crust, crafts and curriculum: Map Gift Bag

We have friends that are going on a l-o-n-g road trip and I wanted to put together a "travel bag" for them. Basically a gift bag full of treats, books, games, ear plugs... that sort of thing. I found the cutest bag idea here made out of newspaper. That got me to thinking... what about a bag made out of a MAP for their road trip!? So... here it is:

Here's how I made it... Again, I got the idea from here... and she does a great job of explaining how to do things. I had to make a few adjustments... I doubled the size and I also only had one map so I wasn't able to add card stock to the bag to strengthen it... but it seems sturdy just the same.

First I measured out my map. Mine was 31" wide and 16.5" tall.

I made a 4" fold for what would be the bottom.

And a 1.5" fold for what would end up being the "top" of the bag.

It's kind of hard to see... but I sectioned it off into a 9" piece, a 6" piece, a 9" piece, a 6" piece and a 1" piece. I marked these off (if you look hard you can see my black pen marks) and then folded them on the lines (toward the "inside" or where the original folds are).

I folded the map into what looks like a rectangle, taking the extra one inch and gluing it on the inside of one of the corners. (Trust me, this makes a ton more sense when it is in your hands, basically, just glue the 1" flap so it makes a cylinder.)

Then undo the bottom cuff so you can fold it like you would if you were wrapping a gift.

(This is one of those times that pictures are worth a thousand words!)

Add glue (I used a glue stick) to the bottom flaps to secure.

I was so excited that it actually looked like a bag that I folded the gussets in and the bottom up... as if for storage.

Ta da!

I was too lazy to go downstairs to find cord for a handle, but I did have this thin jute(ish) stuff up here. It was too thin. So I took three 24" pieces and braided them, punched holes in the bag (reinforced them with tape) and threaded the handle through.