Paper Bag Easter Basket DIY

I love Christmas, don’t get me wrong, but Easter has always been my favorite! There’s just something more hopeful about it—besides the whole joyous resurrection thing, it also means spring is finally on its way. So today I am sharing a Paper Bag Easter Basket DIY to celebrate that the world is finally shaking off its winter blues, bursts into color, and everything feels fresh and new again. After months of cold and gray, that little dose of sunshine and renewal bring me pure happiness!

Although pre teen granddaughters is wonderful, they want to be thought of as mature now, so sadly I don’t think the big giant carrot cushion I made them years ago would be appreciated these days, or a big fluffy stuffed bunny for that matter.

This year I am giving them these personalized Easter baskets instead, using dollar store paper bags, and odds and ends I had in my craft room. It adds a little personal love to a cash and candy gift I know they want.

Paper Bag Easter Basket Tutorial

This tutorial is a bit different from my usual method. Adding the embellishments is pretty self-explanatory, so I am including completed gift bag decorating ideas, with a short explanation. There is a step by step video tutorial at the end as well.

Materials Required

All you really need to have for these baskets is some lunch bags, basic craft supplies, and whatever embellishments you can think of. If you don’t have a stash the Dollar Tree has everything you need.

Using the junk journal page as a color guide for the embellishments, choose various items from your stash. I used white lace, cream raffia, twine, buttons, paper flowers, and assorted ribbons on my baskets. If the ribbon was the right color, and two wide, I cut it. You can also use ripped strips of fabric, fabric flowers.

For the junk journal page graphic, I used some from Temu (not an affiliate link). But I created these two printables for you to download and use right away.

Step Paper Bag Easter Basket Tutorial

Here is a quick list of the steps to make the basket.

1. Locate a junk journal page you like for the front of your bag.
2. Take 2 lunch bags and see how your journal page fits.
3. Measure two inches from the top of the junk journal page and trim the bags to size.
4. Open one bag, insert a second bag inside and align them.
5. Carefully to avoid rips, fold the top over twice (it’s easier to start over if the page rips without the junk journal page attached)
6. Once overlapped on top, use whatever glue you like to attach the journal page to the front of the Easter basket.
7. Cut the covered wire to 30 inches, fold in half, and twist together. Shape a heart at the top with your fingers, and fold the two ends upward for inserting at the end. Set aside.

Decorating the Easter Basket

You will notice the video tutorial is cut into sections as I shortened it to include only the embellishments I used on my Easter baskets. I dug around having fun trying all sorts of different items.

Using the junk journal page as a color guide for the embellishments, choose various items from your stash. I used white lace, cream raffia, twine, buttons, paper flowers, and assorted ribbons on my baskets. If the ribbon was the right color, and two inches wide, I cut it. You can also use ripped strips of fabric, fabric flowers, dried flowers, paper flowers, etc.

To add the lace, I first decided if I wanted it above the folded top or snuggled in underneath it. As the lace covered the bunny face on the junk journal page, I added mine overtop. To attach, start at the back, with a thin strip of glue along the sides and top of each side of the basket. Hold in place until it adheres.

For the messy ribbon I piled the various ribbons together, tied them together and then covered them with a raffia bow. Then glued them to the front.

Finally insert the wire into the hole, bend over to seal and secure with hot glue to hold in place.

For one basket, I decorated the basket wire, I left the second one plain.

Step by Step Video Tutorial

In case you wanted to see how the brown paper Easter basket was made. Here is the video tutorial that shows every step.

Other DIY Easter Gift Ideas for Teenage Girl

Here are some other DIY Easter gifts I have given to my granddaughters as they are growing up.