DIY Wrapping Paper Gift Bag

Because sometimes you just need a small gift bag...

I needed to wrap a t-shirt that I made as a gift.  So, I made a gift bag using wrapping paper, freezer paper, tape and ribbon.  It was easy to make and cute.  Here is what I did: I found a box about the size of bag that I needed.  For this bag, I used a brownie mix box. 

I measured (eye balled) approximately how much wrapping paper it would take to wrap the box and then I doubled it.  I folded the wrapping paper in half with right sides out.  Then I got some freezer paper and measured (eye-balled) out enough to cover the now folded wrapping paper.  Insert the freezer paper in between the folded wrapping paper right up to the folded crease. 

Now you are going to iron the wrapping paper and freezer paper together.  This will make your gift bag a little bit sturdier.  It doesn't matter what side you iron, but what does matter is that you do it QUICKLY.  Now you will have one side of the wrapping paper ironed onto the shiny side of the freezer paper. 

Fold a 1 1/2 inch flap at the crease...

remeasure your paper using the box...

and trim.  Save the trimmed part to make a gift tag...more on that at the end.

Fold the edge of paper to make a nice edge, 

wrap paper around the box snugly,

 and slightly score the corners of the box onto the paper like so.

Now tape the folded edge to the wrapping paper...DO NOT TAPE TO BOX.

Carefully push/move box down a little toward the bottom of the bag.  

Tape the bottom like you would a regular gift.  Again, DO NOT TAPE TO THE BOX. Pull box out...

and now you have this:

I used a hole puncher (1 inch in diameter) to make the holes for the sides.  I taped the upper part of the hole to make it sturdier...

and added a ribbon and a gift tag.  The gift tag was cut from the piece of trim I cut-off . If you are going to do this, just use the piece  of wrapping paper that has the freezer paper ironed on to it.  Now you can write on the back of the tag and tape it to the ribbon.

And that's it.  A simple, cute and very unique bag that is just right to hold the perfect gift.  In this case the t-shirt I  made for a friend's son.

You will never see another box the same way again...well, at least I don't.  In my head, all boxes are fair game to be used as templates for gift bags. :)

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