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Wednesday 23 November 2011

Handmade Christmas "shopper" Gift Bag

For my sons Christmas I have bought a pack of plastic food with a little shopping trolley. It will go with his toy kitchen that he plays with all the time. I've been thinking about how best to wrap it. If I open the box and split it up then there are more parcels for him to open. Watching him open the parcels is definitely the best part. So I made this little brown paper shopping bag, using a roll of plain brown paper, and then he can use it to play with too.


I think it looks great and I plan to make another one so I'll take some step by step photos and post them later.

  • Firstly, I cut the roll of paper 82 cm long, that makes 25 cm for the width, 15 cm for the depth and 2 cm for gluing.
  • Measure and fold lines at 15cm, 40cm and 55cm. This gives you two sections which are 15cm wide and one which is 25cm wide. (You shouldn't need to score the fold lines as the paper folds easily anyway, I used the edge of the ruler to make a good crease.)
  • Fold both the sections which are 15cm wide in half. These sections are the depth and these extra folds will allow the bag to close flat.
  • To fold the final edge it is best to 'assemble' the bag and you will see clearly where the fold should be.
  • Start with the longest section flat on the table and work outward from both sides, fold the next two edges inward and the the next two outward.
  • Fold the final section inward .
  • Your final section should be slightly longer so now the final fold can be made to tuck round and finish it off neatly and evenly.
  • Open the bag out flat and make a fold along the long edge (the bottom) at 17cm.
  • Lay out flat again. At the two wide sections we're going to make some folds at 45 degree angles. To do this take the crease at the edge of the wide section and align it with the crease which crosses through it, folding in towards the centre of the wide section.
  • We now have all the folds we need.
  • Glue the thin 2cm flap to make the basic bag shape.
  • Glue all the small triangle sections and stick them down to give that 45 degree angle. These are the flaps which will form the bottom of the bag.
  • Glue them and fold them to the centre.
  • Reinforce the bottom of the bag with a piece of an old cereal box.
  • I made the bag sit flat by aligning the side edge to the bottom and pushing the bottom up.
  • Trim the top so it's the desired height
  • stamp and decorate.
I think he will really love it and I'm quite pleased myself. 

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