Bucket Handbag Gift

Here's a gift I made up for some church ladies who help to lift the burden of entertaining guest speakers by bringing in suppers during weeknights. Other times I have given a pretty dish towel and candy bar tied up with a thank you note.....this time I decided to make the entire gift.  First I made the little bucket handbags, attached a thanks gift tag, put a bag of homemade peppermint patties and a covered post it note holder inside.
I'm not sure that it turned out to be cheaper, and I know it WASN'T less work -- BUT it sure was a lot more FUN!   I ended up making 10 of them over the course of three days.

Today I'll share the links for the Handbag --- details on the peppermint patties recipe, post it note cover, tag --to come later.

Here's a link to the Handbag template and another link to a whole list (55 +) bag templates (on Mel's blog).
Here's another link to a whole gallery (on Splitcoast Stampers) of ideas on how to decorate your bucket handbag.

 Supplies I used on the handbag (besides the template):

• White cardstock 
• all the buckets have this for a base
• Misc. Scraps of paper from my paper scrap bin
• Makes me glad I hoard my paper like I do and save every scrap.  Almost all of these were made completely out of my paper scrap bins. 
• Blossom Nestabilities 
• I cut both the hole for the bag handles and a solid piece of cardstock (in matching paper) with this. I used the middle piece from the solid piece of cardstock to create the flower on the right
• Flower Die
• middle white flower
• Rhinestones 
• centers of flowers
• Martha Stewart Branch punch

I'll share the recipe for the homemade peppermint patties on Monday ---