After baking and decorating 120 cookies on Thursday for the shower Jenna helped host this weekend...my husband even helped :)...what a great guy, huh? She and I made favor bags to put them in, on Friday.
I thought I would do a tutorial on how to make these cute little bags. We got the idea from...Martha...but tweaked them to help stabilize the cookies. These are the cookies we made, the only difference being that this time we used a knife to ice the background of the cookies and a #3 Wilton decorating tip to decorate them; the gift bag tutorial follows:
Supplies you will need:
EDITED: I ORIGINALLY THOUGHT YOU NEEDED BAGS WITH A DEFINED BOTTOM BUT HAVE SINCE REALIZED THAT THE CARDSTOCK ACTUALLY MAKES YOUR BAG BOTTOM.
Clear cellophane bags *
Pretty Cardstock
Colorful Ribbon
1. Determine how tall you want your bag to be....what will look best with the size cookie you will be filling it with.
2. Cut the bag to that height + the width of your ribbon x's 2....so, if you want your finished bag to be 7" and your ribbon is 1/2" wide...you would cut your bag to a height of 8"...make sense?
3. Once you have determined that, you are ready to measure for the size you will cut your cardstock. You will cut a piece of cardstock the length of the height of your FINISHED bag + the width you want the bottom of the bag to be [ you can kind of puff the bag out to find out how wide it naturally is ] + 1/4" for little front facing you see at the bottom front of the above pictured bags.
4. Now measure the width of your bag and cut the cardstock that wide.
5. In other words, you will be cutting your cardstock by the measurements you determined in steps 3 and step 4.
[Click on any of these images to enlarge]
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NOTE: You can omit steps 10-12 if you are filling your bag with candy or light cookies. We added it, because we found that the weight of our cookies made them lean forward too far in the bag. By making this little "step" and placing the cookies between it and the 1/4" lip, we found that our cookies were stable. Of course this will vary according to the size of the bottom of your bag , etc. You'll just have to play with this....
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If you are pressed for time, you could always just slip a piece of cardstock in the bag as a backdrop to your treats and finish with the ribbon. But if you can find them....make the extra effort....these are easy and attractive!
I hope you have as much fun as we did!
~Debi
I love this! Thank you for posting the how-to!
Posted by: Randi | Monday, October 15, 2007 at 12:27 AM
My, how pretty! As pretty as they turned out, I guess, they were well worth your time. I can imagine the comments from the women. Yes, that was kind of John to help out, but he's that kind of guy.
Posted by: Mom | Monday, October 15, 2007 at 12:27 AM
WOW!! Thank you! I've bookmarked this for Christmas gift baskets. :) Wonderful tutorial.
Posted by: tonia | Monday, October 15, 2007 at 01:51 AM
What a wonderful tutorial... I hope I can do this someday. thank you
Posted by: Joy Gross | Monday, October 15, 2007 at 03:08 AM
Debi ~ beautiful! Thank you for taking time to do the tutorial; I've bookmarked it for future!
Posted by: Deb | Monday, October 15, 2007 at 09:26 AM
Debi you are brillant, these are wondderful !!!! Clarice
Posted by: clarice | Monday, October 15, 2007 at 11:17 AM
The cookies look gloriously scrumptious! And I love the tutorial and thank you for your hard work in putting it together for us.
Posted by: Junie Moon | Monday, October 15, 2007 at 12:52 PM
The ladies loved the cookie favors!! Yay! (I hope they like the taste of the cookies inside.) :) This was fun, but it will probably be awhile before I tackle that big of a project again! Doing it with someone else always makes it 100 times better.
Posted by: Jenna | Monday, October 15, 2007 at 04:36 PM
Kudos to you both! Somehow my pumpkin cookies pale in comparison.:)
Posted by: becky | Monday, October 15, 2007 at 10:31 PM
That's a lot of work, but they are adorable! GREAT JOB!
That would be fun to do with my Balcony Girls group.
Debi, come on over and see what you can WIN :)
Posted by: Sandy | Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 06:26 PM
These are really pretty Debi. I'm thinking aloud -- they would be charming on the tables at my daughter's wedding reception. But gosh, so many! I'm thinking that "just cookies" on a pretty plate might be enough.
I like what you did!
Jody
Posted by: Gumbo Lily | Wednesday, October 17, 2007 at 07:24 PM
Very cute stuff! You are super creative!
Posted by: Jessica | Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 10:26 PM
How fun! Thanks for the tutorial. I'm also bookmarking it for future reference. :)
Posted by: Overwhelmed With Joy! | Friday, October 19, 2007 at 01:44 AM
What beautiful, thoughtful gifts. Thanks for sharing how to do this. I'm sure each bag was greeted with a delighted smile.
amanda
Posted by: amanda | Friday, October 19, 2007 at 07:52 PM
Debi?
You exude beauty...inside and out...
I can't wait to try these with Christmas cookies--stunning!
*Thank you*
You are loved.
Posted by: Ann@ HolyExperience | Saturday, October 20, 2007 at 11:13 PM
(p.s.--yes, your husband IS a great guy! ~smile~ And his wife is one thoughtful, caring woman with a great eye for the perfect shot and angle! Martha should hire you!)
Posted by: Ann@ HolyExperience | Saturday, October 20, 2007 at 11:14 PM
Oh, I love these!! Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Joanne | Monday, October 22, 2007 at 09:02 PM
Very cute! Thanks for sharing!
God bless :)
Posted by: Carrie | Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 12:40 PM
Those are so beautiful. I am going to remember that for Christmas.
Posted by: Mrs. Huse Clifton | Friday, October 26, 2007 at 08:49 AM
This is a great idea...THANKS!
Posted by: tracy | Saturday, October 27, 2007 at 08:13 AM
Fun bags - a great tutorial.... but especially: what beautiful hands you have! Goodness, you should be a hand model!
Posted by: denice | Monday, November 05, 2007 at 10:45 PM
those are just lovely!
Posted by: chickadee | Tuesday, November 06, 2007 at 12:52 AM
Hi!
I'm french, and we unfortunatly don't have this tradition here!
I love your work, and I will introduce this tradition here cause of you, France will be full of cookies soon!!!
Another favor, what's the secret to do this cookies (French again LOL)
Thanks a lot!
Sand
Posted by: Sand | Monday, February 25, 2008 at 03:57 PM
Just thought I would let everyone know I had really good luck with this company, they have the square bottom bags and they quality is really great. Also their pricing is great and they ship right away. Here is a link to the page: http://www.favorfrenzy.com/bags.asp or you can just go to their website at www.favorfrenzy.com
Posted by: Janice | Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 12:38 AM
This is a great idea!!!
Congratulations!!!!! the cookies looks beautiful
Posted by: Rocio | Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 11:02 AM
Absolutely brilliant. I love all of the detail you put into designing these. Stunning work! :O)
Posted by: Mel M. M. M. | Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 05:03 AM
I totally love your attention to detail and i think these bags are just precious! I was looking for some cute bags to buy for my Pastors birthday and these are absolutely perfect.... Thank you so much for sharing.
Posted by: Lisia | Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 08:13 PM
I make cookies at home for family, friend and other people that want to buy from me, and bag them tied with ribbon but was looking for a way to make them look better in the bag. I've been cutting a piece of cardboard from boxes I get free at the grocery store, etc and then wrap then in Heavy Duty Aluminum foil and this has been working ok, but I wanted something more prettier and with a base and this is fantastic. Thank You so much for coming up with this idea.
Posted by: Maria | Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 05:40 PM
HI!!
i loves this idea! im from puerto rico.
Debi where you get the cardstock? do you now any company?
thank, for share your proyect
keish
Posted by: Keishla Colon | Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 01:48 PM
Gorgeous! I love this project. Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: angie | Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 12:20 AM