Rainbow Paper Purse

Do you also sometimes feel like making something little, tiny, cute...but not too difficult? You might like this Mini Paper Purse. It's perfect as a small gift and to make it is a great relaxing activity (at least, for me). By the way, I have a whole category of Gifts with lots of tutorials also on other paper miniatures such as the Matchbox Suitcase, DIY Origami Strawberry, Miniature Paper Handbag and more.

An before we start, you can see a finished paper purse in this video on YouTube.

• 12 x 12 cm paper squares in the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue and purple
• some more paper
• glue
• scissors
• for decoration: paper cutouts, ribbons, stickers...

Prepare your paper squares. They can be smaller or larger than mine.

Fold one edge in over the center. It shouldn't align with the center, it has to go further.

Fold the other side over it, this one will be a little shorter. The two folded sides have to overlap, however, you decide how much. If they overlap only a little, the purse will be wider. If they overlap a lot, the purse will be narrower.

Open the shorter side, apply glue to the edges (where you see the white line) and close again.

Follow the same steps with all the paper squares. Make sure they have the same width.

To assemble the purse, place one folded piece with the seam facing up and apply glue to the center vertically (so NOT on the seam). Then place the next folded square on it, also seam facing up. Place them in the order of the colors of the rainbow.

Keep applying glue to the center and placing paper pieces on it until all your folded squares are glued together in the center.

Fold lengthwise.

Open and also apply glue to the center of the paper piece in the middle. Press together. This will create the effect you see in the second photo. I glued the pocket in the middle a little later on that's why you can see it unglued in some of the photos but I recommend doing it at this point.

Now we'll make the part that will help close the mini paper purse. Measure he backside of your purse, the top and about one half of the front side. Simply said, you will need a piece of paper that goes from the back of the purse, over the top and is long enough in the front so you can close the purse. Also, its width should be the same like the width of the purse. You can cut the edges round like I did.

Glue this piece to the back of the purse like you see in the photo.

Make sure it overlaps enough to the front.

Cut a stripe of paper about 0,5 cm wide and 2 cm longer than the width of your purse.

Place it on the front of the purse and fold the ends in behind the first pocket.

Take it off and apply glue to the ends that were folded (red line in the photo).

Put the paper stripe on the purse again, fold the ends behind the first pocket and press a little until the glue dries and keeps the stripe glued to the pocket.

Now you can close your Mini Paper Purse properly.

Add any decoration you like. Now you can put small treasures in the pocket and use your rainbow paper purse or give it to somebody as a gift!