Get creative – How to make a gift bag or box from old greeting cards
How to recycle and
re-use your old greeting card? Check out these gift bag tutorials by Tara !
Throughout the year,
we receive many greeting cards such as those for our birthday, right? Even
though nowadays most of people probably prefer sending digital cards or
birthday wishes on the internet, what is a birthday without a party and cards?
Anyway, if you’re
anything like me, you will have stacks of old greeting cards gathering
dust in the back of a cupboard or under your bed. And let’s face it, you are
never going to read them again so why not do something useful with them and
create a gift bag? Yes, a small wonderful gift bag that you can use to hold a
present.
What you need to
make this wonderful paper gift bag :
- Selection of old greetings cards
- Gift bag template
- Scissors
- Holepunch
- Cellotape/Stapler/Glue
- Ruler
- Ribbon/buttons (optional)
Decide on the theme of
you bag/box and discard any cards or sections of a card that can’t be used.
Then lets get started !
Making gift bag
tutorial 1
Print the gift
bag template out on A3 paper or larger depending on the size you want
your bag/box to be. If you want to make a box you will need all the tabs but
tabs H and G aren’t necessary for a gift bag. ( Pay attention to the letter
marking because we will recall them quite often in the tutorials. )
.
Making gift bag
tutorial 2
Study
the template, cut around it and lay on a flat surface. Make a note of the
measurements for each section and then use those measurements to cut out
accurate shapes from the cards. But make the side pieces (D) an extra 1cm wider
so you can fold them later on. Choose your cards ( colors and designs )
carefully, particularly for sections B, C and both D’s because these will be
visible once the bag/box is finished
Making gift bag
tutorial 3
Take both side pieces
(D) and fold them in half vertically. This will form the crease in the side of
the gift bag. Draw two lines at each end, forming a triangle. Use scissors to
score these lines to make the folding process easier.
.
Making gift bag
tutorial 4
Lay
all the card pieces face down and carefully begin to attach them together using
cellotape. Try not to overlap the pieces. Instead allow several layers of
cellotape to join the sides together. The flexibility of the cellotape will
allow all the pieces to fold easily
Making gift bag
tutorial 5
Once all sections are
joined the paper bag / box will begin to take shape. Put
Cellotable or glue on tab A and fold it over, attaching the sides together,
forming an open ended box. If you are making a box avoid gluing this end tab
because it forms the opening of the box; instead just close both ends instead
using tabs E, F, G and H.
Making gift bag
tutorial 6
Close the bottom (and
the top if you are making a box) using cellotape or glue. You now have your
gift bag. Fold the sides to make the bag a better shape.
.
Making gift bag
tutorial 7
For the handle, you
can use ribbon threaded through holes made with a hole puncher or attach the
ribbon with a stapler. I’ve added a decorative twist to the ribbon by plaiting
it.
.
Making gift bag
tutorial – last step
You can tidy up the
bag and hide any cellotape that might be visible by adding extra detail like
ribbon or buttons.
Tag – This part is the
easy bit. Find a card with something pretty on, cut out the section you want,
hole punch just one hole and make a loop using ribbon or string.
.
Tip : If you are
giving the present as birthday gift, you can use a birthday card / greeting as
the tag. Just attach the tag to the bag and then all you need is a present to
fill it. You can even buy the greeting without leaving the house – just
visit a site like Hallmark UK and get a personalised card to go with
your personalised bag!
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