Wrapped presents might look great, but most wrapping paper can’t be recycled. One way you can give a sweet gift with wrapping that’s easy on the environment is to make your own gift bag from a book jacket cover. This is sure to win you bonus points with friends who want to reduce waste and love to read!
Materials needed
- Book jacket
- Exacto knife or razor blade for scoring
- Scissors
- Glue (we recommend a glue stick)
- String, yarn, or ribbon for gift bag handles
Steps to make a book-jacket bag
1. Find some book jackets! If you don’t have any book jackets: ask your friends if they have any they don’t want.
2. Remove book jacket from book, and score and cut it.
- Tip: The score around the binding end of the book jacket should be the same width as the “wings” of the jacket that contain book summaries and author bios. If these sections are not the same width you will end up with a jacket that is shaped like a triangle.
- Tip: be careful not score too deeply. This could result in you cutting your jacket into pieces! If you do score all the way through the paper, you can patch it up with clear tape.
- Caution: adults should handle all cutting steps.
3. Fold along all score lines
4. Glue the jacket “wings” on top of each other.
5. Glue the bottom flaps together.
- Tip: fold the smaller flaps in first so that they don’t show.
- Tip: to reinforce the bottom of the bag you can glue a piece of paper or cardboard into the bottom on the inside.
6. Cut small holes and insert string for handles.
7. That's it!