I’d say that this paper lunch bag never looked so good!

I love the ‘rustic’ colors in the ‘Deck the Halls’ designer series paper and have used them in the color scheme of this easy ‘paper bag’ gift bag.

I have included a short photo step-by-step of how this bag was made (click images for larger view):

1. Cut the paper down to 5 3/4 inches high.  Line the back of the paper bag with a  5 inch by 8 inch piece of Artichoke cardstock, scored at 6 inches
2. Line the front of the bag with a 6 x 5 inch piece of Artichoke cardstock
3. Adhere a 4 3/4 x 5 3/4 piece of designer paper to the front artichoke panel and punch half a jumbo circle
4. Adhere a 5 3/4 and 2 1/4 piece of designer paper to the top panel and wind a 20 inch piece of hemp around the top and tie a knot
5. Adhere the central image as shown.  Use Sticky Strip to adhere it, since it will take some abuse (opening and closing).  If you want the bag to stay shut, you can use Velcro dots.

Central Image:  I didn’t want the focal image to be too ‘white’ but I did need Santa to stand out.

• Stamp the image on both Vanilla and on Crumb Cake.
• Trim the Crumb Cake image around the holly (leaving at least 1/8th inch).
• On the Vanilla image, color and cut out Santa and the reindeer.  Ahere Santa to the Crumb Cake image right over the other Santa, adhere the reindeer with Dimensionals.
• Extra step:  I stamped an additional Santa on Vanilla and cut out only the head (down to and including the mustache) and adhere it with Dimensionals.

Enjoy the gift bag idea!