If you have (hopefully!) gone the frugal way of buying inexpensive gift bags and dressing them up, or have plans to make your own gift bags, you will probably find yourself panicking as the holidays draw closer and you still have so much to do! Here is a super quick way to dress up those dollar store gift bags… with pipe cleaners!
Pipe cleaners (sometimes now called “Chenile stems” to be a bit more politically correct!) can be bought very cheaply at craft supply stores as well as places like WalMart (think 100 pipe cleaners for $1 or $2, although you will pay slightly more for fancier pipe cleaners that are shiny or with flecks in them). We used white pipe cleaners with iridescent flecks throughout to give it a snowy festive look. You can see the sparkles a bit better in the photo below. Carefully untie the current cord handles and remove from the bag. Next, you will need to insert the pipe cleaners and make knots at the end (as the photo below shows).
Repeat for other side of bag. Re-attach gift tag if it came with one, or you can make your own. You can also use the pipe cleaners to make shapes, and carefully glue them to the outside of the bag. Plus, you will have many left over pipe cleaners for other holiday crafts too.
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