Project You Missed: Out of Town Bags

So here is another great project that I'm really proud of - our Out of Town (OOT) bags. These bags were handed out to guests as they checked into the hotel, and were chock full o'goodies!

CONTENTS:

• Bag & Tag - I used an orange kraft bag, purchased at Michael's. I stamped our damask monogram in the corner in black ink. I designed a "thank you" tag in InDesign, which had a message from DH and I on the back welcoming everyone to Boston and wishing them a Happy Halloween! I rounded the corners of the tag with my corner punch, and tied the tag onto the bag with some left over double-faced black satin ribbon.
• Traveling Music CD - this was the priciest item in the bag, since we had to purchase a whole spindle of CDs, and the playlist from iTunes so we could gift the music legally. I made holders for the CDs out of kraft cardstock and a design I found online. I punched a half circle at the top to make it easier to remove the CD, and glued the sides closed. I made a matching label for the CD (all labels were purchased at onlinelabels.com, in kraft). All the songs were about traveling, or going home, or just travel-related, and included a lot of my favorite artists. Here is the playlist:

1. Boston, Augustana
2. Full Moon, The Black Ghosts
3. I'm Walking This Road Because..., Fascinoma
4. Ride, Cary Brothers
5. Maps, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
6. Passenger Seat, Death Cab for Cutie
7. Winding Road, Bonnie Somerville
8. Flightless Bird, American Mouth, Iron & Wine
9. Somewhere Only We Know, Keane
10. Standing Still, Jewel
11. Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol
12. Home, Michael Bublé

• "Dirty" Water - we took the labels off Poland Springs bottles, and put on a label I designed that said "Love that DIRTY WATER Boston you're my home" - couldn't resist!
• Erica's Homemade Trail Mix - I make a mean trail mix ;) I made my favorite for the OOT bags; mixed nuts, dark chocolate chips, and dried cranberries. I put the mix in damask-skull print cello bags (found at Michael's) and affixed a craft label on front.
• Mike's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies - believe it or not, they are from Costco! For some reason they have the yummiest cookies - soft with big chunks of chocolate in every bite. I put two of the cookies in a skull & crossbones cell bag (also found at Michael's) and tied it with a small kraft tag.
• 2 Candy Bars (not pictured) - we also included a couple of our favorite candy bars in the bags.

These bags were a lot of work - a lot more work than originally anticipated! Had I not been planning for these months in advance, I would have skipped them altogether. Definitely a time (and money) consuming project - but I really wanted a special treat at the hotel for all of our guests who traveled so far for our big day. Thankfully a day or so before the wedding my mother came over and helped us assemble them, while DH manned the heat gun - the inked stamp on the front took forever to dry!