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Valentines Day Bagalope Pattern

How to Make a Valentines Bagalope

No, it’s not a relative of the antelope or the cantaloupe; a bagalope is a little gift bag made out of an ordinary envelope. It’s just the perfect size for traditional Valentine’s Day gifts from jewelry to little candy hearts.

Valentines Bagalope Materials

• 1 envelope
• Bone scorer (or other scoring tool)
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Decorations: patterned papers and embellishments or your own digital design*

Take an envelope. The one in the picture is 8 by 5 7/8 inches.

Seal the flap completely. You may need to use a little extra glue at the ends (where most envelopes don’t have any mucilage).

Cut off the top to form the bag opening. I cut mine 6 ¾ inches tall.

Score fold lines one inch in from the three sealed edges. These score lines will form little squares in the bottom left and right corners.

Score these boxes in half diagonally to make two triangles, starting from each bottom corner and scoring inward.

Fold along the scored lines to form the bagalope.

The folded triangles will poke out on each side.

Fold the triangles under and glue them to the bagalope’s bottom.

The flap closure is made of decorated paper. Cut to size.

Fold in half.

Glue back half to back of bagalope.

You can seal the bagalope in many different ways. I just used a dot of glue. A few other options are: Velcro, double-sided tape, or file folder-type string clasps.

*The bagalope pictured was done digitally with the following ScrapGirls digital scrapbooking products

• Day to Day Life Collection
• Red Plaid Paper Special
• Country Cottage Paper
• Country Cottage Special Red Lattice
• All Stitched Brush Set
• Charming Charm Tag (which says “You are loved.”)

If you haven’t tried digital scrapping yet, you can find everything you need to know at ScrapGirls. I’m a beginner and that’s how I’m learning.

Scrap Girls really makes it easy and their products are fantastic!

Directions for the Digital Valentines Bagalope Design

In addition to the Scrap Girls products listed above, you need Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

You will use Airbrush Soft Round 45 and a kiss imprint. If you don’t have voluptuous lips yourself, ask a friend to put on her sexiest red lipstick and her sexiest pucker to make one for you.

The illustration below shows how the design will be laid out: from left to right are the flap closure, bagalope back and front. They just fit on an 8 ½ by 11-inch page.

You will be opening all the elements in separate files and then combining/manipulating them to make a new document containing your pattern.

Never create your design in one of the Scrap Girls product files. You run the risk of accidentally clicking the Save icon and overwriting the Scrap Girls product!

If you haven’t already, load the All Stitched Brush Set into Photoshop’s Presets/Brushes folder using the instructions that came with the brush set.

Scan the kiss using the File/Import command.

Open the Red Plaid Paper Special gingham paper, the solid red paper from the Country Cottage set, the Country Cottage Special Red Lattice paper and the Charming Charm Tag.

You’ll notice that some of the reds are orangeier while others tend toward the blue end of the red range. Not to worry.

Use the eyedropper tool to select the tone of red you desire. When you get the red you want in the Foreground Color box, click on the box and write down the color code (in the box at the bottom, e.g. c9273b).

Click on each red document you want to change in succession and follow these steps.

Click on Image/Adjustments/Replace Color. In the pop-up box, the color box at the top is the color to be replaced and the color box at the bottom is the new color you chose.

Use the eyedropper to click on the red that needs replacing. After that appears in the top color box, click the eyedropper on the bottom color box and type in the color code you jotted down (e.g.c9273b). Click OK to save that color.

Then click OK to replace the color.

Measure the front of you bagalope. Mine is 5 ¾ by 3 ¾ inches.

Open a new blank document. Choose inches. Type in the Height and Width, Resolution 300 psi and Color Mode RGB.

Click and hold on the solid red background paper to drag a copy to the new file.

With the Move tool, position the large square so that it completely covers the document space.

Crop away the excess paper.

Create a New Layer.

Choose a color to put behind the kiss. I used off-white.

Draw a square mat for the kiss. Use Airbrush Soft Round 45 to create the torn edge look. I used Normal Layer Mode and 84% Transparency. Play with it until you get a look you like.

Create a New Layer.

Click and drag the lips to the new layer centered over the box you drew.

With the eyedropper, select a color for the contrast stitching. I chose an aqua from the beads of the Charming Charm Tag.

Create a New Layer. Select the Brush tool and set it for DMI_Allstitched_Brush_9.

Stamp the stitching lines where you like.

To add dimension to the stitches, click Layer/LayerStyle/Bevel and Emboss. Play with the sliders until you get the look you want.

Create a New Layer.

Click and drag a copy of the Charming Charm Tag to the new layer. “Hang” it from the stitching you just “sewed”.

Add a Drop Shadow by clicking Layer/LayerStyle/Drop Shadow. Again, play with the sliders until you get the right look.

Next enlarge the document so you can create the bagalope back and closure flap.

Click Image/Canvas Size. Check the Relative box. Move the white box in the diagram to the upper left corner. Type .25 into the Width and Height boxes and click OK.

Because most printers do not print all the way to the edge, you need to create a narrow border.

Now create the rest of your work space.

Click Image/Canvas Size. Leave the Relative box unchecked. Move the white box in the diagram to the lower right corner. Type 11 into the Width and 8.5 into the Height boxes. Click OK.

To make a duplicate of your design for the back of the bagalope, Select All/Edit/Copy/Edit/Paste.

Move the copy into place, just to the left of the original. In the Layers palette, click on each layer you don’t want on the back of the bagalope (torn square, kiss and tag) and delete them, one by one.

Now you’re ready to make the flap closure.

Click on the Country Cottage Special Red Lattice paper. With the Marquee tool (dashed line box), select a rectangle of the paper in about the same proportion you want for the closure flap. Edit/Copy. Click on your pattern document. Click Edit/Paste.

With the Move tool, move the closure paper into place on the left side. Lining it up against the bag’s back panel as shown will help to size it.

Imagine, that when folded in half, it will reach to just above the stitches on front and back.

If the rectangle is not the proper size or proportion, click Edit/Transform/Scale to adjust by pulling/pushing on one of the corners. Click on the Move tool and select Apply to save the transformation.

For the lattice borders, click on the Red Lattice paper. Marquee a narrow rectangle and proceed as above: Edit/Copy; Edit/Paste. Move into place at the top or bottom of the gingham rectangle. Transform to fit if necessary.

Create a duplicate layer to form the other edge: Layer/Duplicate Layer. Move the duplicate into place at the other edge. Save your work to a descriptive name like “Valentine Bagalope Pattern”.

If you save it in Photoshop file format, all the layers will be saved so that you can create other bagalope designs using this as a template. On the other hand, if you save it as a .jpg, for example, the file will be flattened and no longer easily editable.

Print your bagalope design and finish assembling your gift bag.

When you close the Scrap Girls product files, be sure to say “NO” to saving any changes you made. If you’re really pleased with a change you made, save it to a new name first; then close the original file and do NOT save changes.

For a final touch, I wrapped the front flap with raffia, threaded it through a (cardboard) heart-shaped button and tied a pretty bow.

A small strip of tape secures the raffia at the back.

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