Sunday, September 7, 2014

DIY Gift Bag


It was my mother in laws birthday this week and we celebrated with good food, gifts and time together as a family.  One thing you need to know about my MIL is that she loves Christmas.  LOVES it.  You'll be seeing how much she loves it here in the next few months as her projects help inspire my posts!  One thing that pairs perfectly with Christmas is Peppermint Mocha.  Oh yes.  Once I start, I just can't stop and my MIL feels the same way.  Her gift this year was peppermint and mocha syrups from Starbucks so she can have as many as she wants whenever she wants.  Did you know you can buy syrups from Starbucks?  You can purchase them online or in the store.  They make great gifts, obviously.  I had a text this morning telling me how delicious her iced coffee was.

But this post isn't about how delicious peppermint mochas are.  It's about how cute the bag is that held the most perfect gift ever.  We had the paper left over from Christmas last year and I really wanted to use it in the wrapping but didn't want to just wrap the bottles (super cheesy, don't do that).  I didn't have any boxes...you see my thought process.  The only logical thing to do was to make a paper bag.  I hopped on Google and stumbled upon this awesome website, Noteworthy that has free templates for all different sizes of paper bags.  





I made an 8x4x10 which is the size of a Starbucks paper bag so I knew the syrup would fit.  I did not print out the template, rather I used the measurements they gave as a guide to make this bag.  I used hot glue to secure the bag.



 
You'll notice that I did not make handles for the bag.  I chose not to because the syrups were pretty heavy and even though the paper is pretty thick I didn't want to risk breaking the bag or the handles ripping off.  To make the felt rose, I used this tutorial as a guide but used red felt instead of paper.

On the inside of the back of the bag, I put a layer of tape down before I punched holes to keep the paper from tearing.  I looped twine through and wrapped it around my felt rose to hold the bag together.  Then I tied the twine together in the back.

You can of course secure handles on the bag and I may do that next time I make it.  There will be a next time.