Gift Bags Made Out of Maps

This post is to commemorate my first commissioned Pinterest project!

I kid you not, reader, as my mother gathered the gifts she'd bought for a friend's graduation party, she turned to me and said, "can you do some Pinterest stuff to these presents?"  And that I did.

I used an older Pennsylvania tourism road map to make one, and a cool, glossy advertising map of Herkimer, NY (the very place the graduate will attend college, might I add) for the other.

I had re-pinned a tutorial on my "Great Idea!" Pinterest board, but it didn't help much.

Here's my version of the directions.

YOU WILL NEED:

• Writing utensil
• Map or other paper
• Cardboard for support of long sides, bottom
• Scissors
• A glue stick (or whatever else you deem appropriate to hold the whole thing together)
• Ribbon or similar for handles

WHAT TO DO:

Take a look at my awesome design skills.  Make the sides and bottom however long you like, as long as the long sides are the same and the short sides are the same.

Cut on the solid red and fold on the dotted black lines.  You probably want to cut the outside perimeter, then fold everything before you make the smaller snips.  Once you do that, you should see how it becomes a bag.  If you need some more guidance or tips, read on.

The basic gist is this: 

• At the bottom of your paper, measure out enough room for the bottom of your bag. 
• The height should be however tall you want it, plus an inch or two that you can fold over some cardboard to make supports for the handles.
• The width of what you cut out it is made up of five sections: the long side of your bag, the short side of your bag, long side again, and short side again, and the last one is just some extra room so you can glue together the edges (about an inch should be fine).
• After you've glued together the bottom first (put your cardboard in between the flaps so it's not exposed at the bottom of the back), edges next, and top last, use your scissors or a hole punch to make a hole for a piece of ribbon to use as a handle.
• The two short edges will have flaps, too, just glue those to the inside, or cut them off if you want.
• I like to add a little tape as reinforcement when I glue the edges together with that one little strip.

I hope this makes sense and you have fun making your own gift bags!