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Have a brown paper bag and want to use it to quickly wrap a Christmas gift? Sure, that will work, but instead of simply putting your gift in a plain paper bag, decorate your brown paper bag and turn it into a Christmas gingerbread house gift bag!
These are quick and easy to make and you only need a few materials. A brown paper lunch bag, a white marker, a hole puncher, and a piece of baker’s twine. Red paper and embellishments are fun but optional.
Read on for the step-by-step instructions on how to make these brown paper bag gift wrap gingerbread houses.
Gift Wrapping Tips
Let’s start with some helpful gift-wrapping tips.
- These bags make great holiday candy or cookie bags or use them as gift wrapping for small gifts or gift cards. It’s also super fun to decorate your kids’ school paper lunch bag in the weeks leading up to Christmas break.
- If you have the time, make a bunch of these and display them as a Gingerbread house Christmas village, or advent calendar.
- For this project, I like to use tacky glue since it works well with a variety of materials and dries transparent. However, you can use any regular craft glue that you have on hand.
- If there are any folds or wrinkles in your brown paper bag, carefully iron them out. Cover the bag with a thin towel and iron it on the lowest setting. Check the bag while you go to see if the creases have smoothed out already and you can stop ironing.
- If the gift doesn’t fill the bag, plump it out with tissue paper.
Want more wrapping tips and tricks? Visit the complete list of all the gift wrapping tips (more than 60 all in one place!). Make holiday gift wrapping simple!
You can make these gingerbread house gift bags as simple or complex as you’d like.
Go all out and add small embellishments like sequins, mini pom-poms, ribbon, and scraps of colored paper for doors and windows. Or simply draw all of the decorations using a white marker.
Continue below for the printable step-by-step instructions how to make these gingerbread house gift bags!
DIY Gingerbread House Gift Bag
Decorate regular brown paper bags with white marker and paper scraps to turn them into cute gingerbread house gift bags. Simply follow this easy step-by-step tutorial.
Materials
- One block bottom paper lunch bag
- Bakers twine or other string
- Small embellishments (optional)
- Tissue paper (optional)
Tools
- Pencil
- White marker
- Hole puncher
- Scissors
Instructions
- Gather all your tools and materials.
- Roughly sketch your design in pencil. Draw lightly so you can erase it if you need to.
Start with the shape of the door centered on the bottom, work out from there. Leave some free space at the top for the roof.
- Lay out your paper cutouts and embellishments. Don’t glue them on
yet.
Play around until you have the design the way you like it. Use colored paper to make door and windows.
- Set the embellishments aside. Remember where you placed them.
Go over your pencil sketch with your white marker. Let ink dry.
- Now glue on the paper cutouts and embellishments.
- To make the roof, fold the top over to just above the windows.
Trim the bottom edge of the roof in a scalloped line. Decorate with the white marker.
- Set the bag upright on a flat surface, and put your gift inside. If it is a very small gift or something like a gift card, fill the bag up with a bit of tissue paper.
Punch two holes through the roof and tie a piece of string or bakers twine in a bow to close.
Looking for more unique and creative gift wrapping ideas?
Why not make your own DIY paper nutcracker gift wrap? Perfect if you need to wrap a cylinder-shaped present. Or a cute honeycomb snowman gift wrap.
If you have some felt and more ribbons, make a gorgeous felt and ribbon ornament gift wrap. Simply follow the easy steps described. Brown paper bags are ideal for small items. Decorate them as Christmas gingerbread house gift bags to make them more special!
