Now that you’ve done your Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping, it will be time to wrap all the Christmas gifts, so maybe this Easy Christmas Gift Bag With Paper Scraps will give you an idea of how to decorate your own gift bags!
You can either save the cute little shopping bags you might get at certain stores and shops, or you can purchase plain kraft or colored shopping bags at the craft store. This one I did is a little smaller than usual because it is from a makeup purchase. It is a beautiful white bag with nice handles, but of course it has the makeup brand emblazened on the front and back. All I had to do was cover what was imprinted on the bag, front and back, with cardstock and decorate the bag!
I saw an idea like this one on Pinterest using washi tape, but I chose to use strips of paper from the Be Merry Designer Series Paper. This is a one of those great ideas for using up scraps of paper! I measured mine carefully, cut 1/2″ wide strips of the Cherry Cobbler patterns of the Be Merry paper, and then cut them down lengthwise to make the tree shape. Honestly, you could be less careful in measuring and have a much more unstructured paper tree. The tree trunk is a strip of Crumb Cake Cardstock.
The star on top of the tree is die cut with the Stars Framelits Dies (retired, unfortunately!). You can use any star punch or die you have or cut one by hand. I used the Red Glimmer Paper for the star to top the tree.
The greeting on the tag is stamped from the Labels to Love Stamp Set. It is die cut with one of the Layering Ovals Framelits Dies. Then it is layered on a piece of Cherry Cobbler Cardstock cut with the oval in the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies. I punched a hole in the top of the tag and tied it on to the bag with the Whisper White 1/8″ Sheer Ribbon, then tied a bow on the bag with the Cherry Cobbler 1/4″ Double-Stitched Ribbon.
You could easily make a Christmas card the same way! Click here to see one I made last year in the same manner but with washi tape!
This is the best way to recycle bags of almost any kind, actually! Just decorate with paper scraps or stamping to personalize the bag for the occasion or the person! So many possibilities! Make it simple or embellish it a lot. Dig around in your supplies, old and new, and see what you come up with!
Since the back of this bag also had the company name on it, I covered the name with a piece of the Be Merry Designer Paper layered on a piece of Cherry Cobbler Cardstock just cut in a rectangle, no decorating. Super easy and makes it all look nice.
Look through your bag of bags like I have and see what you can make with this Easy Christmas Gift Bag With Paper Scraps as inspiration!