From old gift bags to Christmas gift bags

It feels a whole lot like Christmas and I'm super hyped to start giving and receiving things! I remember my first ever try at gift wrapping and I was only less than five years old. I'd always get envious of people wrapping things so I tried it myself when no one was watching, then got rushed to the hospital from a blade cut! I got a few stitches, but that wasn't the end of my gift wrapping experiments. Good job little me! 

Eventually, I got the hang of wrapping and unwrapping. I even have a method of peeling off the wrappers without ruining it, just because those paper wrappers are pretty. To make a gift extra special though, putting your own stamp to it (literally!) is always a good idea. Hence, this recycling/upcycling gift wrappers post. 

I'm so attracted to brown paper kraft bags. Now more and more malls and stores give it away for purchases instead of plastic. Hooray! So here's what you can do with it.

Take out an old paper bag and some stamps!

I cut this out from an old, crumpy, larger paper bag then made a couple of leafy stamps to make a wreath. You can also purchase these stamps from Gourdo's. Using my Versacraft Pine and Spring Green ink pads gives the leaves a bit more life. 

Start out with the bigger leaf and find the center of your paper bag and mark it. From your mark, go up about half an inch and start stamping. The trick here is to stamp out the first four leaves as if you were creating 12, 3, 6, and 9 of a clock. Keep in mind to stamp always at half an inch from center. Once that's done, you can start stamping in between the leaves as many times as you'd like.  

Now stamp over it with your little leaf stamp in another hue. Make sure you cover the spaces between the bigger leaves. The intent is to overlap it to make it look more wreath-like. Does that make sense? 

Leaving enough space on big leaves for smaller leaves.

Thread a ribbon through the punches, add a gift tag, and you're all set to give these away for Christmas!

Don't let those old paper bags go to waste. Use them this Christmas and get crafty! If you've got your own ideas on upcycling old materials for something new, share them with me! Happy Christmas Crafts!