Make a DIY Small Gift Bag with Recycled Coloring Pages
Do you have an abundance of coloring pages or books lying around? If you’re like me, you like every project to have some sort of purpose. Coloring is fun, but I never know what to do with the completed art. Throwing it away felt wrong, and just leaving it in the book was disappointing.
Finding a good way to recycle it? Priceless. You can turn your coloring pages into cute DIY small gift bags. It’s so easy and perfect for giving small treats to your friends and family.
Coloring Page DIY Gift Bag: What You’ll Need
All you’ll need to complete this craft is:
Coloring page
Glue stick (tape works, too)
Scissors (optional)
The coloring page must be rectangular. This DIY does not work with squares. Thankfully, standard coloring pages are rectangles. Otherwise, you'll have to cut the shape out of square pages.
The bag will be thin and tall. If you want it shorter, you’ll need scissors.
If you want to add handles to your bag, you’ll need:
Hole puncher
Ribbon
I don’t own a single-hole puncher. So, to create my holes, I carefully poked a writing pen through the paper. It isn’t the cleanest way to do it and would be much better with a hole punch.
You won’t need much ribbon, so any thin scrap ribbon you have will work wonderfully.
If you don’t want to make handles but want the bag to seal shut, keep it at its original height. Use the excess height to fold over the back. Tape it shut or seal it with a sticker. Voila.
How to Make a DIY Gift Bag from Recycled Coloring Pages
Follow along with the above tutorial video, or check out the step-by-step instructions with pictures below!
Step 1: Flip the Coloring Page Horizontally
Make sure that the colored/patterned side of your page is facing down on the table, like pictured. Keep the page horizontal.
Step 2: Fold The Sides Towards the Center
Fold the left and right sides across towards the center.
I like to imagine the page in thirds. Fold the outside thirds into the middle.
Run your glue stick down the edge of one side and connect the two.
Step 3: Fold the Bottom
Turn it vertically, and fold the bottom up. I like to fold about 1 to 2 inches. This fold ultimately becomes the base of your bag.
Step 4: Make a Diamond Shape
Push in on the corners of the base’s fold until they become triangles, forming a diamond-like shape across.
Step 5: Finish the Bottom of the Bag
This step is where the base of your DIY gift bag officially forms. Fold one half of the diamond shape up, bringing it slightly over the middle crease. Place glue on the top of that fold. Fold the other half to meet it and secure it with the glue.
Step 6: Fold the Sides
Moving onto the sides of your bag, fold about an inch of the sides. Push down firmly to make the creases strong.
Step 7: Open the Bag
All that’s left to do now is to open your bag up!
(Optional) Step 8: Shortening your DIY Gift Bag
If you want to shorten your bag, now is the time. After you open the bag, get your scissors and make a clean cut across the top for however much you want to take off.
What to Put Inside Recycled DIY Small Gift Bags
These bags may be small, but they are so useful. My first time making these was for little goodbye gifts to my favorite coworkers. I’m an avid crocheter and love to make small crochet keychains for people. These bags held those wonderfully with some cut-up tissue paper inside (regular tissue paper is too big, so you’ll have to make it smaller).
Here are some other ideas:
Candy
Small trinkets
Friendship bracelets
Jewelry
Gift cards
The options are limitless, only by size. But you’d be surprised by all you could put in one of these little bags.
Finish the gift off with a free, small greeting card!
Final Thoughts
Small gift bags usually cost anywhere between $0.50 to $3.50. You can make these for free. They add a personal touch (and a bit of whimsy) to the gift! All you need is a coloring page and some glue or tape.
You can use completed coloring pages or blank ones to let the gift-receiver color their bag!
