How to Make a Valentine's Day Gift Bag

Some people love it, some people hate it; but whether or not you can't wait or dread its arrival, every February 14th it still comes around.

One of the most stressful part of Valentine's Day is figuring out what the heck to buy someone; what's appropriate? How can you show you care without being cliché and corny? How much should you plan to spend? These are just a few concerns you my have.

Personally, I have always pretty much ignored Valentine's Day. I would make a card or drawing for someone I was with, maybe a cake or cookies. But typically, Valentine's was always off my radar.

However, since I first started dating my romantic husband and with the birth of our son, holidays have started to mean a little more to me.

Valentine's day doesn't have to be some consumerist holiday made to make single people feel bad about being single and coupled people stressed over what to buy and do. It could be a day to show the people in your life that you love, care for, and appreciate them.

In this Hub, I'll talk about ways to do just that using different types of giftbags; some or simple and sweet little tokens of appreciation, some are thoughtful and loving. Choose gift bags that suit the relationship you have with the person you're giving it to.

Gift bags are a quick, pretty, and simple alternative to gift boxes and wrapping. You can easily find gift bags in most any size you need, add some tissue paper--and voila! A wrapped present!

However, if you want something a little more special, there are a couple of different things you can do to make your gift stand out:

• Buy brown paper or solid color gift bags and dress up with ribbon, bows, stickers, drawings, construction paper cut outs, or whatever else you can think of.
• Compliment your store bought gift bag with a handmade card or some handmade decorative element.
• Make your own paper gift bag, the perfect size you need with the perfect patterned paper you want.
• Use a decorative hole puncher on a solid coloured gift bag to add a pretty border or punch-out polka dots.
• Use paints on plain gift bags to add patterns.

If none of these ideas really wow you, chek out these other ways to create gift bags, gift baskets, and gift wrap!

This is actually something my husband and I did for our wedding and people thought it was cute. They're easy and inexpensive to make, so you could hand them out to everyone on Valentine's.

Materials

• Organza bags (or make your own)
• Candy of your choice
• (optional) Ribbon
• (optional) Tags/tiny cards

You can buy organza bags in singles or packages at most craft stores, or in bulk online. For this bag in particular, I like to use the circle organza pouchesbecause I think they look a lot sweeter and prettier--plus it's fun to watch them go from a flat circle to a frilly pouch.

Once you have your bags, all you need to do is add your candy. It doesn't have to be those gross candy hearts either. Try adding red, pink, white, and yellow candies of your favorites; M&Ms, Skittles, Starburst, Kisses, Reese's Pieces, jelly beans, gummi bears--most candies will come in special holiday wrappers certain times of year. If you are planning to make a lot, I would suggest buying bulk bags of candy.

You can hand these out as is, or make them more pretty and special by adding personalized cards or tags and sprucing them up with decorative ribbon.

As an alternative to candy, you can buy cute party favor toys or small ornaments at craft and dollar stores and use those instead.

Last year SMART Youth had a Valentine's party where they handed out a bunch of handmade cards with condoms and candy attached. My contribution included some handmade envelopes which I put my cards, candy, and condoms in..

Materials

• Paper or Wrapping Paper
• Scissors
• Gluestick
• Goodies

You can put cards, candy and condoms in your origami envelopes and boxes like we did. Or small favors, toys, ornaments, or pieces of handmade jewelry. People can be a bit funny about condoms and, obviously, it could be taken the wrong way depending on who you give it to. So, use some common sense if you're putting those in; friend you like to hang out with, good--girl who didn't know you existed before now, probably not the best icebreaker.

You could use regular paper for these or origami paper or wrapping paper. Anything that's thin, but not fragile and easy to fold.

One of the first Valentine's gifts my husband gave me was a little Teddy Bear Gift Bag. It was really cute.

Materials

• Teddy Bear
• Gift basket, decorative box, or decorated shoe box
• Tissue paper or some sort of gift basket fill
• Candy bags or box of chocolate or candy bars
• Plastic Wrap or Plastic Wrap bags
• String
• (optional) Ribbons
• (optional) Panties or Boxers

You can find cute little gift baskets at craft stores, dollar stores, or big department stores, like Target. They usually have them around Valentine's for good prices. You could also make your own gift box by using a shoe box and wrapping paper.

Once you have all of your materials ready, put your gift basket fill in the box, then artfully place your Teddy Bear, candies, and whatever other goodies you're adding. If you are anxious about how to place things I would suggest putting the teddy bear, or whatever is the tallest item in the center, then place the second tallest items around that, and so on. When you gather yourplastic wrap, the tallest part will be at the center of the box, and the shortest at the edges, so arranging your items in this way will keep things looking neat.

If this is for your significant other, partially hide the underwear under the fill, so they will only find it afterthey have seen everything else for a flirty surprise. ;)

Once all your items are set in your box gather the plastic wrap at the top of your gift (like the circle organza gift wrapping video I posted above) and tie with a string. Make it look pretty with ribbons and bows.

Even if you are a beginner at crocheting you can still make cute custom gift bags. The really nice thing about these is that they can be reused--instead of just tossed in the trash!

Here is a very simple way to make a crochet gift bag any size you need for your gifts. I use the same method to make my soap sacks.

Materials

• Yarn, I'd suggest using an acrylic blend--something inexpensive, but durable and easy to work with.
• Crochet Hook, if you're unsure which size you need check on your yarn label.
• Yarn needle
• Scissors
• (optional) Ribbon
• (optional) Felt or some sort of material
• (optional) Needle and thread

Things to Know

• Ch - Chain
• SC - Single Crochet
• HDC - Half Double Crochet
• DC - Double Crochet

Simple Gift Bag

• Start by making a chain approximately the length of your gift, then Ch 2 more.
• Hdc in the back loop of the 3rd ch from he hook, then continue to Hdc in the back loops down the length of your chain.
• When you get to the end of your chain turn and continue to Hdc in the front loop you left behind.
• When you reach yourfirst Hdc, Hdc on that and continu to Hdc around until the bag is the height you need it to be.
• Dc around one round.
• Hdc 4 more rounds, or however many you want.
• Sc one round, slip stitch in first stitch of the round and fasten off.
• Using your yarn needle, weave your tail through the work to hide it away.
• Chain stitch a strap for your bag OR use ribbon. Weave it through the Dc round. Can tie in bow when you add present.

You can leave it like this or you can decorate it further by sewing on felt or fabric patches.

Fabric and ribbon can be used instead of plastic/cellophane wrap or organza or wrapping paper. With all the different types of fabric there are and all the different patterns it comes in you can really put together something special.

You can also use fabric in its own special way and gift wrap with it or sew gift bags that your receipient can reuse.

Here's a gift basket idea if the person you're giving the gift to is a foodie or if you're planning a romantic meal.

Picnic Gift Bag Materials

• Picnic Basket
• Blanket, folded tight and neat
• Wine, sparkling water, sparkling grape juice, or whatever you'd like to drink (I suggest something that comes in a pretty bottle for the basket and less pretty drinks--like water bottles--in a separate bag you carry)
• Food and Treats (attractive items that will look nice in the basket, everything else you can carry separately)
• Fabric to use for wrapping
• Ribbon
• (optional) Gift basket fill

Start with your basket. If you're planning a picnic, place your blanket at the bottom of the basket. Then put your fabric in the basket, evenly, with the excess falling over the sides.

Fill your basket with the gift basket fill. Then artfully place your items. As I mentioned with the Teddy Bear bag, I would put the tallest items and then spread out in size order. Sweet items would be finger sandwiches, neatly cut, heart-shape cookies, red and white frosted cupcakes, candy bags (like the ones mentioned above), or candy bars with wrappers replaced with wrapping paper for decoration. Romantically themed bento boxes could also be used for the occasion. You can find a lot of recipes and ideas on how to make these online.

Once everything is placed nicely, gather fabric at top of the basket and secure with ribbon. Add more ribbons and bows to make it prettier.

Take care when transporting this basket. Always hold it by the handles or with your hands underneath. You don't want anyting getting mushed or broken.

You can give these as gifts instead of gift bags, or as a part of your gift bag. There's lots of different ways to make gift boxes (including the origami box and decorative shoe box I already mentioned above).

You can add notes, small favors, cards, candy, condoms, chapsticks, lip balms, earrings, rings, necklaces, bracelets, little toys...the options are really endless.

Instead of packing gift bags with packaged candy like M&Ms or jelly beans, you can put some in little gift boxes instead for a much prettier, more thoughtful look.

These are just a few ideas. Take a look at some of these tutorials and I'm sure you can come up with some ideas of your own.

Need more ideas? I LOVE using Pinterest to help me with my craft projects! So to give you even more ideas on how to make your Valentine's Day extra special, I made a board just for this Hub. Take a look at it if you like :)

Best of luck with your gifts and enjoy your Valentine's Day!