Christmas All Year Long – Making Gift Bags & Gift Tags

All the decorations are put away but for me Christmas is just beginning, once again.  I work on Christmas all year long.  The biggest reason is to spread out the expense and to take advantage of sales as they come my way.  I also like to be prepared so I am not overwhelmed with tasks when December arrives, which it does, all too soon.Every January I take all the Christmas cards I received and re-use them to decorate paper bags to make my Christmas gift bags.

For this project you will need: 

·                     Old Christmas cards

·                     Glue

·                     Scissors

·                     Paper hole punch

·                     Black, red and/or green felt tip marker

·                     Brown and/or white lunch bags

·                     Tissue paper

·                     Curling ribbon

·                     Christmas stamps and ink (optional) 

Cut the backs off the cards.  Glue the card fronts to the front of the bag above the fold.  The bag seam should be in the back.  Fold the top edge over about 1½”.  Punch two holes, evenly spaced about ¾” down from the fold and at least 1 ½” in from the sides.  When you use the bag you will loop curling ribbon through these holes to tie the bag closed.

Pair the bag with a sheet or two of coordinating tissue paper.  Then make another one.

You can stamp the front and back of the bag prior to gluing on the card front to further dress it up if you like. 

Use other card fronts to cut smaller into gift tags.  On the back of the card write TO: and then FROM: leaving it blank until you are ready to use it.  You can punch a hole in the upper corner and loop a piece of curling ribbon through it too if you like to further dress it up.  Make several of these. 

You can make the gift tags more three dimensional too by layering them with colored paper, foil, or gift wrap and gluing the layers on top of white card stock cut to size.