Altered Paper Bags

Altered Paper Bags

Altered Paper Bags

Altered Paper Bags are a great way to express your crafty self!  If you’re a long time subscriber to my YouTube crafting channel, you know how much I love to work with paper bags.  I use them to make mini albums, cards, and more!

shabby chic altered bag

What I love about using paper bags is that they’re so versatile and are the perfect ready-made pocket page!

how to alter a paper bag

You can alter your paper bag in so many ways. Depending on your style, you can shabby chic them, you can glam them up, you can give it a playful theme, it’s all up to you!

For this altered paper bag I used the Designs by Shellie Tranquil Gardens Paper Collection.  This is a beautiful, romantic 12×12 paper collection in soft purple, white and green hues.  I dressed up my altered paper bag with die-cuts using dies from Spellbinders and laces and trims from my stash.

snail mail ideas for 2018

What to Include in an Altered Gift Bag

I have found that hand-made items that are pretty and serve a function are the best swap gifts or happy mail gifts of all!

For example: I enjoy card making. I have a plethora of designer paper, good quality card stock, and gorgeous paper-cutting-dies from Spellbinders.  Whether you’re into paper crafting or not, there will always be a need for cards.  So I include handmade cards in 3×3 note card size and the regular card size as well.

Designs by Shellie Tranquil Gardens Collection

The Designs by Shellie Tranquil Gardens Collection is such a beautifully designed paper collection that it practically does all the work for you! Notice how I did not do one thing to the larger cards? I let the design speak for itself.

For the 3×3 note cards I use dies from Spellbinders to add a bit of interest and dimension.

best snail mail ideas for 2018

Another item I like to add to a snail mail package are tags.  Tags can be used for gift-giving as well as scrapbooking.  You can make them as intricate or as simple as you want.  In this case, I let the paper do the work for me.

You can also make some shaker embellishments and ready to use paper rosettes.

Designs by Shellie Tranquil Gardens

An advantage to altering a paper bag is that you’ll be able to include a generous amount of goodies for your swap partner!

Altered Paper Bag Tutorial

The following is a tutorial, easy to follow process video, that shows you just how I go about in altering a paper bag.  As you watch my video, don’t forget to sub to my youtube for more tutorials and projects shares!

[amazon_link asins=’B01K13DF0C,B019AFVQDA,B01K13D64W,B01N3SK7JO,B01K13D3TA,B01K13CZ44,B01K13D84U,B01K13DA70,B00HYIGN3Y’ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’decor8yourl05-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’24ff61a1-f2dd-11e7-99f1-35ad11b1ac7f’]