Christmas Gift Bags

I don't know about you but I really can't believe we're in November and Christmas is just around the corner. This prompted me to have a little gift ready for my Daughter's teacher and what better way to present the gift than in a self decorated shopping bag.

You can pick these up from any craft store and with a few embellishments you have just the right look you're after.





Measure the front of the shopping bag and trim patterned paper to fit. I have overlapped the top and bottom of the paper with a solid colour and scalloped the edges. A light swipe of ink will compliment the look.


Tie a couple of pieces of thin ribbon around the lower edge of the paper. Create a Christmas tree using a triangle of paper and matting this on cardstock. Trim a piece of cardstock for the base of the tree and raise with pop dots before attaching to the front of the bag. Strips of paper can look like tinsel if placed on an angle around the tree. To finish add a star brad at the top of the tree and make a small name tag and attach to the handle.

For this example I cut a small window from the bag and placed some acetate over (this will stop your contents from escaping). Measure a piece of patterned paper the size of the bag and run a row of machine stitching around the outer edge. Cut a window from this, slightly smaller than the window on the bag and using a die cut frame, place this over the top to hide your edges.

After adhering to the bag, embellish with Christmas baubles cut from the paper, star brads, metal tags and chipboard alphas. To complete I wrapped a thin piece of ribbon around the handle and secured with tape on the inside of the bag.

Hopefully this will encourage you to add that little extra sparkle to your gifts this Christmas.