Craft Project - How To Dress Up Plain Holiday Gift Bags

If you are crafty and frugal, I think you will appreciate this easy craft project to make and decorate your own holiday gift bags.

I went out to the local discount dollar-type of store and purchased 5 gift bags for $1.00 and brought them home. I knew after looking at them that they would be a great craft project for me to do with my 11 and 13 year old nieces.

Ages: Since there is ironing involved, I recommend ages 11 and up with adult supervision.

Supplies Needed:

Solid Color Paper Gift Bags (with handles)
White, Green, Red, Orange, Black and Brown Scraps of Fabric
Imprinted Design Holiday Fabric Scraps (we used a duck)
Heat 'N Bond Iron-on Fusible Adhesive
2 Wiggle Eyes
White Craft Glue
Iron and Ironing Board
Scissors
Markers (optional)

Snowman Bag: You can get a pattern from a child's coloring book or free hand your own snowman shape along with a top hat shape. Cut your snowman from white cotton fabric, the triangle shape from orange fabric (nose) and your hat shape from black cotton fabric. For the scarf, we cut from red patterned fabric a strip that measures 1/4" wide by 8" long. Following the instructions on your Heat 'N Bond package, iron the fusible webbing onto the wrong side of your fabric pieces. Next, place your white snowman piece down first and iron him onto your gift bag. You will then iron on his hat and his scarf to his body in the appropriate places. Finish up by centering the orange triangle on his face to represent his nose. Let the pieces cool for 5 minutes. Using craft glue, glue on 2 small wiggle eyes above his nose. If desired, use a white marker and hand draw on some snow flakes or snow balls.


Easy Tree Bag: Cut a triangle from green patterned fabric that measures approximately 4" high by 2 1/4" wide. From brown fabric, cut the trunk to measure 1/4" wide by 2 1/2" tall. Iron on the fusible webbing to the wrong side of your fabric pieces according to package instructions. Iron the tree trunk onto your gift bag first, followed by the tree on top. (just slightly over-lapping the trunk). Let cool for 5 minutes. If desired, you can use markers to draw on snowflakes or write a message.

Holiday Bird Bag: We had a scrap of holiday fabric that had birds imprinted on it and cut them out. Each one measures 4" wide by 2 3/4" high. You can use any imprinted holiday fabric that you would like. Some great choices would be: Christmas Trees, Snowmen, Holly, Pine Wreaths, Birds, Packages, etc. Whatever you have scraps of. You can cut out the shapes or design your own shapes. You will follow the instructions on your Heat 'N Bond package to fuse the webbing onto the back sides and then iron your shapes onto your gift bags.


The bags that me and my nieces made utilize a lot of my left-over fabric scraps and are simple designs. However, you can really fancy them up with other materials such as ribbons, lace, buttons and so forth.