Sylvia Pettit rests a bag of Oreos next to a glass of peach tea. The familiar blue-and-pink packaging proclaims the cookies’ double-stuffed goodness.

It’s the perfect compliment to a hot summer day at her home just north of St. Joseph.

Too bad there are no cookies.

This Oreo bag is actually a purse, complete with a fabric liner featuring a variety of pockets and two blue handles. And while it might not be food for the stomach, it has fed Sylvia’s creativity.

“I’ve been making them for about four years,” she says.

Sylvia first thought of re-purposing candy, chip and cookie bags when she was eating a bag of Munchos. The iridescent sheen of the colorful chip bag caught her eye, and she thought it would make a great purse. So, she made one.

She took the purse to work and announced to co-workers: “Boy, I will never do another one.”

Yeah, right.

Sylvia has crafted countless bags, just one of many handmade items she creates. She has a plastic tote filled with candy, chip and cookie bags. Prefer a Skittles purse or how about a Lays Potato Chip tote? No problem.

“You can’t make it through a checkout line at Wal-Mart or across the parking lot without someone asking, ‘Where did you get that?’” she says.

Unless it has a fabric back, it takes two bags to make a purse. The bags are cut into a purse shape and then treated with iron-on stabilizer, which gives the bag more of a cloth-type feel. Sylvia then sews the liner, even embroidering a name on the inside if the purchaser desires. After more iron-on stabilizer and sewing, the bag is done. Sylvia sells the bags at her Web site www.designssylvia.com and at various events.

While the bags are fun and funky, some also carry messages that reflect Sylvia’s and her husband, Jim’s, passion for greyhound rescue. A Hershey’s Kissables bag with a brown cloth back is embroidered with the phrase “Adopt a greyhound, they’re sooooo kissable.”

The Oreo bag that Sylvia picks up might not carry a message, but it is headed for a new home, one where Oreos have recently been introduced.

“I’m sending this one to Notthingham, England,” Sylvia says.

Good taste isn’t always in the bag. Sometimes it is the bag.

Lifestyles reporter Cathy Woolridge can be reached

at cathyw@npgco.com