After years of coming up short on hostess gifts and small favors for an unexpected dinner guest I came up with these bags.  I make up a dozen or so and just keep them on hand to fill with home baked goods or small purchases I have stockpiled and they are also wonderful to use as doggie bags after that huge Christmas Dinner.  This bag is your greeting card and wrapping all in one.  If you are using it for a Doggie Bag and have served an item you hold a treasured recipe for, the card is a great place to document the recipe, or just include the menu for dinner.  Sometimes the simplest of things relieve the stress best.

These are the basic supplies needed, I have used a standard lunch bag for my example but you can modify for any size you may need to use.

• Begin with the bag, punching a half circle with a 1.5” circle punch at the top/center.
• Take the doily from Tangie Baxter & CO's Art Journal Caravan™ 2013 December Collection and cut it in half on the horizon tal.  
• Adhere it to the bag and then cut the center out of the Doily and punch a hole on each side for the baker’s twine.  
• Take a strip of patterned paper approximately ½” tall by the exact width of the bag and adhere to the bag.  
• Using a thick piece of cardboard or plastic a little less than the width yet taller than the bag, insert into the bag so that you have only the top layer available to cut.  
• With a cutting tool cut a slit approximately ⅛” in from each side and in the center of your patterned strip.  This slit creates the opening you will slide your greeting/holiday card into. Put the bag aside.
• It is time to move onto the card.  
• Card size used for the sandwich bag is 5.5” wide by 4” tall.  I used TB&CO's Art Journal Caravan™ 2013 December Collection

  , the

   stars are from Tangie's "Bestiary of Beasties" not currently available in the store and the “Merry Christmas” is a rub-on from Pebbles, Inc. 
• At this point slip the card in and add embellishments to the bag. Card finished, just slip it into the slot, add your tissue paper and contents.

Here's the bag with card outside the bag:

[posted by Sandi Kelly]