25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Series: Day 24

Last Minute Gift Bags from Re-cycled Shopping Bags

Do you need a gift bag in a pinch?!!  Did you miss calculate how many bags you would need and came up short?  Do you really want to recycle an old gift bag, but think it's too ugly to put that well thought out gift into for that someone special??  We all have piles of these.....

If you don't have a pile of these, start keeping them for next year.

Are you in a pinch and need a nice gift bag?  Well.....you come to the right place.  I am going to show you how to throw together a quick solution by recycling the shopping bags from the gifts that you bought.  Here's how....

Gather up your shopping bags, leftover wrapping paper, decorative papers and old greeting cards.  Like the ones we talked about yesterday in my blog post Very Last Minute Gift Tags From Recycled Holiday Cards.  Grab a glue stick, maybe some rubber cement and a pair of scissors.  I also used my hot glue gun.  We are going to transform those ugly shopping bags into something pretty and usable! 

Here we go....

I covered the logo with a glittery piece of white paper and topped it off with the front of
an old Christmas card that I had in my stash. 

I don't shop at Bloomies. Can't remember why
I have this.  But it is a great brown paper bag.

Covered the Bloomies logo with a piece of
red paper, added the front of an old
Christmas card and cut little strips of burlap
for the frame.  Added a little piece of burlap tied
off for the bow.

Just bought killer eyeshadow for myself.

Simply cut out this little piece of paper with my pinking shears
 from a flyer I got in the mail. 

Had to buy the Peppermint Bark!!  The holidays aren't the same for us
without it!

Larger bags are better suited using decorative paper or wrapping paper.

Something yummy came home from this
delish restaurant here in town.

A piece of glittery black paper, followed by
another black and white patterned paper.
Then topped off with a matching gift tag made
from cutting out a motif from a corresponding
page.  Add an elegant bow.

Don't shop here either.  I call this place
"Needless Mark up."  But hubby bought
a Prindables Apple for his assistant and
I gobbled up the awesome bag!

The base is a piece from the back of a card, added
a cutting from the inside of another card and got
lucky with this neat glittery dove that was on
the front of yet another card.  Added the red ribbon
to tie into the red typeface on the message.

Wine bag I had on hand.  Ugly. Needs
help. Besides, I don't want to give
wine in this to anyone!

I know you guys haven't had enough of this
decorative advent paper.  But had to use it
because it changes the entire look of this bag. 
Now I can put something other than wine in the bag.

Hubby bought something at a golf event.

Piece of burlap topped with the front of a card.  The ribbon was added to hide
a few surface tears in the bag!!

From a collectibles mall near my house. I do shop here. (wink)

Simply glued down a piece of wrapping paper and added a note card
made from some of that decorative advent paper.  Topped off with a
nice bow.

Hope this gives you some ideas.  You don't have to buy bags to create a pretty place to put your gifts.  Just save the ones you have and spruce them up a little bit.  Both people and the environment will thank you.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for my
Day 25...Last Day!
of

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Ideas and Gifts Series!!

-The End-