A few years ago, my family made a decision to stop using paper gift wrap during the holidays, instead we’ve built up a collection of fabric bags of various sizes to hold our Christmas gifts. Because man of these bags are given away each year (and hopefully reused by the recipient) we’re always making more. This year we’ve been working on smaller, rustic burlap bags decorated by the kids. These tree bags are almost as fun to make as they are to receive and can be customized with little painted gifts under the boughs, painted or glittered ornaments or, as seen here, they look great with a simple rustic star.

Things you’ll need:
Burlap bags
Craft or fabric paint in green, brown and silver or gold
Paintbrush
Scrap paper
Glitter

Things to do:
1. Slip paper into the bag to keep the paint form seeping though to the other side.
2. Generously paint your child’s hand with the green paint, you want plenty of paint to come in contact with the open weave of the burlap in order to get a good print.

3. Press the hand down on the fabric so that the corner of the palm opposite the thumb is up, making the point of the tree.

4. Using the paintbrush, add a star and a trunk to your tree, sprinkling glitter onto the star while the paint is still wet.

5. Allow the paint to dry and then shake off the excess glitter.