Welcome to the no measuring, no cutting, no fussing, very strong, very cute, gift bag tutorial. And once you get the hang of it, a very fast gift bag. I put together this tutorial with the Give Back papers: A Walk in The Forest. It feels good to give two gifts at once. If you have not had a chance to check out the Give Back page I urge you to have a quick look.
Supplies
Supplies
2 pieces 30.5x 30.5x (12″ x 12″) patterned paper
Tear & Tape
Bone Folder
Supplies for Alternative handle:
Cut two pieces of coordinating patterned paper 4.5cm x 30cm (1-3/4″ x 12″)
Cut two pieces of thick card stock 18cm x 8cm (7″ x 3-1/4″)
Directions
With the wrong side toward you fold in about 1.3cm (1/2″) on the right side of each sheet. (Above left )
Fold down about 4cm (1-1/2″) from top. This will form a cuff around the bag. If you need a taller bag, fold down only enough to reinforce the handles. (Photo above right)
Trim off the “tabs” on the cuff part of the bag. Ok! I know! I said no cutting and to be honest this is not strictly necessary, it just gets rid of a bit of bulk. I don’t know about you but I could stand to lose a bit bulk myself. (See photo above left)
At this point I like to glue down the ‘cuffs’, I think it looks neater and makes it easier to fold in the sides in the up coming step. I did not do it at this point in these photos but, I did do it before I made the side folds.
Apply Tear & Tape along the “tabs”. Glue the tab of one paper to the smooth side of the other paper. Fold in the other tab and repeat on the other side. (Photo above right)
It’s time to glue our two pieces of paper together; they will more or less form a tube. I like to make the first seam with the paper folded out. As you can see in the photo above center I am matching the tab of one page to the edge without the tab on the other page.
Now we will form the bottom of the bag. Fold up about 8.5cm (3-1/4″). How much you fold up will determine the width of the bottom of your bag. It you want a skinny bag fold less, for a wider, fatter bag fold more. 8.5cm produces a nice symmetrical bag and will stand well on its own. Use your bone folder to put a strong crease in this fold. (Photo above left)
Next we are going to valley fold by opening up the bag and pressing the scored line from the side along the score line from the crease you just created. Do this on both sides and use the bone folder to reinforce the folds.
Fold the bottom point up so that it crosses the mid-line. Fold the top point down to where it crosses the mid-line. Use the bone folder to crease each of these new folds.
Place Tear & Tape as shown in the photo above. If you need extra reinforcement for a heavier object you can put the Tear & Tape down the side of each triangle as well.
Turn the bag side ways and fold the side inwards toward the center, matching the angle at the bottom to its counterpart on the bottom of the bag. Use your bone folder to reinforce the crease. Now flip the bag over and fold the other way, reinforce the crease. Repeat on the other side. (See photo above far right)
Unfold the bottom of the bag. Open it up and shape your bag. At this point you are going to reverse the original side folds, pushing them to the inside. Do it gently with your fingers first and then use the bone folder to neaten up the side creases. (Photo left)
The last step is attaching the ribbon handles. For this example I used a 1/4″ hole punch and made two holes on each side of the top to attach the ribbon handles. For a bag this size I think about 45.5cm (18″) of ribbon looks nice. Of course you can go longer or shorter or as in one of my samples I skipped the handles all together and made a simple ‘belt style’ closure.
The tag was made using the tag die cut from the Something Fancy dies. The stamped image is from The Joy of Noel photopolymer stamp set. The image was colored with Water Color pencils in Garden Green, Old Olive, Real Red and Cherry Cobbler. For blending I used the Stampin Blends Color Lifter.
Thank you for joining me in this tutorial. If you make one of these fun gift bags post a picture in the comments or tag me on social media @loriothen or @stapinology
Product List
