Leprechaun Gift Bag

This lucky little guy is made from a template similar to our Luminaria. The only 
real difference is that the template has been resized to stand a little taller, and a 
triangular flap has been added to the back of the bag and slips into a slit on the 
front. The leprechaun is cut from a separate piece of cardstock and glued to the 
front of the bag in two pieces. Part of his head is on the flap and the rest of him is 
on the front of the bag. This design will work with just about any clipart you chose 
so it can be personalized for any holiday or special occasion!

MATERIALS:

Inkjet paper (we used a 35lb. coated paper for the bag)

Card stock

Scissors

Craft Knife

Cutting mat

Glue or gluestick

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Open a blank page in your graphics program in landscape orientation. Import 
the gift bag template by clicking on the link below. When the template page 
opens, right click on the image and select "Save Picture As…" and choose 
.GIF or .BMP as the file type and save the file to the directory of your choice.

2) Place the template on your blank page and resize so that it fills the page. 
(The tip of the triangle may extend slightly past the printable margin line on 
the page, but will still print in most cases.)

3) Place your choice of clipart as the background on the bag. You can cover the 
entire page with the clipart or simply fill in the front, back and sides of the bag 
with the design and pick a solid color for the triangular flap like we did…the 
choice is yours!

4) Select the leprechaun or other character that you want to place on the front of 
the bag and size it so that it extends slightly above the top of the bag. You will 
be moving this clipart to a separate page, but for now you are just getting the 
sizing right. 

5) Note the measurements of the character for the front of the bag and then cut 
and paste it to another blank page. Checks to make certain the 
measurements are the same. Adjust if necessary.

6) Print the bag on one sheet of paper and the character on the cardstock.

7) Cut the bag out along the outlines. Cut the slit on the front of the bag with a 
craft knife. Fold on all the score lines for the sides, bottom flaps and triangular 
flap.

8) Cut the character out of the cardstock. 

9) Lay the bag flat in front of you with the design side up. Place your character 
on the front of the bag (the section with the slit) and mark where it will be cut 
(right at the slit). Cut the character at that mark and glue the bottom half to the 
front of the bag so that the top of it lines up with the slit on the bag.

10) Now assemble the bag by gluing the bottom tabs together. You can use a 
pencil eraser to push down from the inside to make sure the tabs are all 
adhered. Glue the side tab to the bag as well.

11) Close the bag by slipping the triangular tab into the slit on the front. Place the 
top of the character that you cut on the triangular tab so that it lines up with 
the bottom half of the character. Glue this part of the character to the flap.

12) Close the bag again and the character will become one.

Not all that difficult, right? Now you can go nuts with this little bag! How about 
making the character on the front from a photo of a loved one and filling with 
some small trinkets or candy? Also makes a great favor bag for a shower or 
other special occasion! Have fun with it!