DIY Gift Paper Bags

Does it sometimes happen to you as well that you have nothing at home that you could use for wrapping a gift for your loved ones? In that case, the following easy tutorial on gift paper bags will come in handy. After mastering this simple procedure, we bet you won't want to buy them anymore. So let's begin!

Of course, you'll need paper. The most suitable one is a so-called wrapping paper you get under this name in any larger stationery store. It's particularly suited for paper bag creation for its lower GSM, as it makes manipulation during folding easier. Of course, you can also create a bag out of cardstock paper. In this case, on the contrary, thanks to the higher GSM of cardstock paper, the bag would be firmer and more durable. Thus we leave the paper selection up to you!

Then prepare a glue stick and a piece of ribbon. If the paper has a different shape than rectangular, you'll also need scissors and a graphite pencil. In addition to making the bag shape, you'll also design it.

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Therefore, choose a technique to adorn the paper right at the beginning. We decided on an abstract metallic ink painting we did with pipettes. In addition, we also utilized brushes and a cup of water.

First, start with the visual appearance of the gift bag. Apply a little water with a brush on the prepared paper. Wet only some places so that the design would look a little negligent, not an entire surface.

Having the paper still moist, scoop up a small amount of metallic ink into the pipette and apply it to wet stains where it will blur beautifully.

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Besides blurred stains, you can also create various splotches, blow the stains, etc. Continue like this until you're satisfied.

Then let the ink dry completely.

Having the ink dry, you can finally get down to folding the bag. First of all, mark the middle of the rectangular paper, into which you then fold both sides of the paper.

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Fold the top side a little further so that you can later stick it to the bottom side.

Unfold the paper into its original state and create a fold about 2 - 3 cm in its bottom part.

At this moment, when the paper is along its entire length folded by 2 centimeters in its bottom side, go back to the side folds and use a glue stick to glue both halves together.

Smooth the glued parts well and weigh down the paper for a while so that the crease is as tight as possible.

When the glue dries, create again a fold of about 3 centimeters on the longer sides of the shape. Fold the paper here on both sides to create a corner in the middle of each fold that you'll subsequently fold toward the inside of the bag.

Thanks to that, you formed the sides of the paper bag on both sides.

Now let's create the bottom of the bag. Take the last unprocessed part of the provisional shape and fold it by approximately 5 cm on each side.

After returning the just-modified part to its original state, fold the corners inwards and return them back again.

At this moment, you have all the folds marked, and it's time to fold up the bottom and subsequently glue it together. First of all, push the sides inward.

Fold the two remaining sides on the already folded sides and glue them together. Again, weigh down the creases for a while.

Having the bag folded and glued, take a paper punch and make holes for threading the ribbon.

Cut two same lengths from the ribbon, thread them through the holes, and make larger knots at the end to hold the handles firmly. And the bag is ready!