Ever since I started following the hand lettering tutorials from One Artsy Mama, I’ve been looking for all sorts of ways to apply my new-found skills. My latest lettering projects: embellished gift bags, perfect for birthday gift-giving!

I know I’ve mentioned before that I tend to hang on to shopping bags (and sometimes turn them into framed artwork like this one). While I love to keep bags with neat designs, I also tend to hang onto plain brown bags. They make perfect surfaces for embellishing for different gift-giving events like birthdays and holiday because they can be customized any way you like!

In hopes of encouraging signs of Spring to start popping up, I added some vine and flower embellishments to these gift bags.

If you want to make your own embellished gift bags, here’s what you’ll need:

• plain paper gift bag
• Tombow Dual Brush pens
• Tombow Fudenosuke Brush pen

I started by lettering “Happy Birthday” onto the plain brown bag.

Then I added some vine embellishment around it and used my Tombow Dual Brush pens to color them in.

On a second bag, I thought some flower embellishments would look pretty. First I drew them with a Fudenosuke Brush pen.

Then I used my Tombow Dual Brush pens to color in the flowers and leaves.

Lastly, I added a paper “Happy Birthday” banner at the top (this also served the purpose of covering up the “Anthropologie” text!).

Now I just need some gifts and these pretty embellished gift bags are ready for giving!

Sharing with: Inspiration2 / Work It Wednesday