Saturday was my son’s birthday party. I had a lot of fun making these party bags out of recycled brown paper (an other way to make the most of online merchants over wrapping). My son was delighted giving them away to his friends, explaining to some parents this was Mr Goody Bag. In my mind there were boys and girls among the goody bags  but I guess the bow tie made it look otherwise…

Once again this is a ridiculously easy project and a cheap one too. Bags can be made any size as long as you have enough paper. They could all have the same face or a different one as we did here. And why not using a different pattern paper for each bow tie? I also think they could be made even funnier looking with some paper or fibre hair. Here is how I made mines.

Supplies

For a 15 x 20 cm (6” x 8”) bag you will need:

• a 30 x 28 cm (12” x 11”) piece of brown paper ;
• double sided sticky tape or glue ;
• black marker ;
• pattern paper ;
• some washi tape (for closure at the back) ;
• paper knife ;
• some patterned paper.

1 – Fold the width so edges are gathered and overlap and the overall width match the desired size (here: 15 cm). Stick in place with double sided tape.

2 – Make a 3 cm fold at the bottom of the bag and make sure to mark the fold.

3 – Then open flat the smallest part made by the fold by folding the side toward the inner of the bag.

4 – Fold the bottom flap so it overlaps slightly the bottom fold line and stick in place.

5 – Fold the top flap in the same way. Stick into place.

6 – Draw face details with a black marker. Cut out a bow tie shape from the pattern paper and glue towards the bottom of the bag. You can now fill the bag and close it with a piece of washi tape or any other fancy sticky tape.

Finally I want to say a big thank you to my daughter who helped out once again with the photography. She had the idea of staging the bags as for a school picture, kind of a genius isn’t she?