I was lucky enough to spend last weekend with my parents and my oldest daughter, my nephew and my two nieces. Now, the newest little one is too young for crafts, but while she was napping the other three kids and I sat down at Gramma’s kitchen table to make some decorated gift bags and votive candle holders. Ostensibly, these gifts were for Mother’s Day, but they would be great for any occasion.
Stranded 3,000 km away from my large stockpile of craft supplies, I made a reconnaissance visit to the closest Wal-Mart, and found a decent selection there, especially for kid-friendly crafts. I picked up a block of cardstock, coordinating patterned papers, stickers and die cuts as well as some white mini-gift bags, ribbon, and votive candle holders. A quick grab for glue and adhesive runner, and I was set to go, without breaking the budget. Voila:
- blank gift bags (any size)
- patterned paper
- coordinating ribbon
- adhesive (I prefer tape runner adhesives, but glue sticks will work fine)
- votive candle holders
- paper trimmer – or scissors will do in a pinch (which is what we were in, so we used scissors!)
To make the decorated gift bag:
If you have a paper trimmer, you can measure the gift bag and then use the trimmer to cut a rectangle of paper to fit the front/back panel of the bag. If not, turn your paper over and trace the bag using a pencil, then cut out with scissors, being careful to cut as straight as possible. Cut two panels: one for the front and one for the back.
TIP: place the corner of your bag in the corner of your paper – then you only have to trace & cut two sides and will have two guaranteed-straight sides to work with.
Once you have your decorative panels cut, you can add a ribbon embellishment on one or both (I chose to only do the front). If you do want to add ribbon, it’s easier (and more visually appealing) to add the ribbon before you glue the panel on to the bag. The first step is to cut a piece of ribbon longer than your paper:
TIP: use slightly more ribbon than you’ll need – it makes it much easier to tie and you can trim off the long ends later. This is an essential tip to remember when working with children, as they are still developing their fine motor skills and will find this step very frustrating if their ribbon segments are too short.
This is a great trick for giving the appearance of a knot or bow in ribbon, without all the fuss of measuring and cutting. You can see how it looks like just one piece of ribbon with a pretty bow, but much easier to accomplish!
The final step is to adhere the decorative panels to the gift bag. I prefer to use a tape-runner adhesive for paper-to-paper, but one of the kids tired of waiting for it and used a glue stick very successfully.
And now carefully place it on the bag:
TIP: I like to line up two corners to help make sure I get the panel on straight.
TIP: This is a great way to recycle paper bags from boutiques – adding a decorative panel covers up the store information. You can also recycle tired gift bags this way, too.
You can also decorate the bag handles with pretty ribbon bows or knots, as the children did.
We chose to tie a ribbon ’round the votive candle holders, placed a candle in each and placed one in each bag. But any kind of gift that fits your bag will be perfect!
Very nice idea, I am always on the look out for crafts kids can do and I think this is the perfect way to let kids put a personal touch on a mothers day gift. I have so many bags that just keep piling up that I refuse to throw away, now I have a fun way to let my kids upcycle them into something that much prettier and useful.
I’m just really sad that I missed out and didn’t find this post until now. I don’t think my husband will appreciate pretty bags as much for fathers day but I think I can come up with something for the kids to do that is along the same line here. Here’s to getting rid of that stack of bags in my basement!
I looove the tip about recycling bags from boutiques. They always just end up in my recycling bin. Thanks Kath (& girls!!)