12 Gift Wrapping Days of Christmas: Make Your Own Handmade Gift Bag – Day 6!

By Anjelica CazaresDIY with Anjelica

Mexi-Style with Anjelica (@la_anjel now also on craftythrifter)
New favorite!  Even if it does take a couple more steps, and it really isn’t gift wrapping per se… This new nontraditional gift wrapping idea I am proudly sharing with you all today is a handmade gift bag made out of something we all probably have sitting in our homes right now: newspaper comics!  I love the Sunday funnies!  So why not share them with my friends and family this Christmas?  I am!  And I did have a lot of fun putting this post together.  Enjoy!

12 days of christmas traditional gift wrapping with nontraditional materials la_anjel craftythrifter juanofwords
The finished piece. I think this is Juan’s favorite too. He was all like “how did you do that?” when I showed it to him, LOL!
12 days of christmas traditional gift wrapping with nontraditional materials la_anjel craftythrifter juanofwords
First, we’ll need to make our sealant to put this gift bag together.  Use a small cup or container to hold your sealant. Use equal parts water and multipurpose glue to make your sealant.  Mix well.  With a paintbrush apply the sealant across your newspaper pages and let them dry.
12 days of christmas traditional gift wrapping with nontraditional materials la_anjel craftythrifter juanofwords
Next, take a sheet of your newspaper and fold it almost halfway leaving about 2 inches of newspaper exposed.  Use a glue stick to apply glue on the exposed 2 inches.  Fold the exposed 2 inches with glue on them to the rest of your newspaper.
12 days of christmas traditional gift wrapping with nontraditional materials la_anjel craftythrifter juanofwords
Now on each side of your existing folds make one more crease about an inch away from the existing crease line.  This will start to give your gift bag its form.
12 days of christmas traditional gift wrapping with nontraditional materials la_anjel craftythrifter juanofwords
Next choose which end of your bag will be the bottom of your gift bag (leave your favorite comics on the print for the top part of the bag – they will be more visible). Fold the end you have chosen 2 inches on each side and then unfold each side (you are only folding at this step to create the creases).  Now you’ll fold the corners of your selected 2 inches at the corners to create flaps (see the picture above).
12 days of christmas traditional gift wrapping with nontraditional materials la_anjel craftythrifter juanofwords
Once your flaps are created take a glue stick and secure them to one another. You can turn your gift bag right side up and apply pressure from the inside of the bag to ensure the paper at the bottom adheres.
12 days of christmas traditional gift wrapping with nontraditional materials la_anjel craftythrifter juanofwords
For the final step, take a hole puncher and make 2 holes on each side of your gift bag.  Take a piece of ribbon on each side and feed it through the existing holes on each side to the desired length, then make a double knot on each end of your ribbon to hold it in place.  Now you’re ready to enjoy your Handmade Gift Bag!

If you have any questions about this or any other of the 12 Gift Wrapping Days of Christmas, feel free to reach out to me online at facebook.com/craftythifter or twitter.com/craftythrifter.

Please reuse, repurpose, thrift, consign and all that other good stuff.

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12 days of christmas traditional gift wrapping with nontraditional materials la_anjel craftythrifter juanofwords

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5 thoughts on “12 Gift Wrapping Days of Christmas: Make Your Own Handmade Gift Bag – Day 6!”

  1. Pingback: Juan of Words » Blog Archive » 12 Gift Wrapping Days of Christmas: Using Newspaper to Wrap Your Gifts – Day 7!
  2. Pingback: Tips on Lessening the Stress of Christmas! %%%% | A Little Tip of This and That

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