What you will need…

Materials:
1 Kaisercraft handbag
4 Green Tara hot pink flowers
4 Green Tara black flowers
1 pack of Kaisercraft hot pink rhinestones
1 metre of narrow green ribbon
1 metre of Creative Impressions magenta and black polka dot ribbon
1 sheet of Chatterbox Dark Valentine Dots paper
Reeves Mars black acrylic paint
Pritt glue
Double-sided tape
Straight wire (florist’s wire is perfect)

Tools:

Craft knife
Cutting mat
Paintbrushes – one thick, one fine
Pencil
Ruler

Method:

• Use the fine brush to paint polka dots on the pink flowers; set aside to dry.

• Cut three lengths of florist’s wire for the flower stems and the same length of the narrow green ribbon. Run a line of Pritt along the back of the ribbon and attach the florist’s wire. Repeat for all three lengths and set aside to dry.

• Wipe the handbag down with a barely damp cloth to remove dust. Paint all the edges of the bag, the base and sides (inside and out), and the inside of the handbag (don’t assemble the bag yet). Allow to dry thoroughly.

• Apply Pritt to the outside of the handbag and attach to the wrong side of the Chatterbox paper. Once it’s dry, use your craft knife to cut around the bag and inside the handle. Using the Pritt, assemble the bag. I found it easiest to attach the side pieces to the base, allow them to dry, then attach one side of the bag, then the other.

• Insert a small length of the wired green ribbon through the back of a black flower; bend the wire over to hold it in place. Use some Pritt to glue the three pink flowers to the centre of the black flowers. Add a large pink rhinestone to the centre of each flower.

• Use a pencil and ruler to mark where you want the bottom of the pink and black ribbon to sit. Use some Pritt to hold the three flower stems in place on the front of the bag, having the stems cross each other near the pencil mark.

• Use the pencil mark as a guide for applying double-sided tape around the bag and over the stems. Attach the pink and black polka dot ribbon to the tape and tie a large bow over the flower stems.

• Attach the pink rhinestones to the top edges of the handbag – you can use your index finger to space them fairly evenly.

• Glue the fourth flower to the front left of the bag.

Handy Hint:

Gluing the wire to the ribbon was a real pain! Think about painting some wooden skewers instead