One for the little ladies...girls "secrets purse" tutorial.

Hi all....what do you think of my "girls secrets" purse?

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As the gents gift wallet went down so well, plus the fact that i have heard about nothing else from my two young daughters....i felt it only right to balance things out and do a tutorial for a girly make.
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I wanted to make my girls one anyway, but the inspiration for this particular theme came from a fantastic scrap booking LO i recently saw over on Toni's fantastic blog. Amongst Toni's many stunning LO's, her "Secrets" LO featuring her two daughters whispering to each other, reminded me so much of my two. Like any little girls, they love their secrets, and any little cute pockets to keep things in.

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So that's how the idea came about......now how about making one yourselves? Here is an easier tutorial than the gents wallet, giving you more time to spend on the fun decorating bits.
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Ok, firstly cut a piece of card 8 x 5 inches. *Please note these measurements will be different to the wallet, i have adjusted them slightly to make them less fiddly.

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Next, like with the gents wallet, pick two pieces of patterned paper. Here i have used the "Wings" patterned paper from the Angelique Collection by Prima.

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Now cover both sides of your piece of card, remembering that one side will be the inside of the purse, and the other the outside. Place your covered card in front of you, inside looking up at you.
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Mark your purse folds with your scoring tool at the measurements shown, for a larger image, please click on the picture.

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I find this a good time to give the front some decoration. All i have done here is used some lace, eyelets, distressed an inked the edges, added some fibres, a bloom with a fabric rose, and finally the word "Secrets". As you can see, i have used a simple Velcro dot for the closure.
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Flip it over, and you are ready to do the inside. I've added a little lace again here already....
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Now you need somewhere to hide those secrets. We are going to make a simple pocket, but you can use a pre-made envelope if you wish, maybe even a pretty little organza bag or similar?

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For this pocket, cut yourself a strip of card 8 inches long. The top inch is for the pocket lid, and you can see that i have added some flaps at the side of the bottom 3 1/2 inches. The dotted lines are score lines which will be folded.
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Cut some patterned paper the same shape, and cover the card. Score the fold lines.
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Fold this pocket over in half, gluing the tabs inside to make the pocket. I have used a border punch on the flap, and some fibres and a ribbon and brad closure to pretty it up.

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Add some more decoration if you wish. My eldest loves music, so i made a simple LO involving a handmade miniature wooden recorder, and a scroll of music. Instead of this, you could think about having a few journalling pages there, or a notebook to write the secrets on.

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Just be careful of making the inside too bulky or it will not close. If you do envisage a bulky load inside, just slightly increase the distance between the the fold scorelines.
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Thats it finished! One purse fit for a princesses secrets. :)
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I hope you enjoyed it, thanks for looking and i look forward to seeing what you do with the design. :)

Thanks for looking.