I always have these great visions of wrapping beautiful gifts and then the busyness of the season gets the best of me and I just wrap up the boxes and put on a stick on bow (if I make it that far).  So, this year I decided to make some gift bags in advance so that I have unique packaging all ready to go when I’m down to the wire with my gift wrapping.

I didn’t actually take step by step pictures because it was easy and I honestly didn’t think about sharing on here, until they were done and they looked cute so I decided to share.  I got this idea from a magazine that my mother-in-law had, can’t remember which one, but it showed embellished gift bags and it sparked the idea.

I bought a package of plain brown kraft paper gift bags at the craft store.  I used a coupon, so I think they were only $2 or $3 for 13 bags. Everything else I used were supplies that I had on hand.  I pulled Christmas printed paper from my scrapbook supplies.  I cut the sheets to 8 x 10 to fit the one side of the bag.  I attached the paper using Mod Podge on the back to stick it to the bag.  I didn’t apply any Mod Podge on the top of the paper.

I used coordinating paper prints to cut out the ornament shaped tag.  For the cutting, I used my Cricut and the Paper Lace cartridge, so it was easy.  If you don’t have a Cricut, you could easily cut your own tags by hand, or attach store bought tags.  I saw some very nice ones at the craft store.  The tag was 2 separate cut files and then I Mod Podged them together and attached to the bag with a piece of twine.

It was fun to be creative with mixing and matching the holiday printed paper that I had on hand.

I did repeat the paper patterns on other bags, but I had at least these 4 different combinations.  For the bow, I took Christmas fabric that I had and just ripped strips.  I actually had Amy tie the bows when we were at a craft fair together, so I did have a little help. 🙂

And, that was it!  I have unique gift bags on hand and ready to go for my last minute wrapping.  I want to look for wine bottle sized bags, because I think that would be a great item to have in my supplies all year round.

What is your wrapping style?  Do you have beautiful and coordinated packaging or are you a simple last minute gift wrapper?