It's My Bag!

A while ago I posted about making my own paper gift bags.  See how I did it here.

While I made the previous bags from brown kraft paper, today I made a bag using wrapping paper.  When I unrolled the pink check paper to cut it to size, I discovered the reverse side was blue check.  I decided to use that as a design element.

I wrapped the paper around an appropriate sized box, glued it together, folded in the bottom to make it square and glued that (a little invisible tape helped).  I folded the top over twice to the outside to make the blue border (would have been easier had I folded it before gluing into a bag shape) and glued it down, leaving a space open for the handle.  Don't forget to remove the box!  It's only there to help shape the bag.

I cut a strip of paper the length of the handle and three times the width.  I folded it over on one side, with the pink check visible, then folded the other side in reverse to expose the blue check.  I tucked the ends into the opening in the top fold, glued it down and my bag was done!

To make the gift card I cut a piece of the paper about 2 inches square and folded an origami crane.  Cranes are said to bring luck and are often given as gifts to newly married couples and newborn babies.  Since this bag would hold a gift for a new baby I thought the crane was appropriate.  Learn how to fold an origami crane here.

I wrapped a bit of the blue check paper around a gift card and glued the crane to it.  There was just enough room to write on, and I tied it to the bag handle with a bit of pink ribbon.

I'm very happy with the way the bag turned out.  Here is what is inside the bag, tucked into the  pink tissue paper.  I blogged about making this bib & booties here.

Quotable quotes; in the category It Really Didn't Take That Long!

"The life so short, the crafts so long to learn."  Geoffrey Chaucer