Monday, July 23, 2012

snips & snails gift bag…

Good morning!  I have a fun little gift project up on the Doodlebug Blog today – a little gift bag.

baby_gift1

I’ve made this type of gift bag/box a LOT lately – I love how easy they are to put together.

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I’ve had a lot of people ask me about it – wondering if it’s a die-cut if I have a template…the answer is no…but they are really easy to make.  So, here’s a (very long) photo tutorial for making this little gift bag – followed by a photo tutorial for making the little star embellishments.

To make the bag:

1.  Trim the tab off of a full 12x12 piece of patterned paper.

bag1

2.  Score two lines, one at 3” and one at 9”

bag2

Now, fold on the score lines.  Be sure to make nice crisp folds.

bag3

Now, go back to your score board and place your paper with the long edge at the top.  Score at 5” and 7”.

bag4

Again, fold with nice crisp folds.

bag5

Now you’ll have to make four folds without the score board.  It’s probably easier to look at the photo than to try to explain this fold.  Start with one of the intersections that you just folded - Fold the paper back toward you at an angle – the left side needs to fold down so it’s straight… check out the next 3 photos.

bag6bag7bag8

Hopefully that makes sense.  Repeat for all four sides.

bag9

I like to pinch the straight sides of the box so they will fold in a bit.  Now when you look at your box from the top you will see this:bag10

If you want to secure the edges, you can add a bit of adhesive, but it’s not necessary…it will hold it’s shape when the topper is attached.

bag11

For the stars:

Punch 3 stars from patterned paper.  You could also use star die-cuts, or cut them by hand, but the sides need to be equal for this technique to work.

stars1

I shared a tutorial for created HUGE stars (here) for a 4th of July star garland a few weeks ago.  This is the exact same technique, just on a much smaller scale.  Score from the tip of each point to the valley (so each star will have five score lines going across and intersecting the center).  Be sure to score the BACK of the stars.

stars2

Now fold along the score lines using an “accordion” fold.  The points will have the “hill” folds and the valleys will have the “valley” folds.

stars3

Repeat for all 3 stars:

stars4

Now stack up some foam adhesive squares and attach them to the back/center of each star.

stars5

Now we’re ready to create the topper:

You have two options for the topper – trim a 12x12 paper down to 6x6, or use a 6x6 from the mini paper pads.

topper1

I forgot to take a photo – but now you need to score the topper right down the middle – at 3".

Add a border sticker along the bottom.

topper2

Now place the 3 stars you made earlier.

topper3

Punch two holes in the top of the topper – topper4

I usually sit it on the gift bag and punch through all the layers at once.

topper5

Now add brads through the holes to attach everything together. 

baby_gift2

Add a gift tag too!

baby_gift4

See how easy?  And once you’ve done it once, you’ll get the hang of it and you’ll be making these over and over and over.  They are perfect for little treats or even gift cards! 

Let me know if you have any questions! :)

supplies2

48 comments:

  1. Wonderful treat box. love the paper and the stars.

    Luanne

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  2. Such a cute project! A gift they'd want to open for sure.

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  3. Love the idea of a gift box and the stars make it so cute.

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  4. always looking for cute packaging and this is adorable, love it!!

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  5. Thanks for the tutorial, really cute treat box! And I love the 3D stars.

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  6. Love your project and great instructions!

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  7. Very cute! Thanks for the wonderful tutorial on the packaging and the stars!

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  8. What a terrific idea and I sooooo love the stars - I need to make some of these for my grandson's birthday card!!

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  9. What a great idea and so darn cute. Love this for any type of small gift for any holiday. Your tutorial is so good. Can't wait to try this. Thanks

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  10. This is adorable! Love the colors and the stars!!

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  11. LOVE this! Thank you so much for the instructions too! I need all the help I can get! Definitely going to give this one a try! :-) x

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  12. I've never thought of making stars stick up. You are a genius!

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  13. What a lovely card, those large stars are brilliant. This has such clean lines - love it

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  14. Thanks for the great instructions.

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  15. This is such a great treat box! Thanks so much for sharing the tutorial! Love the stars!!

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  16. Beautiful project--love the papers and the star embellishments. Such a useful container for all sorts of little gifts.

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  17. So adorable! I am now a follower!

    Carol B
    ciaoitalia2007(at)gmail(dot)com

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  18. This is adorable and I love the stars!

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  19. Fabulous tutorial! You make it look so easy. I will be giving this a try very soon. Thanks so much for sharing this!
    Hugs

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  20. Such a great gift bag...love the tutorial.

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  21. This is so pretty. I love making gift bags. The scoring would make it so much easier. Thanks so much for the inspiration.

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  22. Cute projects. I love the stars! I am a follower now.

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  23. I just love those stars.....now a fan!

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  24. Super sweet and cute! Thanks for showing step by step how you made your elements!

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  25. Wow! Thanks for some amazing instructions on how to make your cute bag!

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  26. I love this bag! I'm going to need to book mark your tutorial until I've done it several times. It takes me awhile :-D
    Thanks for the tutorial

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  27. Cute bag! Thanks so much for the tutorial - love the dimensional stars!

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  28. Love the gift bag and those cute 3-D stars! Great pairing of Doodlebug's fabulous papers and Scor-Pal to make this! Thanks for the tutorial!
    DeniseB

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  30. Adorable little bag and thanks for the tips on how to make those stars!

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  31. Great little project when you need to wrap something and have no paper!! Love it!!
    Thanks!!

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  32. Super cute ! Thank you for the instructions for the stars ....too cool !

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  33. Thanks for the tutorial on the stars. I wondered how you made them!

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  34. I came to your blog to start following you from doodlebug and the scor pal. I met you at doodlebug on National Scrapbook day. I love seeing things that you have made so it will be fun to follow your blog!

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  35. Wonderful project and tutorial. Love the 3D stars.

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  36. Love the little gift bag and stars! Was sent from ScorPal!

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  37. Really cute, thanks for the instructions!

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  39. Oh my gosh! I am so happy I found this tutorial! I was blog hopping and struck gold with your beautiful blog! I have seen these stars on several sites and was wondering just how I could go about making them myself, And here they are! Thank you so much for your post, it's just what I needed! :)

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