Making gift bags at Craft Hack

Showing my Craft Hack group how to make gift bags last month was a lot of fun! It turned out to be a collaborative experience (which I love!) with crafters coming up with their own techniques and helping each other out. A few even brought supplies to supplement what I had.

We started with regular paper lunch bags and used paper crafting techniques to make them gift worthy!

I always love the simplicity and down-to-earth look of brown paper. (I’ve even incorporated the look into my Bold Avenue branding.) It can be such a great backdrop to highlight colorful elements. But I’ve been on even more of a brown paper bag craft kick lately with this and the paper sack travel journals and a few other projects I’ve been wanting to make but haven’t squeezed in yet.

In addition to the classic brown lunch sacks, I brought red paper bags that I had picked up at Target. (If I remember correctly, they also sell blue, white, black, and maybe green ones, but it might depend on the time of year.) Red is such a great color for so many holidays – it can work with an autumn palette or go Christmasy.

I love how everyone drew inspiration from the tools and materials – deciding to stencil leaves, incorporate gold paper for a more festive look, cut out patterns from scrapbook paper, or create a collage.

I hope whatever gifts they place inside these bags will be a little more special because of the heart they put into the wrapping.

Top photo by Anne Watson Barber.