Find out how quick it is to make this Easy Botanical Gardens Gift Bag! The other day after I made twenty-five treat bags with the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies, I needed something to carry them in, and I wanted it to be decorative.  After all, presentation is everything, right?! So I grabbed a small kraft bag in my bag of bags and found this one. It already had printing on it from the store where I had gotten it from, so I cut a piece of Botanical Gardens Designer Series Paper wide enough to cover all that. To set it off a little bit, I cut strips of Hello Honey Cardstock, one of the coordinating colors that goes with this designer paper. I adhered one to the top of the designer paper and one strip to the bottom, then adhered the whole piece to the front of the bag. I looked in my pile of stray pieces that were already die cut, punched or stamped, and found this one die cut flower and some leaves from the Botanical Builder Framelits Dies and added an Iced Rhinestone Embellishment to the center of the flower. Done and very cute! If I wanted to, I could have added lots more flowers and embellishments to the bag, but for this purpose, this was fine.

Just grab a shopping bag of any size you have in your house and decorate with designer paper or card stock and embellishments!  Custom gift bag almost for free!  No special trip to the store to buy a gift bag! If you have this paper, try this Easy Botanical Gardens Gift Bag.

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If you need a quick gift bag for Mother’s Day or any occasion, it’s easy to make one with the Stampin’ Up! Gift Bag Punch Board or you can follow some directions online to make a bag. This gift bag is made with the pretty Birthday Bouquet Designer Series Paper.  I actually intended to use the side that is on the inside of the bag, but I didn’t think about which way the pattern was going when I used the Punch Board, so the hearts would have been upside down! When you are using the Gift Bag Punch Board, remember that what you are punching and scoring at the top of the board is actually going to be the bottom of your bag.  Make sure you check your paper pattern and make sure it is going in the correct direction! However, the pattern on the other side of almost any Stampin’ Up! paper is also going to be pretty and coordinating with what you are making so it worked out just fine to use this polka dot pattern for my gift bag!

I found a scrap of designer paper that was from a boo-boo awhile back, and really all that I could use it for would be cutting out the flowers by hand.  Depending on how much you like or hate to cut things out, you might prefer to stamp a flower rather than cut one out! But this worked for me.  I love these flowers on this paper so I just cut out around the flower and all its parts and didn’t worry about perfection.  If you leave a little border then perfection in cutting doesn’t matter! Having Paper Snips really does make the job of cutting things out a lot easier.

To make the snipped flower stand out on the bag, I punched a 2 1/2″ circle of Blushing Bride cardstock, then thought of putting a Tea Lace Paper Doily behind it. I had some doilies already cut in half so I decided that would be better. Then I added some White Jute Ribbon and a scrap of Venetian Crochet Trim. Since I had a scrap of Watermelon Wonder 1″ Stitched Ribbon that was already tied in a knot, I just put the ends through to the back and had that little pop of color in the front holding the bag shut.

I like the Gift Bag Punch Board for making small to medium size gift bags. It comes in handy sometimes!  If you take an afternoon and make a bunch at one time, you can have a supply of gift bags of all kinds on hand ready for when you need them! Almost any of the designer paper by Stampin’ Up! is pretty enough for gift bags, but I really like this Birthday Bouquet Paper for this Mother’s Day Gift Bag!