How To Make A Gazillion and One Paper Gift Bags For a Buck!

Ok maybe not a gazillion and one but it's close enough.  From one, $1 roll of brown craft wrapping paper I made ornament gift bags for my husband's entire family and had plenty left over.  It's also a great way reuse/recycle old wrapping paper, magazines, newspapers and etc. Once you learn the basic folding construction of a gift bag it is a total game changer.



You will need to start by cutting your selected paper (news, wrapping or whatever you choose to use) into a rectangle. For this tutorial my rectangle measured 10 inches wide x 15 inches high.  This measurement will make the odd size bag (that I needed) but it is a good size to use to learn the folding process.  Once you have done it, you will get a better idea of how long and wide your paper needs to be in order to make a bag for any particular item.

How to fold:

1. Lay your rectangle out with the long sides at the top and bottom and the short sides to the left and right.  Create a double fold on the top.  Fold once about 1/2 inch. Then fold it down again about 1 inch. Secure using a glue stick or with double side tape inside the fold.

2. Fold the right side slightly over the center of the paper.

3. Fold the left side to the center of the paper. Secure inside the overlap with glue stick or double side tape.

4. For some reason I didn't take a pic of the next step but it's super easy so I will just use a modified version of the previous pic. Crisply fold the bottom at least 2 inches.  The dotted line in this pic represents the fold.
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5. Now open up the fold you just made and flatten the corners like seen in the pic below. This will create two flaps at the bottom of the bag. Notice how the crease and fold lines are lined up.  I added a dotted line on the right side this time to accent the center line.

6. Fold both of the flaps to the center and secure.

7. Fold both sides of the bag in so the "triangles" meet. 

8. Unfold the bag.  You will have to reverse some of the seams  but you're all done with the body construction of the body of the bag.  You can hole punch the top and add ribbon, twine or etc for the handles. Then embellish if you desired.

I just did quick, simple additions due to the fact I had to make so many. Yours can be as complicated or as simple as you like.

Topics:  #diy #gift #bags #how #to #make #thrifty #paper #recycled #upcycled #recycling #upcycling