://lessonplans.craftgossip.com/?p=5551

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  10. Lovely bag having a lot of space and very flexible. A shopping bag has some potential to be attractive because you can dress it up a little by decorating it to match your colorful personality. Thanks for such an exclusive and wonderful product review for bags.
    plastic bag supplier

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