fun with chip bags

The craft mats that are sold at stores are great and very useful, however there are many things you can do with chip bags. (sometimes even better)


To start clean a chip bag.  Tortilla chip bags do not work the same way as a craft mat, but they still work for what we are doing.  We are going to make a craft mat that has the fold in the middle. There are many ways to use this little mat.

large chip bag clean and dry

Cut off the bottom

I like it as straight as it can be so I use a cutter.

Cut off the top

To get this straight you have to take care and line up the bag on the cutter

Cut one side off

I usually cut about an inch off here

here it is opened on top of the large Ranger craft mat. (sorry for the blurry pic - had to turn off the lights to avoid reflections)

He is plain white card stock, you can you glass, photo paper, even colored papers.  I am using dylusion sprays, but you can use markers and water base inks for this trick)

I just sprayed the inks on the "mat" you can use ink pads (water based) or markers (even Crayola)  Add some color

Spray the ink on the mat with water

You will see the ink pool together in the water and blend some

Take your card stock and place on the mat

Fold the bag mat closed and rub the outside of it. 

What you see when you open it up. The more ink on the mat the more coverage.

Add more water to your sheet (saturate it)

add another piece of card stock on top (fold bag over and rub)

removing the sheet

leave the bottom sheet there (re-saturate the paper with water) add another sheet of card stock on top and peel away

Continue to rewet the bottom sheet and add another on top until the card stock gets lighter and lighter.

Here are 6 sheets all created with 8 sprays of ink and water.  The picture does not show the vibrancy very well as these are all wet.  The top center piece was my base paper and the rest were created from it.