Embellished Brown Bags & Such

For this challenge no. 7... gift bags & wrapping...I decided to challenge myself to use items that were (mostly) already in the house. So I decided on brown paper bags, fabric scraps, yarn, pom poms, some ribbon, felt, and rhinestones! I did buy one thing - little miniature clothes pins. I couldn't help it -  A couple weeks ago, I was at my cousin's house (she is famous for her cuteness in everything, particularly in presents) ... she gave us a present with a cute notecard attached to the bag with a mini clothes pin. I loved it & had to make a couple for this challenge!

The "cut outs" for these are shapes are attached to the paper bags with fusible interfacing (like Wonder Under or Lite Heat 'n Bond). It makes it so easy because you can trace the shape onto the paper, and you don't have to worry about frayed edges. Then, no gluing - just iron right onto the paper bag!

These are the "final" clothes pins - you can use these to close up a gift bag and/or attach a note

I generally never use the "decorative" stitches on my sewing machine but was playing around and thought this one looked like a Christmas tree! I had some leftover Christmas card stock and went to town. If you know me, do not be surprised if you get one of these tags this year!

I also like to use fabric & card stock scraps to make personalize gift tags. There is nothing in the world to making these - just sew the fabric right onto the cards. I've shown them here & here before!

Since Christmas only comes once a year, I made a couple non-Christmas-y bags too. Again, just digging through the scrap pile on these...

for this one, I sewed a ruffled and then sewed it to the top of one side of the bag

i'm a big fan of initials and monograms! these would be great for birthday presents or treat bags 

if you're worried about kids getting into the bags - sew them shut!

this was leftover binding from another project  sewn all around the top of the bag

 If you like the mini clips too, they are really simple to make...

you can get the mini clips from joann's

grab your embellishments (if you have kids, you probably don't even need to go shopping - raid their craft stash)

Clip the clips (ha!) onto something like a shoe box and grab some paint (I used the acrylic kind from Joann's that $1 a bottle - I seem to have a collection of colors). I used a tiny paintbrush and painted all the outside edges and let it dry. Once dry, I grabbed my trusty Fabritac (it works so much better for me than a glue gun ...) to attach pom poms! Done.

Hope you like the homemade wrappings ideas - you probably don't even have to go shopping for these!