How to Make a Gift Bag Out of an Envelope

Need a small gift bag? Save yourself a trip to the store, and make one out of an envelope. This simple project takes five minutes tops, and produces the cutest little gift bag, or party favor bag.

Leave the bags plain, or dress them up with rubber stamps, washi tape or other embellishments. Part of the fun of making your own gift bags is deciding how to decorate them.

Envelope Gift Bag Tutorial

This project is the perfect way to use up any odd envelopes that you have laying around. You can even use envelopes that sealed themselves shut, before you got a chance to use them.

What You’ll Need:

An envelope
Scissors
A ruler
A glue stick
Ribbon
A hole punch
Hole reinforcement labels (optional)

The finished bag will turn out around 1/2-inch shorter and 1-inch narrower than the envelope you started with, so be sure to consider the size of the gift you’re wrapping, when you choose your envelope.

What You Do:

Seal the envelope shut.

Then, fold the sides and bottom of the envelope in 1/2 inch. Try to make the folds as crisp as possible.

If you’ll be making a bunch of envelope gift bags, this score board from We R Memory Keepers is a handy tool to have. You just find your measurement on the ruler; then, drop the scoring tool into the corresponding groove to create a clean scoring line.

Cut a small amount off the top of the envelope to open up the seam. If you want a decorative edge for the top of your bag, use a pair
of decorative edge scissors to make your cut.

Then, stick your hand in the envelope, and push out your folds to form the bottom and sides of your bag. As you do this, two triangle will form at the bottom corners of your bag.

Fold these triangles under the bag, and use a glue stick to glue them in place.

Now, pinch down the side seams of your bag, so that the center fold faces in, just like a store-bought gift bag.

To create the handles for your bag, punch two holes at the top of each side.

Add hole reinforcement labels on the inside of the holes, if you’ll be wrapping something heavy. This will keep the handles from ripping through the top of the bag.

Then, thread a ribbon through the holes to create handles for your gift bag. Be sure to double knot the ends of your ribbons, so the knots will be too big to slip through the holes.

Another fun option is to fold the top of the bag down; punch two holes in the center; then, thread a ribbon through the holes, and tie a knot or bow.

To make your gift bags reusable, gently fold the bottom of the bag up, until it meets the front of the bag. Then, firmly press it down. This will allow the bag to lay flat, so it’s easy to store.