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Valentine's Day/
Paper Bag Valentine Satchel

Paper Bag Valentine Satchel

We've no shortage of paper bags around here, but I must admit, I was stumped for a while on what to do with them. But with Valentine's Day coming up, my daughter S and I thought it would be fun to make a purse (or "a satchel", which is what I called it for my son H), to transport Valentine cards to school for her friends.

We started by cutting the bottom off the bag so it would lay flat. I left it folded over, and drew a large heart on half of the bag, ending at the fold on the bottom. I placed dots on the heart so S would know where to punch the holes.

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Materials you'll need

Step-by-step tutorial

Step 1
S cut the heart out by following the lines I'd drawn.

Step 2
Then we punched the holes. To be honest, it was hard for a 4-year-old's hands to manage. She recruited her big brother to help out.

Step 3
Then S chose a festive ribbon we had to lace up her purse. She started at the top, leaving about 10" of ribbon free at the end.

Step 4
Lacing (or "sewing" as she calls it) is great fun for S and such good practice for fine motor skills!

Step 5
After she finished lacing up her purse, S wanted to decorate the brown paper. I got out some Valentine stamps I'd picked up at Michael's (hello, $1 sale bin!), and she went to town.

Step 6
After she'd finished with the stamps, S turned the heart over to decorate with her markers. You could do all kinds of things with that wonderful brown paper canvas...