Sunday, February 5, 2012

Paper Bag Fairy Dresses


When I saw the paper bag creative challenge on Tinkerlab I thought of the cute paper bag picture below taken by my friend Stephanie of her son D. 

Inspired by D's Trader Joe's attire we set to work on our own paper bag outfits.

Brown is a nice color and all, but the girls and I decided to add some color to our bags. We cut the bags so that they would lay flat and covered them with paint.

The girls covered themselves with paint as well. (These pictures were so cute I had to include them even though you can see our cluttered floor)

The next day armed with staplers and tape we set to work on creating our dresses. We used the painted paper bags as the bodices of the dresses. A couple of brads and small rubber bands created a simple fastening system.

I used a stapler to attach pieces of tissue paper to the bottoms of the dresses. For A's the tissue paper was attached full length to create a long skirt, for G's I ripped along the length of the tissue paper and attached so that she had a short ruffled skirt. While I stapled, the girls crumpled the tissue paper to make it bunched and fluffy.  After attaching the tissue paper A tried hers on and discovered that she couldn't sit down, I had shorten the paper bag bodice by about 6 inches then reattach the tissue paper. I guess I should measure before charging ahead on a project.

A made flowers out of tissue paper she ripped and twisted together. Apparently smashing the tissue paper is important in making the flowers - when mine didn't look right A squashed it around a bit and it looked much better.

While constructing the outfits the girls decided they were fairy dresses, so A cut some wing shapes out of another paper bag then helped her little sister scribble on some pretty colors. After some difficulty attaching the wings with staples I finally used some clear packing tape which worked quite well.

The dresses turned out great and the girls loved them.

The dresses inspired a lot of spinning.

Cooking in the dresses was fun too. (I'll post this yummy and super easy candy recipe later this week)

The dresses where even good for doing chores like putting away silverware.

Who knew paper was so much fun. What is your favorite thing to make with paper?



7 comments:

  1. How fun, Karenda!!!! The smiles on your daughters' faces say it all. My girls would like to come over and play at your house sometime. 'Kay? :) (we made those pretzel snacks in December, and they are AMAZING. And ridiculously easy.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is ADORABLE!!! I love the dress. How fun. Great idea!!!

    Maggy
    (@redtedart)

    ReplyDelete
  3. fun, fun, fun! we made princess dresses with our paper bags - what a lovely paper bag dress-up playdate we could have :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess great minds think alike. Your dresses were so cute. I hadn't heard of the book "The Paper Bag Princess" before, but now we are definitely going to have to get it from the library.

      Delete
  4. Oh I love it! I can't wait till Joshua is old enough to do arts and crafts with me. What great times and memories you are creating with your girls!
    Kelly Newbill

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by and reading about our adventures. Maybe when he is a little older Joshua can come join us for a crafty play date. I bet by this summer he'll be ready for finger paints. What fun!

      Delete