Paper bag scrapbooks are a great way to incorporate scrapbooking for kids. With a little help even the little ones can make these cute homemade scrapbooks, and you'll be amazed at just how creative they can be!

There are a number of different ways to make them, but all you need to start with are... you guessed it... some paper bags! You can make this basic brown paper bag scrapbook with two or three (or more!) lunch size paper bags.

The Basics

Alternate how your bags lay, with the bottom at one end on one bag and the bottom of the next bag at the other end. This will mean your open ends will alternate, too.

Fold the bags in half, and then you can create your binding along the fold in many different ways. Try sewing your binding or punching holes and lacing ribbon through. We punched holes in ours, and my niece threaded ribbon around for the binding, and I used a variety of ribbons ties in each opening.

After that there are no rules!

Use Up Those Scraps!

• scraps of ribbon and fiber
• scraps of patterned paper
• buttons
• eyelets and brads
• chipboard
• flowers
• beads
• tags

You can also cut out pictures from magazines or books, draw or color... whatever inspires you! Just remember that the paper bags are not acid-free, so this is a good project for those duplicate photos you have or even photocopies you make.

Hidden Treasures

The "open" ends of the bags are wonderful for slipping decorated tags or cardstock into for a special "surprise." In my sample I used a decorative punch to punch along the edges of the closed ends for more opportunities to slide in those gems.

We used three bags for our books. If you were to put a photo on each side of the inserted cardstock, Selena's book would have a total of 16 mini pages to decorate, and mine would have 22, not counting the front and back!

Wouldn't these make great gifts for grandma?

The "Seattle Seahawks" in the picture on the left was written on the bottom fold of a bag, so my niece took the opportunity to write a "hidden" message underneath the fold for that extra-special touch (shown below)!

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