Gift Bag Christmas Sign With A Twist

Holiday gift bags make great wooden signs. With a little imagination you can use them to decorate your home at Christmas. Come see how...

For a long, long time, I've wanted a festive sign to hang over my kitchen window during the holidays.  Unfortunately, the space is tiny.

Store-bought signs are generally too large.

Leaving DIY as my only option.

Which is fine. Most of the year.

However, December is a very short month and making signs can be a tedious process if you hate to stencil (me!) and you don't have one of those fancy cutting machines (also me!).

In the past, I've used wall decals and stickers to cheat my way to pretty, but that means I have to be able to find a sticker I like, with the right look and sentiment, in the size I need.

That part can be tricky, hence my dilemma.

Well, this week, while I was digging through my craft closet, in search of some kind of snowflake for my Let It Snow cutting board sign, I came across this old gift bag.


Now, if you're a longtime reader and you feel like you're having deja vu...you are. You see, way back in December of 2015, I used one side of this gorgeous bag to make a very cool sign for my living room.


Since the bag was decorated on both sides and it was so spectacular with its wood carved appearance and its dainty white glitter, I couldn't toss the remnants.

I tucked it away in my craft closet and there it's been for almost five years.

As soon as I saw it, I knew exactly what I was going to do.

How To Make A Gift Bag Christmas Sign

Of course, the easiest way to make a sign from one of these bags is to simply glue it or tack it to a board. Easy peasy, right. I've actually done several this way already.

Today's version is a little different. Instead of making a square or rectangular sign, I made a long, skinny one. And gift bags don't come in that shape.

I had to make some adjustments and only use parts of my bag. Keep that in mind when choosing yours.

Paint The Board

Ok, so my board was already painted. It's actually the back of my red rooster sign. It used to have white roosters on it for spring, but I removed them to make room for Christmas.

I undo my projects a lot - but that's another story.

Back to painting...which, like I said, it already was, but I gave it a fresh coat of craft paint with a foam brush for good measure.

While it was drying, I mapped out my design.

Choose A Bag With Elements You Can Adapt For A Horizontal Presentation

I needed coverage for the whole length of the sign. My bag was perfect for this.

I planned to use the top and bottom scroll portions and the Merry Christmas words. In order to make it look natural, they would need to be separated and cut out in uniform sizes.

I used a yardstick and drew a line on the backside of the bag, so that each portion was five inches wide.

Cut Out What You Need

I cut the bag apart with scissors and then trimmed the pieces perfectly with my Fiskars cutting board. I have to tell you, I love this thing.

The blade is sharp and the boxes help me to keep everything straight and square.

When I was teaching, my favorite toy was the giant paper cutter.

Over the years, I have missed that tool more than another other. I finally broke down and bought this little cutting board a few years ago and my only regret is that I didn't buy the larger one.




Hello, Santa? Are you listening?

Glue The Pieces On The Board

The last part of this simple DIY is to adhere the bag pieces onto the board. If your bag is plain and unadorned, I would use decoupage gel to do this and then give it a coat of decoupage over the top.

My bag is/ was made of a very sturdy cardstock-like paper and heavily textured, so that wasn't really an option. In the living room, I used decorative tacks to give it a rustic look.

I wanted a softer version in the kitchen, so I simply glued them on.


This will also make it easier for me to remove them, if I so desire once spring comes around.


And let's face it, we already know that I will so desire.

Which means there's a distinct possibility that this bag will get upcycled yet again at some point.

Can you have deja vu three times?

Hmmm.

Do you craft with gift bags?