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DLTK's Holiday Activities
Decorated Brown Paper Bags

Children, teenagers or adults can decorate sturdy brown paper bags and use them as gift bags.  The typical cost of a sturdy brown paper bag (the type with rope handles) is about 75 cents which makes these both cute and less expensive than store bought gift bags. 

I have provided templates for a few variations of the idea, but you can get creative and use letters cut from wrapping paper, hand made characters and die cut shapes to decorate them.

Handprint characters like the Handprint Reindeer, Handprint Santa and Handprint Angel also make cute decorations for the bags.

Materials:

  • sturdy brown paper bag (the type with rope handles).  These can be purchased at craft stores or the dollar store.  You can also buy them in colors (white, green, red, etc) though the colored ones cost a bit more.
      
  • printer and paper
      
  • scissors
      
  • glue
      
  • optional:  pom poms:
    • large orange for the snowman
    • large red for the JOY (reindeer nose)
    • small red for the reindeer
    • small red for the holly wreath  

Directions:

  • Print out the template of choice.  
    • There are a number of options available.  
    • The holly wreath template is the most difficult, so only attempt it with older children (age 8+)
    • The holly wreath has two templates -- you'll need both of them if you're doing that option
        
  • Colour (where appropriate) and cut out the template pieces. 
        
  • Arrange the template pieces on the paper bag (there is a small picture of the finished project on the bottom of each template to give you guidance as to how the pieces should be arranged)
      
  • Either use the circle pieces from the template (for the noses or holly centers) or substitute with pom poms.
  

Templates:

  • Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
     
  • Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

 

Template 1 (JOY)

(color)

   or  

(B&W)

Template 2 (reindeer)

(color)

   or  

(B&W)

Template 3 (snowman)

(color)

   or  

(B&W)

Template 4a (holly wreath)       

(color)

   or  

(B&W)

or    Template 4b (directions)                      

(B&W only)

 

Printable Version of these instructions