To make the bag topper, measure the width of your bag, (I got mine at Walmart in the paper product department). The decorated paper I bought was from Hobby Lobby called Christmas Confetti, and I folded a piece in half. After folding it, I cut it the width of my paper bag. I used a 2 1/2″ oval punch from Hobby Lobby and pushed it into the top (folded portion) of the decorated paper and punched out the oval. I used a Creative Memories corner rounder punch and rounded the top corners. Next, I took an edge die and cut the bottom of the paper. By using a shim, I was able to cut through both layers at once. The dies came from a company called Banggood and here’s a link to the border dies. https://tinyurl.com/yaxpurbw The Merry Christmas die came from there as well, but I couldn’t find it on their site to send you there.

After cutting the bottom edge of the topper, I used Versamark ink on the “Merry Christmas” and then put Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder on it and heat set it. I used wet glue to attach it to the bag topper.

My good friend Rebecca, at Rubber Stamp Tapestry, the peg stamp company, sent me some of their Christmas themed stamps and I wanted to share them and use them on this project.
You can find these stamps at http://www.pegstamps.com
Old Fashioned Gingerbread
Poinsettia Flourish
Poinsettia Wreath
Christmas Garland
She also sent me a Christmas mouse stamp, candy cane, Christmas ornament, and Merry Christmas stamps.

I used the Poinsettia Flourish on the gift bag. I stamped the poinsettia in Versamark ink all over the bag, and then used Cherry Cobbler Stampin’ Up embossing powder and heat set it. Then I used the leaves from the stamp set, with Versamark ink and then used Ranger Evergreen embossing powder on it and heat set it. I showed a great tip at this point, as when you stamp the leaves, you don’t need to worry about the embossing ruining the poinsettias. All you do, is stamp the leaves, put the embossing powder on them, then take a paint brush and wipe the green embossing powder off of the poinsettias, then heat set them. It’s like when you do masking when you are stamping, only with embossing powder.

After heat setting the green leaves, I used the flourish stamp and stamped it all over the bag and then used the Ranger Princess gold embossing powder and heat set them.

After the bag is finished, fill it with the gifts you’ve chosen (making sure that they aren’t really heavy, as the topper won’t hold up with something that’s heavy). Then place the topper over the bag, once you’ve folded the top over so it’s more secure. The topper should cover the bag up to the oval cut out, but not visible through it. Staple or use a clothespin to keep it closed.

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