Christmas Gift Bags

I was recently asked to make 12 decorated gift bags for Christmas gifts.  I've never decorated bags before, not even for myself, so this seemed like a good challenge.  I was given free reign - they could all be the same or all different, no boundaries at all which made it extra fun!

I came up with the theme "Jingle All the Way" because I had some cute little bells from a previous project and I thought it would be fun to use them.  I originally planned to use some patterned paper featuring music notes and wasn't able to find it the day I went shopping.  However, I did come across paper that said "jingle bells" and I was set!

I used my pinking blade on one edge of the paper for a fun look, and used a friend's scalloped cutter for another edge.  Those papers became the base of the decoration.

Next I decided to make music note chipboard accents to hang from ribbon.  I hoped to find a pattern on a Cricut cartridge but that didn't happen, so I opened a word document and selected "insert clipart" and searched for music notes.  Wow!  Found them!  I was very excited!  I printed them out, cut out the pattern, traced them onto chipboard and cut out my embellishments.  Next I painted them black; I painted both sides just in case someone wanted to take them off and use them for something else.

My last step was to find a ribbon that I liked.  I had something picked out ahead of time but when I tied it on the bag I didn't like how it looked.  One of my friends (I was scrapbooking with a group of friends) had some red, green and plain rafia and when I put several strands together I got the look I was hoping for.

The bags turned out cute and they make a fun jingling sound when you move them.  It was a fun project and nice to cross something off my "to do" list.