While wandering around Michael's I came up with this idea, which I think is cute, and I wanted to share it with you. I used plain brown paper lunch bags, a hole punch, some scrap yarn and a marker. If you're artsy you could go a lot farther than I did with the bag decorating!
The first step is to stick your gift into the bag so you can determine the proper fold-over. Take the gift back out, true up the fold and then punch the holes in the top.
Bag with holes punched in the top and my tassel jig
The next step is to make your tassel. I used these directions to create my template. I used the cardboard from the divider in a case of wine. It took about 30 seconds to cut out the template freehand. Disregard the notch on the lower left, that was a mistake! Lay a long piece of yarn (long enough to thread through the holes in your bag and tie a nice bow) horizontally across the top of the template. It helps if you cut a little slit in each side of the cardboard and slip the long yarn into it. That helps hold the long yarn in place. Then you simply wrap your yarn around and around the template, crossing the notched part, until it's as thick as you want your tassel to be. Tie it at the top and through the notch and then cut the yarns at the bottom. Go to the link to see Nezumi's pictures, she does an excellent job of illustrating the process, which makes it a lot easier to understand.
Put your gift in your bag, fold over the top, lining up the holes and then thread the long yarn though the holes in the bag, tie a bow and viola! Decorate as you choose or simply add the recipient's name. In my case, all my gifts are knitted and I used the same yarn to make the tassels as I did to make the gifts. If you have no scrap yarn you can buy a skein very cheaply at Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Walmart or any place where they sell craft supplies. You don't need fabulous, expensive yarns for this project. Just get the cheapest yarn you can find in a color you like.
I think they're cute! It probably took less than 30 minutes for me to make all five of these.
I used the same process with the boxed gift, just slid it into the bag.
What do you think? Gift worthy? I'll be finishing my last gift at the eleventh hour in my hotel room tomorrow night, en route to Florida but I'll get it done!
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6 comments:
love it! very clever.
I like to use brown paper bags too or just paper bags. I go through all my Christmas cards and cut out the ones that are pretty and decorate the bags with them. There are some really pretty cards out there.
How about getting some kind of plain white paper (like white wrapping paper) and some markers. Have your kids draw pictures on the wrapping paper. Then, wrap your gift as usual. One really thrifty type I know goes to the newspaper office and gets excess newspaper end rolls for the kids to draw on for free. Comic strip pages would make great wrapping paper. You could use either one of these to create wrapping paper, too.
nice very interesting
I used to wrap gifts like this when I was in my 20s. I would either use a paper bag and staple a bow at the top or I would wrap gifts using the Sunday comics. It became a big joke around the family, so I finally had to start buying wrapping paper.
So cute, I love the idea of the kids decorating the bags as well!
I have always wanted someone to invent pretty tin foil wrappingpaper...just mush it over your gift and ta-dah...no tape, no problem, especially perfect for the guys - ha!!
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