Upcycled cereal box to elegant gift bag using decorated paper

If you've been visiting a while you already know I love to turn small boxes (cereal boxes are the best for this) into gift bags. I've done it with self adhesive paper, vintage wall paper and fabric. And today I'm going to show you how to do it with decorated or scrapbook paper. 

The only things you need are an empty cereal box, a few sheets of decorated paper (I used three, one split in half for the sides and two entire sheets for front and back, plus half a sheet of white printer paper for the bottom of the box), paper glue and two pieces of cord or ribbon for the bag handles. 

The decorated paper came from this set from Paper Poetry, but you can really use whatever you want. If you are using images, though, it's better to use a sheet of paper slightly larger than the front (or back) of your cereal box): 

Start by covering the bottom of the bag, and then do the sides. Make sure you have a little extra paper to fold over: 

(you need to remove the flaps of the cereal box before folding and gluing the paper over the top)

And then glue the larger sides: 

By now your cereal box will look like this: 

Now mark the place where you want your handles to be. You can easily use a pen or a pencil - the markings will disappear when you punch the holes. 

Punch holes on both sides, and cut two pieces of ribbon or cord to make the handles (add some extra length to account for the knots that will hold the handles in place).  

Pull the cords through the holes and tie knots on the inside of the box/gift bag to secure the handles). 

And as a final touch, fold the sides of the box inward in the middle. This will make it look much more like a gift bag: 

And here it its: one elegant and original gift bag, made entirely with materials I already had at home (and still saving one cereal box from the trash can). 

Happy Tuesday,

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