Cross Stitch Snowflake Gift Bag Tutorial

I absolutely love creative gift wrapping ideas, and am always looking for ways to dress up the plain gift bags and solid colored giftwrap paper I keep on hand.  This year, I was inspired to start cross stitching again by one of my dear friends, and that, in turn, inspired me to make this super simple cross stitch snowflake gift bag.

I was inspired by simple Scandinavian designs, and chose a nice, bright red yarn to stitch with on my plain white bag to fit that theme.

I printed out some free printable graph paper, and cut it to the size of my bag.  I then sketched out a simple snowflake design with X marks on my graph paper.  I placed the graph paper with teh snowflake design on top of my bag, and then poked through the graph paper and gift bag using my large eye needle.  The goal was not to make big holes in the gift bag, but rather just to mark where the holes would go.  

I tried making holes where I'd marked the bag with a tiny hole punch I had, and that worked brilliantly...for the top row of punches.  It wouldn't reach any farther down.  I just ended up using my needle to poke through and make the little marking holes larger.  I'll bet one of those awl punches used for scrapbooking and making the holes for setting grommets would work really well.  If you could make the holes large enough like that, you could use blunt needles and this would make a great craft for kids.  

Once my holes were made, it was a simple thing to thread my yarn and make the simple X stitches that comprise every cross stitch design.  If you need a tutorial, here are some good basics on cross stitching.  

Filled with some scraps of tulle and fabric I had in my stash, this gift bag is ready for gift giving to my stitching friends!

Find more fabulous gift wrapping inspiration on my Packaging pinterest board.  Some of it is my stuff, most of it is pinned from all over the web, all of it is awesome and creative and inspirational!