Bag Ladies Project

Materials Needed:

1 large brown paper grocery bag

1 plastic pocket protector page (can have different pockets or 1 whole)

1 sheet of colored card stock or scrap booking paper approx. 8 1/2 x 8 1/2

3 brass fasteners

Packaging Tape

Scissors

Hole Puncher

Glue Stick

1/2 inch Sticky-backed Velcro (optional)

Directions:

1. Place the paper grocery bag flat on your table with the flap side up. Lift the bottom of the flap and cut off a spaghetti sized strip from the bottom of the flap.
   
   Cut off strip   
   
   
2. Now you are going to cut up the left and the right side of the top flap making sure to only cut through that top flap layer.
   You will now have the top flap free from the rest of the bag.
   Open the flap upward and push in the triangles on both sides of the bottom opening of the bag so that the front lays flat.
   
   
   
3. Turn the entire bag over to the other side without the opening. Make sure your flap is extended all the way on the top. Take the flap and fold it down in half to the first crease and tape that side down with the packaging tape. You will now cut the flap in half along the fold.

  Fold in half and than cut along the fold

4. Open the two flaps and place them flat. The tape will now be in the center. Glue the scrap booking paper or card stock on top of both sides in one sheet to make them decorative. Now you can fold one on either side of your bag. You can trim the corners to make it more attractive.

5. You are now going to insert your page protector. Flip your bag over to the side without the opening by the top under your flap. Lay the plastic page protector with the holes towards the bottom of the bag away from the top so that the opening is sideways on the left of the bag. Make sure there is a little space under the crease of the flap. Now you are going to fold the bottom part of the bag up leaving about an inch and creasing so you have a cover over most of the page protector.

6. Take the page protector out and lay it on the outside of the bottom of your bag and mark where the three holes are with a pencil. Now you are going to use the hole punch to punch through the entire bag in order to keep the page protector on the inside of the bottom flap you have just made. (Please see above picture on the right to see where to place the holes)

7. Place the plastic page protector inside the bottom flap and secure it through the bag with the three brass fasteners.

8. You now have a two sided pocket portfolio with a center page protector that your students can use for any subject area. You can use 1/2 inch of sticky-backed Velcro to secure the flap on either side of the portfolio. We hope you have fun with this project.