It just so happened that I needed a larger gift bag and couldn’t find one in my stash of bags in the closet. They are mostly Christmas bags. Luckily, I found this gift bag from a fabulous bakery, but of course, it has the bakery’s name on the front of the bag and the back. I decided to use the bag but decorate over the bakery name and this Altered Gift Bag with Masterfully Made DSP is what came of that project!
The colors on the bag were already interesting. When I started comparing our Stampin’ Up! cardstock, the colors on the bag came very close to Berry Burst and even pretty close to Coastal Cabana. And this bag is at least several years old so they were ahead of the Stampin’ Up! trend!
I played around with some different ideas and originally thought about using the Cheerful Daisies one way or another, but I ended up using the Masterfully Made Designer Series Paper which is extremely colorful but seemed to go along with this bag. I cut a wide enough strip of this roses pattern to cover the bakery name and take up some space on the front. The paper is still 12″ wide so you can get an idea of how much wider the shopping bag is. Then I added narrow strips of the green torn paper pattern in the Masterfully Made DSP to the top and bottom of the strip. I had a few scraps of the rose paper so I cut out the roses as best I could out of the scraps using my Paper Snips and decided to place them on the bag as if they are cascading down.
This isn’t my favorite bag I have ever decorated, but I think it turned out okay and I decided to not get too perfectionistic about it because who knows what will happen to a gift bag after the gift is opened. I really love to decorate and personalize shopping bags I get at certain stores, usually requiring the business name to be covered up, which is pretty simple. This bag being larger and having these two colors on it made it a little more challenging. You can even purchase place kraft or white shopping bags at craft stores or online to have some handy for when you want to make your own creation to go with the gift and occasion.
The back side of the bag also had the bakery name so I just chose a piece of the Bright & Beautiful 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper to cover the name. It also has the Berry Burst color in it. Here is a photo of the back of the bag.
At least I have a large enough gift bag to use and decorated with some interesting designer paper! I usually save those handled bags when I get them because I know I can turn them into a gift bag and not have to run to the store at the last minute. Here is one example from a few years ago of a bag I turned into a Christmas gift bag.
Look through your bags and see if you have something you can alter and make into a nice gift bag! It’s really a fun project and oh so handy! You will be glad you did!