Treat Bag – Sarahs Ink Spot

This cute bag is perfect for housing party favors and little treats – it uses just one sheet of 8 1/2″ x 11″ cardstock and a length of ribbon which makes it fab value for money.

You can decorate it with stamped images, patterned papers & embellishments and you can theme it for any occasion…baby & bridal showers, parties for kids & grown-ups, summer bbq parties, holiday treats…the list is endless! I made mine with a snowy theme and put Snowman Soup ingredients inside for cute Christmas gifts…

Here is my tutorial so that you can make your own treat bag – at the end of this tutorial you will find a printable version and template with measurements so that you can print them out and keep it for reference.

Take a sheet of cardstock sized 8 1/2″ x 11″…

Place it into your score tool or paper trimmer with the longest edge along the top and score at 1″, 4″, 6″ and 9″…

Then turn around so that the shortest edge is at the top of your tool or trimmer and score at 2″ and 6 1/2″ – your cardstock should look like this…

Next you need to trim sections out of your cardstock – with the smallest section to the left (which will become a side flap), cut along the score line from the right edge right up to the final 3″ section and trim it away…then trim away the little bit the other side of this 3″ piece – this will be your top flap… Trim away the little section at the bottom of the side flap and your cardstock should look like this…

Fold along all score lines…at the bottom edge cut up each score line to the intersecting horizontal line to create flaps allowing you to form the bottom of your treat bag… At the top edge make two small 1″ score lines down in the center of the first and third panel from the right side – this will allow you to easily shape the top of your treat bag…

Here is a close-up of that…

If you want to stamp images onto your bag, this is the point at which you need to do it, before you assemble it – you could also adhere patterned papers to it now too if you wish to do so.

Apply a very strong adhesive such as Sticky Strip to the flaps and fold in to make your bag…

Gently push in along those 1″ score lines that you made and this is what your bag should look like…

You can use a Corner Rounding Punch to shape your top flap or use a border punch for a cute look – I decided to use the Scallop Edge Punch…

This treat bag uses ribbon to keep the lid closed so you need to add holes to thread this ribbon through. Take a 1/8″ Circle Punch (or larger, depending on the ribbon that you are using) and use it to make two holes in the top flap…

Close the top flap down and make two pencil marks through them onto the front of the bag – then take the same punch and punch those holes out – this ensures perfect closure of your top flap to the base…

Take your piece of ribbon and thread it through the holes on the bag…

And when your bag is filled and ready for closure, simply thread the ribbon through the holes on the top flap…

Tie a bow and your bag is ready for giving…didn’t it turn out cute?

For my Snowman Soup bag I used a Baha Breeze cardstock base and used Designer Series Papers from the Candy Cane Speciality pack that you can find on pg 33 of the Holiday Mini Catalog and my tag features that adorable snowman that you can find in the co-ordinating stamp set A Cute Christmas that is on pg 32…my ribbon is Whisper White Tafetta that gives a luxurious look without being too heavy – you can find that ribbon on pg 191 of the main catalog. Here is a side view of my finished bag…

I filled it with Snowman Soup ingredients – a cocoa sachet, some mini marshmallows, a stirring stick and some Hershey Kisses…PLUS that cute snowman soup rhyme – you can open a word document of that rhyme by clicking HERE