Decorate a plain gift bag to make this easy, adorable lemur gift bag! I used ribbon, furry yarn, and free printable tropical leaves to make this creative lemur-themed gift wrapping.

Gift bag decorated with a furry lemur tail and tropical leaves, with text overlay reading "DIY lemur gift bag with free printable tropical leaves."

I made this lemur gift bag for my daughter's friend's birthday present--she loves lemurs!

Gum paste lemur with a tiny butterfly sitting on his nose, sitting on top of a birthday cake.

In fact, I also made a lemur themed cake for her birthday! I used this great gum paste lemur guide from the Cake Dutchess to make this cute little guy. The little wafer paper butterfly was a last-minute addition, and I love it!

Lemur birthday cake with a jungle fault line cake design.

Here's the whole lemur cake! I'm still learning how to do fault line cakes properly. It's a work in progress, but that's one reason that I never sell my cakes, only make them for friends. I get to practice on people and attempt new things that way!

Lemur gift bag with a furry lemur tail decorating a plain brown kraft gift bag, and with paper tropical leaves sticking out of the top of the bag.

Anyway, back to the lemur gift bag. I love having a stash of plain gift bags and customizing them for occasions. I'm a sucker for any kind of creative gift wrapping project! I looked through my craft supplies, and found some black velvet ribbon and some furry white yarn, and was inspired to make a gift bag to match the cake for the birthday girl.

Materials for making a DIY lemur gift bag on a white wooden surface.

Materials for a DIY Lemur Gift Bag:

plain gift bag (I used a brown kraft, 8x10 inch gift bag, but you could use any color, of course)
furry white eyelash yarn
1" wide black velvet ribbon
free printable tropical leaves (see below)

Free Printable Tropical Leaves for a Lemur Gift Bag:

Free printable tropical leaves being cut out for making a Lemur Gift Bag.

I liked the idea of tropical leaves peeking out of the top of the gift bag with the tissue paper, but didn't have any real tropical-looking leaves to use, so I decided to make a free printable to use and share with you. Just click on the image below to download or print the PDF of these printable tropical leaves and cut them out to use in this tutorial.

How to Make a Lemur Gift Bag:

Black velvet ribbon cut into pieces and arranged into a curving lemur tail shape on a plain brown kraft gift bag.

Cut the black velvet ribbon into short lengths--about 1.5" or 2" long. I didn't measure them myself, I just eyeballed it. Arrange in a curved tail pattern on the plain gift bag, leaving space between the ribbon segments for the white stripes of yarn.

I used black velvet ribbon because I found that in my stash, but you could certainly use black furry eyelash yarn to make a super-furry and fabulous lemur tail!

White furry eyelash yarn being glued between pieces of black velvet ribbon to create the lemur tail on a Lemur Gift Bag.

Glue all of the black pieces in place, and then glue the furry eyelash yarn between the black velvet segments.

Black velvet ribbon and white furry yarn glued on a plain gift bag to make a Lemur Gift Bag.

So simple, but so cute! But I still wanted a bit more of that Madagascar jungle flair, so I added some tropical leaves to the design.

Lemur Gift Bag on a white wooden surface.

I simply cut out the printable tropical leaves (get the PDF above), and glued them to the inside of the bag.

Lemur Gift Bag with a furry lemur tail decorating the front of the bag and paper tropical leaves and tissue paper peeking out of the top of the bag.

This would make a fabulous favor for a zoo party, a jungle party, or a Madagascar movie themed party. Or, like in my case, for a gift for a lemur-loving kid!