Animal Crackers In My .... PURSE!

That's right - not in my soup - in my PURSE!

I got this idea from my brilliant sister-in-law, who found a cute designer box of animal crackers at a convenience store and thought they would make a cute purse.

I went out immediately and bought my childhood faves - the Barnum's Animals - you know, the ones with the little string handle.

And I made this teeny little purse. And I'll tell you right now - if you want to make this, you have to eat not one, but two boxes of animal crackers. :) Poor you.

Now the wax bag that the cookies are in is glued in several places to the inside of the box, so after you eat the cookies, remove the bag carefully from the inside of two boxes. The reason that you need two is that the flap that closes these boxes is not only undecorated, but it is also glued to the inside of the box, so it's pretty unattractive.

So you will want to take the lid from your second box, and trace it onto the front panel of your second box. You're trying to get the design from the front of the box onto your lid flap.

 Here is my original box, with the two parts of the other box and the eventual feet of my purse. These are Tim Holtz Hitch Fasteners.

 

After you cut out the second box front to match the lid, glue it to the lid flap of the first box.

Then I took a piece of  black wool felt, cut it into a "T" shape to match the inside dimensions of my box, and I glued it to the inside, being very careful to glue down all the top edges. I did a little trimming to make sure it was perfectly aligned with the top of the box.

Then, I didn't want to leave that cardboard not matching the inside of the box, so I painted it with Apple Barrel black acrylic paint. I love painting paper and cardboard mostly because it dries fast and I'm impatient.

Then I took my wide grosgrain black striped ribbon and ran it all the way around the box for a handle. I made the cut ends meet on the bottom so you don't see them, and I attached them to the box with Sticky Strip.

After that step, I made holes in the bottom for the purse feet. I started the hole with my piercing tool, but finished it with my eyelet setter, because it's nice to get a nice clean cut through the felt for your hardware, and the eyelet setter does a great job of that.

After I screwed in the little feet I ran around showing it to everyone for a while. :) This step is optional.

I added a strip of magnet sheet to both the box front and the lid flap to keep it securely closed while people admire my cute purse.

Here's a side view.

I would have loved this little purse when I was little and never seemed to go anywhere without a box of animal crackers.

Now go check out my sweet friend Micki, who did a little reanimating of her own this week!