Bags, tags and Wraps for the Holiday Season

It's that time of the year again when I start thinking of gifts for the people in my life.  I love to make handmade gifts, and in the past I have handmade quilts, knit hat, scarf and mitten sets, scrapped mini albums, baked cookies, breads and bars, designed and handmade all my Holiday cards,  just to name a few, but this year life has gotten in the way of all my aspirations... what it doesn't happen to you?   Okay, so maybe I am not the only one this happens to... so let's think handmade but on a more manageable level.  So this year I thought if I can't make all the gifts handmade, maybe I can at least present them in a handmade fashion, so I went to my favorite site Pinterest  and found all sorts of beautiful ways to bag, tag, wrap and present my gifts in an inexpensive,quick and beautiful way and...shhh, no one but us needs to know we didn't slave over these for months!  So gather your materials... a lot of these are done with manilla or kraft paper or even brown grocery bags, bakers twine, paper doilies, punches, stamps, left over scrapbooking papers and even old cards.  I think I have all that, maybe I can pull this off! 

Let's start with some really easy gift tags from brown kraft paper or grocery bags, punch some holes and tie off with bakers twine... I kind of like the addition of the eyelets to add another layer, then stamp or hand write the recipients name.  Or you can even skip the tag and wrap the gift in kraft paper and just stamp the name right on the package... is that easy or what?

Love the addition of some buttons or even some doilies and embellishments... cute!

Or how about some fancy ribbon?

 

How about using some of your punches... 

kind of elegant, even on kraft paper (or grocery bags), love that!

 

Manilla tags with the addition of some red and white paper straws and

some distress inks and now they take on a more vintage look!

 

How about these stamped tags made to look like vintage postcards...

rather romantic!

Talk about romantic, add some old lace, distressing ink, buttons and old

photos now were talking my kind of style!

Add some doilies to the mix... oh my!

You can even make an envelope and this can become a gift card holder.

How about old book pages (no need to worry about being photo safe)

Love using the initial in place of the recipeints name.

 

And these initial tags were cut from old cards... now that's green!

 

 Love this idea, make your own wrapping paper and tags by

using buttons as the stamps and then actually using the button!

I just love the look of primitive and these just really pulled at my heart string...

or how about these, embossed with the snowflakes... snow cute!!

Another rather primitive tag with a felt red heart and pinked and sewn

edges with some buttons and a little twine... tags after my own heart!

 These are very simple but being in Education for 20 years I have a thing for notebook paper... these have even been sewn with red thread and tied with red and white bakers twine.

 This elegant and fancy tag and package were made using old Yuletide paper,fancy for leftover wrapping paper! Even the sentiment was punched from an old card.

 

These are so cute, made on kraft or manilla paper and paper pieced with your left over scrapbook papers... this would even be cute to let the kids do the artwork!

 

These gorgeous tags are made from leftover scrapbook papers

and the addition of a few buttons, some lace and metal charms.

The Mother Lode of leftover scrapbook papers, some handmade flowers

paper doilies, button, lace, ribbons... any and all little leftover bits!

Of course I had to show some tags using some of your favorite scrapbook paper collections!

This was so creative... how about reusable gift tags, made with

chalkboard paint or paper... these are adorable and talk about green!

I thought this was so creative, instead of putting their names on the gift tags how about putting their picture on the tag... I just loved this one, and think this will be the one I'll do this year!

So we have looked at many ways to bag, tag and wrap your holiday gifts with a handmade touch this season.  Most of these were made with either kraft paper (grocery bags) or manilla paper and some of your everyday scrapbooking supplies, but also recycling or reusing wrapping papers, tags and cards from past seasons. These are all very inexpensive to make... but look like you spent hours and upper end boutique dollars!  

Use your imagination, the possibilities are endless!

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving Holiday, enjoy your families and friends... and don't forget your camera!

                                                                          Crafty Hugs,

                                                                                    Pendra