Gift Bag Ideas That Will Take Their Breath Away

There are as many gift bag ideas as there are people!

We’ve started the Secret Sister program at church – and boy am I in my glory. I think about my gift bag all week – each week – to try to come up with good and unique and fun things to go in it. AND I just love to give gift bags – just because – and I give them often and for no real reason.

The Main Gift

The choice you make for the main gift will inspire your theme and contents.

I’m big on giving Inspirational Books or Recipe Books, or good movies on DVD.

I love to give things that can be life changing and still allow me to be a tightwad. 🙂

I’ve just discovered a great new Bible study book. And it helps those of us that find bible study kind of complicated – to tie the whole thing together – story to story in a 6 week study. We’ll be doing that bible study together right her on Love, Home and health – in the coming weeks. It’s called Seamless and you can check it out here.

Other good books are “How to Create a Charmed Life” and Living a Charmed Life – by Victoria Moran! These are both super books! Very inspiring!! And we need daily inspiration and fresh ideas on how to live our lives better each day. Because GUESS WHAT? We’re HERE folks – why not make this life the best it can be for you and yours? That’s what “I” try to do – and I work on that daily!

I had just lit our porch candles the other night. And I use big old quart jars with rag ties around the rims and glass pitchers and goofy things for my candle holders and I buy those utility candles that are about 5-6 inches tall (6 for $1 at Dollar tree and I buy several boxes at a time) and they burn for 4 1/2 hours. I like to light them here and there on the porch some nights and they burn from dark until the nightly news comes on. They go off on their own just before we go to bed. But I had just lit our porch candles the other night and the UPS man was running late that day and came about 7pm. I went to the door and he handed me our package and he said “Man – you really know how to live down here in this holler – this porch lighting made a perfect end to my long and hard day.” That man will probably remember those lit candles on our porch – on and off for the rest of his life. Our porch is breath taking at night – now nothing fancy at all, mind you – but breath taking. Often times, it’s the little things that are such big things. Create a charmed life and then live a charmed life. This is not a dress rehearsal folks. Make each and every day count.

The movies by the Kendrick Brothers – all of which are very warm and entertaining and absolutely life changing will make SUPER gifts for any occasion. The one here is War Room – which packed theaters all over the country late this last summer. Every household in our family will have this in their bad days bags at Christmas. It’s not just life changing but absolutely WORLD changing if we’ll just all watch it and follow through with our own War – Prayer Room. But there are others – Flywheel, Facing the Giants, Courageous, Fireproof.

I’m telling you the truth – we’ve watched Flywheel and Facing the Giants – both – at Weaver Creek and they each made even ME want to try to be a better person and I’m a 69 year old preacher’s daughter. I’d already had it hounded into me for almost 70 years that we should always strive to be the best we can be. But those movies just touched me in a way I can’t even explain. More on the Kendrick Brothers movies

Accessories and Filler

The accessories and filler for gift bags are absolutely endless.

Accessories and filler can be things as simple as Chocolate – and I’ve even put just simple Hershey Bars in MANY gift bags. It can be mini flash lights – and I like to give the micro mini flashlights with the LED light that goes on our key rings so they are REALLY handy and useful. You can find those at Dollar Tree and many other places for – yes, you guessed it – $1.

I’ve put in small bundles of Sweet Annie, small bundles of some of the mints out of our garden and I just cut them about 8 inches long and tie them with a sage green ribbon. Not only is that a super addition to your bag – but it makes the bags smell SO good.

I’ve put in flower seed and candles … Sometimes I print off posts from The Encourager and tie them up in a little scroll.

I’ve put in stamps and envelopes, pen and small notebook, candy of all kinds – even homemade sometimes, and homemade cookies. I’ve put in homemade rolls and loaves of homemade bread and muffins. The SKY is the LIMIT? Are you getting that?

I like to put in things like individual bags of microwave popcorn and I always buy the Uncle Willie’s Movie Theater Pop Corn – because it just pops the biggest and has the best flavor.

I’ve put in small clocks because I have a thing for old fashioned looking clocks myself and I buy the small old looking ones at Hobby Lobby when they’re half price or with my 40% off coupon. And who couldn’t use just one more small clock. Especially one that is so cute it just almost takes your breath away.

I buy small signs that can go on a wall or even on the front of the frig if we put a good magnet on the back. And signs can be SO uplifting. I’ve put in small birdhouses and small wind chimes – many times. I recently gave a gift bag to an older lady that said she was dreading winter coming on because she’s kind of stuck in her home most of the winter. SO I put her together a bag with a small birdhouse and a wind chime for her kitchen and a note that told her to walk over and ping that wind chime any time she was feeling the winter blue’s and to know in her heart that she is one day closer to Spring than she was yesterday. I also gave her some women’s magazines and a recipe book and ingredients to bake homemade cookies and make homemade candy. She got a Winter Survival Gift Bag and SHE IS SET – and is getting through winter – one day at a time.

I’ve put in hand lotions and even several of my homemade concoctions of creams and other home remedies.

I like to put in the individual packets of Hot Chocolate Mix in my gift bags and I do that often.

A little quart plastic zip lock bag with a small notebook and pen are very nice additions. Who couldn’t use an extra pen and little notebook – even if it’s just to stick in your purse or bag or the glove compartment of your car?

The sky is literally the limit – because in a gift bag – if you have your main gift – all you’re doing is adding thoughtful ‘filler’ for the rest.

SO a quart zip lock bag with 20 envelopes and 20 stamps is a nice addition to any bag or even 10 of each. That’s 10 envelopes and 10 stamps they don’t have to buy for whenever.

I LOVE giving fridge magnets and small calendars and I make my own and I guess we’ll do a DIY on making those right away to go with this blog.

I KEEP a good supply of homemade gifts at my Gift Station upstairs and believe it or not – it’s the little things that often mean the most.

Decorating your Bags

The ideas for decorating your bags are as endless as the ideas for what goes in them.

Well now THIS gift bag obviously wouldn’t take anyone’s breath away … lol We couldn’t find the photo’s of some of my really gorgeous gift bags – YES! You get the truth here at Love, Home and Health no matter how it makes us look. But we’ll find them and change these out. These are my Secret Sister bags and there’s a private story about why I have 2. But I was heading out the door for church and realized I had forgot to put names on the bags. SO I just ran back to the kitchen and wrote their names on these with a Sharpie. HOWEVER that pine is out of a tree in our fence line … lol And the bells, ribbon, pearls, etc are out of my altered art box. I love the old brown looking bags at Hobby Lobby and usually use those and just frill them up if I want them frilly. I’ve made some breath taking bags – I’ll start taking photo’s.

I’ve thrown lace and even paper doilies across the front between the handles and added this or that – kind of the Altered Art look.

I’ve tied bundles of Sweet Annie or Mints and hot glued them on the front with little additions.

I’ve put funny faces and drawings and quotes, etc on my bags.

I’ve tied the old timey mood rings in the bow and I think that’s the one thing I get the most comments on. People LOVE those goofy RINGS. I order them in bulk and they’re only about $1 each that way. Just the simple band that changes colors when you touch it – according to your mood.

I LOVE making the front of the bag – just as special as what goes inside.

And I don’t BUY things for decorating the front – I just scrounge what I have or head to the field or the woods to cut some weeds or pine or gather leaves or moss or this or that.

Gift Bags can be the ultimate way of giving. And it says so much for so little. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE giving gift bags.