easy saturday morning

 How to Make Handmade Gift Bags

I wish I could bottle up this weather and send it to the east coast today.  We are expecting highs in the mid 80's for the next couple of days.  Perfect weather for sitting outside and pondering the season ahead.

It was my turn to host "coffee and" for a few girlfriends last night so my house got a good cleaning yesterday which means my Saturday is free and easy.  Don't you love that?

I made up these little gift bags using white lunch sacks and coffee filters.  This is one of those times that the packaging is definitely more swoon worthy than the little gift inside and so easy to put together.

Last week I soaked a package of dollar store coffee filters in leftover coffee and laid them out on cookie sheets to dry.  (I am impatient so I sped mine up in the oven at 225, but keep your eye on them they burn quickly...don't ask me how I know that).

Once they were dry I stacked four of them together and fan folded them, back and forth.

To get the size I wanted I cut the fan in half and used a thin gauge wire to secure each half at the center.  (Making two flowers.)

I cut each side at a slight angle to give the affect of a peony and then I inked the edges with brown chalk ink to distress them a little further.

I then carefully pulled them apart layer by layer.

Easy peasy.  It brought back memories of my sixth grade luau.  I think we must have made 100 of these in bright colors and hung them from the trees. 

For the bags I just used a stamp and gold ink.  I repurposed some black ribbon, tied a bow and that was it.  So pretty and super simple!

My grand daughter is on her way from San Diego for the day as her parents head to a local amusement park for some grown up fun.  I think we'll head to our little downtown village for some window shopping and lunch.  Sounds like a perfect afternoon.

How's the weather were you are?

xo, Patty

If you like this post you will like How to Make Paper Nests.