Monday, December 24, 2012

DIY Mini Gift Bags

As promised, here's the tutorial for these DIY mini gift bags.

The main things you'll need for this are card stock, ribbon, a hole puncher and scissors.  
If you want to make fancier bags then you'll need to find those pins in the photo (I have no idea what they're called), glue or tape, a ruler, cutting mat, an x-acto knife and other things to decorate the bags with (thank you's/for you's).

Click for Larger View
Step 1:  If your paper has one side white, place the white face up.  This will be the inside of the bag (pink on the outside).

Step 2:  Fold the edges towards the center.  This fold determines the length of the bottom of the bag.  If you want a longer bag, do not let the edges meet in the middle.

Step 3:  Open the fold.

Step 4:  Fold the bottom up 1.5 to 2 inches from the top.  This fold determines the width of the bottom of your bag.  If you want a wider bag, then don't fold it so close to the top.

Step 5:  Open the fold and rotate the paper 180 degrees, so the fold you just made is towards the bottom.

Step 6:  Fold the bottom up, repeating step 4, make sure the fold is the same size as in step 4.

Step 7:  Open the folds.  The rectangle in the middle is the center of your bag.  Fold one side of fold you made in Step 2.

Step 8:  This step is tricky.  Study the photo because this is hard to explain.  Grab the fold at the bottom fold line (from the fold made in Step 6).

Step 9:  You want to bring the edge of this fold to the edge of the paper.  Again, refer to the picture.

Step 10:  Repeat this fold on the other side of the paper.

Step 11:  Flip the paper around and repeat this fold on the two other sides.

Step 12:  This is what your paper should look like after you make these folds.

Step 13:  Bring the top and bottom together and you can see the bag!  You may have to slightly bend the smaller sides into the bag.

After this, it's up to you how you want to make the handles or decorate the bag.  In the finished examples in my tutorial I used some heavy duty scrapbooking paper.  I made those bags in less than 5 minutes each.  If you have time and want to make these look really good, make sure you crease the folds flat.  Also, this paper had some shiny surfaces and I used double-sided tape to try to keep some of the inner edges cleaner looking...but the tape just wouldn't stick to those shiny surfaces.  Glue would have worked better.  I tied the handles in two different ways because the white ribbon was too thin for the paper punch holes.  Both ended up working just fine and I like how cute the white ribbon handles look.  I love these bags.  Quick and easy.  They don't have to be perfect.  They were used at a co-ed baby shower so I imagine most of them got thrown out once the guys got home.  Would be great for party favors at any party.

1 comment:

  1. Love this! I might have to attempt it one day or at least show my sister who is very crafty.

    ReplyDelete