Gift bags

Today I wanted to share a folded gift bag with you that does not require any cutting making it a really quick and easy project to have a go at.   

Once created the bag would make a super place name for a special meal with a little table gift inside and the recipients name on the outside.  It would also make a great party bag, a favour bag for a wedding, a trick or treat bag, an advent calender (if you make 24 of them - but they are quick to make - honestly!) or just a simple little gift bag of course to add a little homemade style for your Christmas pressies this year. 

Here are the basic folds for the bag which you can then decorate as you wish;

Take a piece of thick 12 x 12 double sided paper.  Fold the sheet of paper in half - REMEMBER TO CUT OFF THE TITLE HEADER IF YOU HAVE ONE ON YOUR PIECE OF PAPER. 

Open the paper out and score 2 lines approximately 1" (2.5cm) either side of the middle crease. 

Once you have the 3 score lines - push the middle score line up to create a 'v' shape (sometimes called a mountain fold) - SEE THE PICTURE ABOVE AND BELOW

Keeping the folded edges close to you - Lay the folded paper on the table and bring the 2 outside edges so that they meet in the middle - SEE PICTURE ABOVE AND BELOW. Give the folded lines a good press down to make sure that they are as crisp as you can get them.

Open out the sheet of paper.  You will notice that parallel to 2 of the sides are 2 creases which change direction along the line (these are the 2 creases that you have just created).  Fold these so that the crease now runs the same way all the way along the crease line SEE PICTURE BELOW.

Open the paper out again and this time turn it over.  In every corner of the sheet of paper is a long crease and a short crease that meet each other if you follow the lines.  Pinch these lines and bring them together as shown below.  This will start to shape the bag.

Once you have pinched the long and short edge and brought them together (keeping the edges of the bag neat and together) fold the loop that forms on the back of the join (inside the bag) flat. SEE BELOW.

Repeat this for all 4 corners and you will have something that looks like the picture below.

Taking one corner at a time.  Place double sided tape on the small triangle area. Join the sides of the bag together as before so that the corner is now stuck.

 

Repeat for all 4 corners.  This will leave you with 4 flaps inside the bag as can be seen in the picture below.  Take double sided tape and stick these so that they are flat to the longest sides of the bag.

Finally flatten the bag to create the 'v' shape that you would find on the sides of a shop bought bag.

And there you have your bag ready to decorate however you want to.

I hope that you have found this little tutorial interesting - have fun and let me know if you need any more help!