Paper favour bags - Tutorial

I wanted to share these favour bags I made for my wedding in September 2007, I am so thrilled at how they turned out.

Made of regular A4 computer paper printed with a Photoshop brush and glued into shape. The tags are also created in Photoshop and the 'love' beads are rolled paper beads with the word printed on. All tied up with a piece of variegated purple cotton crochet yarn they looked pretty good. I popped in 4 large choc coated cake balls wrapped in purple cellophane and they held up really well.

I had a few of these to make so I made myself a sturdy little cardboard box frame out of an old chocolate box. Mine is 9cm wide x 18 cm high x 5.5 cm deep and it makes a nice wide little rectangular bag.

Print up your page and lay it right side down and pop your box on top. Note the thin black line at the top of the box? That's to line up the top of the paper so all the bottoms are the same and the bags are the same height. Crease the edges well.

Run a line of glue down the right side of the paper. Or use a glue stick but remember the paper only overlaps a few millimetres.

Fold the paper over and press to adhere the glue. Then align the paper to the line at the top.



It takes a little while for white glue to dry but glue sticks are nearly immediate. I made a few up to this point, pulled it off the box and moved on to the next while the glue dried. It can be tricky getting the paper to slide back on the box though when the glue has dried.

Tip the box on it's end and fold in the bottome like you would wrap a gift. Crease the paper well and add a few dobs of glue in the corners.

Fold the flaps over and secure with a little tape. Remove from the box frame

Cinch the sides and you're done!

If you are making a few you might like to fold them up for easy storage. Lay the bag down and continue to fold the sides.

Keep the sides folded in and press the bottom towards the back of the bag so there is no crease on your nice printed front.

Ta DA!

I bet these would make great gifts bags for Christmas gifts, and a nice way to present assenbly-line gifts too. Have fun!

Normal disclaimer: although the paper bags are obviously a universal design, please do not use my tutorial without my permission or copy my design style for profit. You know, crafty karma and all that.