Complete Step by Step with the Satchel Back by Dawny P

Hello crafters – Dawny P here and welcome to the Craft Room today.

The project I’m sharing with you today is made using the really clever and very sweet Tonic Studios Satchel Bag die set. This is a fabulous set of dies and can be made up to store photographs, school year mementos etc. You could even pop a gift card inside or turn it into a stationery holder to house notelets. Endless possibilities here and it is just so cute.

There are 26 dies in the set plus full instructions. And as this is a verso set, you will of course have your outside and inside edges to decorate or to use on your other projects. There is a pocket die in the set which could also be used on the front of your cards or even to pop onto a gift to hold a tag. There are 2 sentiment dies as well – Love and Hugs and Open Me and again these could be used as gift tags. There are 2 different patterns on the verso dies, one is floral and one is geometric. Both are generic and really stylish so could be used for anybody. This makes it a ‘must have’ for me because I like to get the absolute most out of my die sets and the more uses they have, the more I love them!

The satchel is cleverly designed so that it can be opened flat and to keep it closed there are cute little butterfly shaped clasps to hold it together. And the finished size is approximately 115mm x 120mm x 55mm (or 4.5” x 4.7” x 2.1” in old money!!). So it makes up into quite a substantial and sturdy project. It could easily be doubled up to make something bigger.

Normally when I do step by step instructions, I will put a list of tips at the end, but I’ll add them as we go along for this project. There are a lot of photographs here which I hope will help, and also I wanted to show that even if you are either a new crafter or new to die-cutting, this is a very achievable project. Imagine giving this to somebody as a gift – they would never believe you were a beginner.  

I’ve broken it down into three simple stages so shall we get started?

To Cut – time to fire up those die cutters!!

Side panel decoration – cut 2 outside edges in both black and white and cut verso inside edge die into black pieces as shown.

Lid top decoration – cut 1 outside edge in both black and white and cut verso inside edge die into black pieces as shown.

Front lid decoration – cut 1 outside edge in both black and white and cut verso inside edge die into black pieces as shown.

Preparing our cut pieces

Stick the side panel and front lid decoration pieces together as shown.

Do the same with the lid top decoration – I used dimensional pads here. Then stick down onto lid top pink piece as shown.

To prepare the insert separator pieces

Firstly, you will notice that there are pairs of sections on these pieces that are slightly wider. Add a strip of DST to one of the sections in each pair as shown. Now mountain fold these sections, remove tape and stick the sections together . Valley fold the sections either side of the stuck together sections - it should look like the centre picture. Do this on both pieces.

Tip – remove one bit of backing tape at a time, stick together and move on to the next section.

To prepare the insert pockets

Crease tabs on both pieces. Add a strip of DST to each tab as shown. Remove the backing tape from one tab, line up with the un-tabbed edge of the other piece and stick together. Fold in half, remove the other backing tape and stick down.

Tip – fold in half and remove the backing tape slowly, sticking down as you go.

To prepare the front pocket

Crease and fold the tabs as shown. To start, have the right side facing you then mountain fold to the back the first tab. The other tabs are then concertina’d. Tuck the little shaped tab at each end of the longest side into the last fold on the shortest sides. Glue down. Then glue down on top the little tab on the shortest side as shown. Apply strips of DST to the three sides.

Stick the black decorative piece onto the front of pocket. Stick the sentiment piece into the middle as shown. You could use foam pads for this for extra dimension.

To assemble

Products Used