How to make a gift bag with your own hands?

Nothing enhances the status of a gift like beautiful packaging. However, for small presentations, a pretty package is often enough. The material in this article will tell you how to make such a package with your own hands.

Despite the fact that different raw materials are used in manufacturing for the manufacture of gift bags, at home it is more advisable to take something that keeps its shape well. This means that neither cellophane, nor fabric, nor foil paper are suitable - you will have to rely on paper. At the same time, it can be very diverse, it can be useful in work:

• sheets of A4 or A3 paper;
• scrapbooking or origami paper;
• standard width paper wallpapers;
• napkins for decoupage.

Foil paper often does not lend itself to gluing, in addition, it does not hold its shape, and therefore the bag from it will not look beautiful, despite the shine of the material. Wallpaper often allows you to create one of the most interesting types of gift bags: they are durable, strong, beautiful and often stylish, because today paper wallpapers are presented in the widest range, they can be children's, fabulous. Among the drawings there are prints on the theme of Paris, England, graffiti.

Gift bags made of craft paper look gorgeous. In addition, you can make special paper yourself by choosing the design you like, downloading it and printing it on a color printer. Using the approximate technology, you can also make paper for newspaper design. Unlike a regular newspaper, it will keep its shape, differing in the strength of the finished product.

If napkins are taken as the basis for decorative paper, then before starting to fold the gift bag, it is necessary to separate the decorative layer of the napkin and, after going over the entire area of ​​an ordinary sheet with pencil glue, glue it. Wherein it is important to carefully glue the napkin, initially preventing the formation of air bubbles. After the napkin is glued, you need to give the paper some time to take shape, so that it does not warp in the future.

Depending on what kind of gift package you want to make, you may need at work:

• glue stick (PVA or even "Titanium");
• ruler and pencil;
• hole punch and scissors;
• clothesline or satin ribbon;
• small greeting card;
• cardboard or cardboard wrapper;
• decor elements (about the same as for scrapbooking).

In addition, a hot glue gun can come in handy. As for the decor elements, when making a gift bag, you can use various cut flowers, geometric figures, confetti, small crocheted flowers, large sequins in the form of shells, leaves, flowers, and other decorative motifs.

Making a gift bag with your own hands is not difficult. After all the items necessary for the work have been prepared, you can proceed to its implementation. You can use an example scheme.

• Decorative paper is placed in front of you with the pattern down.
• Approximately 1-1.2 cm recede from the left edge and this allowance is folded.
• Auxiliary paper is placed inside under it, which will not allow excess glue to enter unnecessary places.
• The allowance is glued with glue, after which the paper is covered on the second side, glued, forming a paper tube. Remove the release paper after gluing.
• The resulting paper tube is folded in half. In this case, one side edge will be located strictly along the glue allowance, and the second - opposite it.
• Determined with the width of the bag, for which to the right of the glued allowance, measure 3-4 cm and bend the paper tube at this mark.
• Pressing the new side face and holding the workpiece on the surface of the work table, hold the hand to the side to the right, thereby defining the fourth face. All lines bend clearly. At this stage, the workpiece looks like a box without top and bottom.
• An allowance for the handles is made from above, bending the upper edge about 3 cm.To place it inside the bag, the allowance is folded back and wrapped inward.
• After turning out the allowance for the handles, you must once again go over the top of the side edges with your fingernail to get a clear edge on the top.
• To make the bag look exactly like a store counterpart, the width of the side edges is halved and folded inward. At this stage, the bag has a top and sides folded inward.
• They begin to design the bottom, the width of which is about the same as the width of the side faces at the beginning. The allowance is wrapped over itself, clearly pressing with a fingernail.
• The bottom allowance is folded back, folded back to obtain a clear line. Next, the corners are folded up, combining the former side with the bent bottom line.
• The entire structure is unfolded, folded inward, first the sides of the bottom, forming trapezoids on the sides of the package, then one of the sides.
• Its central part is glued and glued to the second part of the bottom. It is important that the width of the bottom and sides coincide, all excess will have to be cut off.
• At this stage, the bottom and the attachment points of the handles are strengthened using ordinary cardboard.To do this, cut out rectangular strips: one must correspond to the bottom, the other two fit under the upper allowances.
• The cardboard bottom is glued, after which the lateral allowance is again sent inward, and the bottom itself is folded into either side of the package from the outside.
• Glue cardboard under the handles. The allowance must not grab the sides of the workpiece.
• Take a hole punch and use it to pierce the holes for the ropes. After that, the ropes are cut to the required length, their edges are scorched, threaded through holes and tied with knots on all four sides.

In addition to the basic scheme of folding a paper bag for wrapping a gift, there are many variations in its design. For example, the same ropes can be replaced with satin ribbons. If you don't want to mess with the top due to the lack of a hole punch, you can simply fold the upper edge of the packaging bag with an accordion after the present itself is placed in it. Other origami schemes allow you to create gift boxes, others provide for gluing decorative pockets.

You can come up with various decorative elements that will be a kind of bag locks. In addition, if you wish, you can even print out a scan of the gift bag and fold it. Typically, such designs are intuitively easy to assemble. Often this requires gluing the side edges and assembling the bottom. The top can be fixed with narrow satin ribbons, decorative buttons. In addition, it can be openwork, which is performed using a figured hole punch.

The bags themselves may not only resemble standard packaging designs - their shape can be played up in the form of funny animals, butterflies, handbags or umbrellas. For greater similarity, such products are often stitched on a sewing machine, thereby imitating textile seams. Other products resemble cone-shaped grocery bags.

How to make a gift bag with your own hands, see below.