Gift bags are a great quick and easy alternative to wrapping a gift. There’s nothing worse that realising you don’t have enough wrapping paper, or the sellotape has disappeared. Again. Gift bags require neither. The only challenge is putting my hands on a bag that suits the occasion. So now I’ve solved that problem by buying a pack of 8″ x 10″ strong brown bags with handles. Then all I have to do is add a tag, or decorate the bag front as I’ve done today.

BIG BAG PANEL

I began by creating the big decorative background panel for the front of my bag. For this I chose a striking pattern from the Brightly Gleaming 12″ x 12″ Specialty Designer Series Paper (DSP). For this 8″ x 10″ bag I cut the DSP to 4-7/8″ x 5-7/8″. Next I cut a 5″ x 6″ piece of Pretty Peacock Card. Finally using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I fixed the DSP to the card, before attaching it to the bag front.

For my sentiment I chose the beautifully scripted “Thanks” from the Good Morning Magnolia Stamp Set. Using Pretty Peacock ink I stamped the sentiment onto Thick Very Vanilla Card. Then I cut it out using the #2 plain-edged die from the Layering Ovals Dies (counting from the smallest up).

To coordinate with the large panel I used the #3 plain-edged die from the Layering Ovals to cut out some Pretty Peacock Card. Then I mounted the sentiment onto the Pretty Peacock layer with liquid glue before adding it to the panel with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

MAGNOLIA

All I had left to do was create the magnolia focal point using the large image from the Good Morning Magnolia Stamp Set.

First I stamped the image onto some Thick Very Vanilla Card using Basic Gray ink. Then I cut it out using the coordinating die from the Magnolia Memory Dies. With that done I set to work colouring the image using Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers.

I began by colouring the whole of each petal with the light Flirty Flamingo Stampin’ Blends. Then with the dark Flirty Flamingo I added some darker colour around the edges of the petals. Once that was done I went over each petal again with the light Flirty Flamingo. Next I added some light Rococo Rose at the bottom of each petal and blended that out with the light Flirty Flamingo too. Finally I used the dark Rococo Rose to add some deep shading right at the base of each petal.

With the petals done I turned to the leaves. I began by colouring each leaf with a light Old Olive Stampin’ Blends. Then I went over the veins and some of the shaded areas with the dark Old Olive. After blending this out with light Old Olive I added more shading with light Mossy Meadow. Finally I used the dark Mossy Meadow to add deeper shadows close to the petals and to colour the stem.

For the centre of the magnolia I simply used the dark Mango Melody Stampin’ Blends marker.

All I had left to do was attach the finished flower to the bag front with Stampin’ Dimensionals and I was done.

I bought my 8″ x 10″ brown bags from Walmart at a very reasonable price. Now with a little papercrafting creativity I’ll always have the perfect gift packaging.

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