Rucksack Giftbag

 

Change a plain normal giftbag into a rucksack giftbag

I love giving gifts and it's even better if you can dress the gift up. This time the gift I had was hiking related so I decided to try and change a normal giftbag into a rucksack.

I started off with a shop bought giftbag but you could make one from scratch - just follow my instructions on this blog page here.

I decorated my bag with some circle images to represent sew on badges, but depending on your recipient and the colour of your gift bag, you could decorate your bag with anything from unicorns to flowers to rockets! (See photo at bottom of blog)

The front pocket is ideal for the greeting card 😁

  

Follow the below link to find out how the giftbag was made

You will need

• Gift bag (Mine was 26 . 5 cm wide x 32 . 5 cm high by 14 . 5 cm deep)
• Matching colour card (at least 2 x A4 size if your gift bag is the same size as mine)
• A sheet of 12x12 scrapbooking paper with a pattern of your choice (I used a sheet from Beauty of the Earth DSP by Stampin Up)
• 5 cm circle die
• 2cm strip of hook and loop tape (Velcro)
• 3 brads
• Guillotine with cutting and scoring blades
• Glue and strong double sided tape
• Scissors and a pencil
• Needle or something to make a small hole
• Hole punch (not essential but helpfull - I used Crop-a-dile II by We R Memory Keepers)

1. Take the handles off the giftbag
   
   
   
   
   
   


2. Work out how big you would like the top closing flap of your rucksack then add 4 cm to it which will be the amount that is stuck to the back of the rucksack. So I decided I would like the flap to be about 12 cm from the top of the bag. Add 4 cm, so the total amount I need is 16 cm. Therefore cut your matching card to 16 cm by the width of your bag (In my case the width is 26 . 5 cm)
   
   
   
   


3. Score down 4 cm from the long top edge. (This will be part of the flap that is stuck to the back of the rucksack)
   
   
   


4. I wanted to round the bottom corners of the flap, so I took a 5 cm circle die and used it to draw a curved line at the two bottom corners. I then cut along the line with scissors
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   


5. Decide how big you would like a front pocket to be and cut it out of matching card. I decided on a pocket of 11 cm high by 21 . 5 cm wide. I wanted the bottom corners of the pocket to be rounded the same as the top flap, so used the 5 cm circle die again to draw around on the 2 bottom corners and then cut out with scissors
   
   
   
   
   
   


6. Cut a piece of decorative card or paper 1 cm shorter than the width and height of the pocket size. My pocket was 11 cm high by 21 . 5 cm wide, so the decorative paper was cut to 10 cm by 20 . 5 cm. (Check if your decorative paper has a right way up, that you are cutting it in the correct direction)


7. Use the 5 cm circle die to mark and then cut with scissors the two bottom corners of the decorative paper and then glue it centrally to the pocket piece
   
   
   
   
   
   


8. Put strong double sided tape on the back of the pocket piece down both sides and along the bottom edge. Stick it towards the bottom of the front of your giftbag
   
   
   
   
   
   


9. Cut a piece of decorative card or paper 1 cm narrower than the width of your flap section and 1/2 cm shorter than the length of the flap (excluding the 4 cm piece that will be on the back). So my flap was 26 . 5 cm wide - take away 1 cm, so the width of the decorative paper piece will be 25 . 5 cm. The flap height excluding the 4 cm back part was 12 cm - take away 1/2 cm, so the height of the decorative paper will be 11 . 5 cm. Therefore I cut a piece of decorative paper to 25 . 5 cm by 11 . 5 cm ensuring the pattern was up the correct way.


10. Use the 5 cm circle die to draw and then cut with scissors the bottom two corners of the decorative flap paper. Then glue it to the flap so the top straight edge is against the score line
    
    
    
    
    
    


11. Put strong double sided tape on the back of the 4 cm high flap piece and stick it to the back of the gift bag, so the rest of the flap will fall over the front of the bag
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


12. Cut 2 strips of the decorative paper 12 inches long by 1 inch wide. These will be the rucksack handles. Put some strong double sided tape onto the back of the handles along their short edges. Stick the top of the handles to the back of the bag about 1 . 5 cm down from the top of the bag and about 2 cm in from the edges. Then stick the other end of the handles towards the bottom of the giftbag
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


13. Cut a piece of matching card to 25 cm long by 2 . 5cm wide. Create a loop with this strip by holding the two short ends together and use a needle to make a hole centrally about 2 cm up from the bottom of the short edges through both ends. Use the needle again to make a hole in the back of the bag about 2 cm down from the top of the original gift bag but centrally width wise. Put a brad through the holes in the strip of card then into the bag through the outside of the bag, so the legs open on the inside of the bag. This will be the actual carrying handle of the gift bag
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


14. I used hook and loop tape to make sure the flap of the bag could be closed. To do this put strong double sided tape on the back off both pieces of the hook and loop tape. Stick one of the pieces to the underside of the flap fairly near the edge. Make a hole through the centre of the loop tape (I used the crop-a-dile but you could just use a needle - just need to make a hole so the brad is easier to thread through). Then put the brad through from the front of the flap through the hole, through the loop tape and open the legs to hold in place.  (I've added the brad to ensure the hook and loop tape stays on the giftbag)
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


15. Stick the other piece of hook and loop tape to the body of the gift bag - fold the flap over so you can see where it needs to go. Make a hole in the centre of the loop tape and put a brad through from the inside of the bag through the hole to the outside and open the legs on the hook and loop tape to hold in place. Your rucksack giftbag can now close
    
    
    

    

    (I added a bit of card to the inside for reinforcement)

    
    
    
    
    

Your rucksack giftbag is now complete. You can add extra decoration if you wish. I printed some circular images, die cut them out and then stuck to the bag as if they were sew on patches.