Making Abstract Painted Gift Bags

The idea of making gift bags came about when I was thinking about how to expand my product line on Etsy. At the moment I only make greetings cards, but I thought it would be a nice idea to get more into various paper crafts and make products that would work together.

I wasn’t really sure how well it would work, and as you’ll see there are still a little more trials and errors to go through, but it was a fun experience and something that I intend on persevering with.

I decided to write up my process, so keep reading to find out.

One day, when I was feeling a little uninspired, I got out a large piece of paper and just began putting paint on it. I didn’t have any plans for it once it was dry, so I decided that it would be a good opportunity to have a go at making gift bags. When it came to cutting up the paper, I have to admit that it was more difficult than it should have been to figure out how big the bags could be, based on the size of paper I had! The three bags I made out of that paper ended up being 20cmx24cm.

Although making the bags did work, I found it difficult to stick the bottoms of the bags neatly. However, the biggest problem was that the paper ended up ripping at some of the folded seams. I decided that I would try using thicker paper and folding the bag before painting to see if that would help.

I ended up trying it out on a smaller scale. I tried out two different thicknesses of paper and also tried out two different sizes. I found that both sizes worked, but that the slightly thinner paper of the two I’d chosen was the better choice.

Thick paper

Thinner paper

I then tried out folding the paper before painting it and this technique seemed to work well. It was a little tricky to fold the bottom without sticking it first though.

Since I’d found out that it worked on the smaller scale, I wanted to try and make it work on a bigger scale. Unfortunately, I was a little restricted by the size of paper I had available (so I’ll have to get a larger sheet of the same thickness paper if I want to try this again) but I still managed to make a gift bag that was 14.5cmx16cm.

Now I have these bags I’m not sure what to do with them! I think they are really cute in the small size, but also kind of impractical. My next step will be to buy some large sheets of paper and test it out on a bigger scale. If you are curious to see how the turns out, follow me on Instagram where I post a lot of my work in progress, or wait to see if gift bags show up for sale in my shop!