Love is in the air at Creative Bag

Monday 30 December 2013

Creative Bag wedding - new products for 2014 | creativebagwedding.com

I hope that you had a wonderful holiday and that you are ready to for the countdown to a new year. I am personally looking forward to 2014 and all of the creative projects that I am currently working on. 

Love is in the air at Creative Bag as we set up for Valentine's day in our stores and our warehouse prepares to receive lots of new wedding products. 

If you or someone you know got engaged over the holidays or is planning a wedding, January is wedding show "season"! This weekend the WedLux Wedding Show is taking place on Sunday January 5th at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. Today I am pulling together everything for our booth at the Total Wedding Show on January 17 to 19, 2014 at the International Centre.

The new 2014 Weddingstar magazines are on their way and will be available for sale in our stores very soon. You will be able to view the Weddingstar digital e-catalog in January 2014 but if you can't wait - many of the new products can be seen and purchased here

This is a sample of some of the new wedding products ...
Creative Bag wedding - new products for 2014 | creativebagwedding.com

Creative Bag wedding - new products for 2014 | creativebagwedding.com



Happy holidays to all of our loyal creative customers!

Tuesday 24 December 2013

happy holidays from creativebag.com

After a very busy 2013 holiday season, all of the staff at Creative Bag are all looking forward to a couple of days off with families and friends. At this time, we'd like to wish all of our loyal and creative customers a happy holiday. Thank you for a wonderful 2013 and we all look forward to working with you again in 2014. 

You can find our holiday hours on our website or here on the blog!


burlap Christmas inspiration

Thursday 19 December 2013

burlap christmas inspiration by Lorrie Everitt for creativebag.com
We carry lots of burlap products at Creative Bag all year round but this year we added a few extra holiday products that have been very popular. I thought that I'd show you how I included some of our burlap products into my personal holiday decorating and gift wrapping projects.

Please note at this time of year, as holiday specific products sell out, items will be removed from our website.
burlap christmas inspiration by Lorrie Everitt for creativebag.com
1. I decorated four of the burlap stockings with lace ribbon, snowflake ornaments, baker's twine and wood letters to hang from the fireplace mantle in our family room.

2. Last year I gave you the directions to make these cookie mix gifts packaged in a four cup jar with a free recipe tag download. This year I created the cookie mix gift again but this time I used burlap to decorate the top of the jar and one of our chalkboard tags. Red ribbon and baker's twine make it easy to attach the burlap and tags to the jar.

3. We have a number of different burlap bag styles. I love to use these study bags all year long so the packaging in this project is like receiving an extra gift. You can decorate the burlap bags if you want or just leave them as is like I did above. I tied a satin ribbon to the bag handles and attached a kraft tag with baker's twine. I like to use tissue paper to hide the present inside and give the bag a little colour pop. 
Note: I have started to stock a number of our bakery boxes and different colours of baker's twine in my pantry. I usually volunteer to make desserts for parties and family gatherings and these come in handy to package my baked goods. The bakery boxes are expensive and I don't have to worry about finding dishes or plastic containers at the end of the event to take home.

burlap christmas inspiration by Lorrie Everitt for creativebag.com
4. I added burlap ribbon to garland on another fireplace mantle in my home. It was easy to tuck the burlap ribbon into the garland and I love the way it looks at night with the lights shining through it. You can find my tutorial and free download for the "twenty thirteen" chalkboard bunting project here and here.

5. Our burlap bags with drawstrings come in many different sizes and shapes. I used a wide satin ribbon to decorate this one. For a final touch I add a snowflake ornament and a gift tag you can find here to download.

6. These mini burlap stockings are the perfect size to hold a gift card and a sweet treat. I added one of our mini chalkboard clip tags to the stocking as a decorative element and to hold a gift tag (not shown). If you add a magnet to the back of the chalkboard clip it can be used on the fridge later to display holiday cards.

Looking for more burlap products?  We have burlap bunting, runners and more in stores and online. Looking for more burlap decorating and packaging inspiration? Check out and follow our burlap Pinterest board!






Christmas holiday hours

Monday 16 December 2013

creative holiday packaging and more | creativebag.com

I'm so excited ... my gift wrapping is complete and I'm ready for Santa!

Just in case you have not finished your holiday wrapping, I thought that I'd share our store holiday hours with you!

Tuesday December 24, 2013 - open until 1pm
Wednesday December 25 & Thursday December 26 - closed
Friday December 27 &  Saturday December 28 - open regular hours
Sunday December 29 - closed
Monday December 30 - regular hours
Tuesday December 31 - open until 1pm
Wednesday January 1, 2014 - closed

*Check our website for our "regular hours" ... each store is a little different!



brown paper packages all tied up with string ... these are a few of my favourite things {for Christmas gift wrapping}

Thursday 12 December 2013



kraft paper gift wrapping inspiration | Lorrie Everitt for Creative Bag
I'm feeling a little inspired today by both Pinterest and one of my favourite holiday songs from the movie "The Sound of Music". I remember learning the words to this song as a little girl to sing at a school Christmas concert and it always makes me feel happy when I hear it. I have been pinning a number of "brown (kraft) paper packages" on our Christmas boards lately ... I never seem to get tired of seeing all of the new packaging ideas that people come up with using kraft packaging products like the ones we stock. 

Pictured above: one of our kraft take out boxes that I decorated with satin ribbon and a beaded ornament. 
kraft packaging from Creative Bag
Check out all our kraft boxes, bags and gift wrapping paper on our website or visit one of our three stores!

kraft paper gift wrapping inspiration | Lorrie Everitt for Creative Bag
Here's a few of my other brown (kraft) paper packages all wrapped up with (baker's twine) string!
From left to right: 1. kraft candy bags with windows, 2. kraft wrapping paper used as a bag header and added to a clear food safe bag, 3. kraft window box with ribbon, kraft jewellery box and a gift box wrapped with kraft wrapping paper.

Want more inspiration? .... 
kraft gift wrapping "Pin"spiration by Lorrie Everitt
You will find more brown paper packaging ideas for the holidays on our Pinterest boards. 
Visit our "Creative ideas for Christmas" Pinterest board to find the sources for all of these pins.






New Years Eve diy kit by gift stylist extraordinaire Corinna vanGerwen

Tuesday 10 December 2013


http://corinnawraps.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/make-your-own-new-years-celebration-kit/
Planning a New Year's Eve party this year? We saw this amazing diy party kit in the Holiday issue of Food & Drink that is available at LCBO stores in Ontario. I have to warn you that I have only been able to find these magazines in french lately because they tend to fly off the shelves quickly! The diy project idea is by gift stylist extraordinaire Corinna vanGerwen
Corinna shares a stylish way to get guests in the countdown mood with her little DIY kit and you can read about it on her blog. We were so excited to see that she used our silver glitter window boxes and white stationery boxes to create these kits. We also sell sizzle and ribbon in lots of colors so if you are interested in making these yourself it will be easy to coordinate your party kits with your party decor!
Find more gift wrapping tips and inspiration by Corinna vanGerwen on her website and blog

Cheers! holiday wine bottle packaging inspiration using chalk markers, tissue paper pom poms and paper bows

Friday 6 December 2013



wine bottle containers | creativebag.com

Our cylinder wine containers are a staple at Creative Bag. They have a rich textured finish and look great just as they are with the simple white accent and rope handles. But if you are looking for a wine container to add a personal touch to for holiday gift giving these containers are perfect! And I've got a couple of diy packaging ideas for you!

The red container was decorated with a small white sparkle tissue paper pom pom* that I attached to the lid using two sided tape. If you have been reading our blog for a while you may remember seeing the "Dear Santa" tag that I created as a free download last year. I punched two holes in the tag and used a white ribbon to attach it to the container. 

*You can find my tutorial for making tissue paper pom poms here. Please note that to make this smaller pom pom I used 4 pieces of 10"x 15" sparkle tissue paper and opened all of the layers on the same side. 

The black container is another one of my chalk marker experiments. And yes, as you can see, chalk markers work on these containers! I created the vintage frame element in my chalk design by tracing around the "Dear Santa" tag. I added "cheers" inside the frame and added random snowflakes all over the rest of the container. I made the yellow paper bow using a download that I designed for Weddingbells magazine.

gift packaging inspiration by Lorrie Everitt for creativebag.com

You can printable paper bow download and instructions here. The download is for two bows so I added the second bow to one of our black and white jewellery boxes. These boxes have a high gloss finish and are stunning. I did not use chalk markers on this box ... you could ... but wanted to keep this packaging simple and keep the focus on the box and bow. 

diy bunting inspiration | Weddingbells

You can see my paper bow bunting project in the spring/summer 2014 Weddingbells magazine. 


Christmas wrapping is a piece of cake ...

Tuesday 3 December 2013

holiday gift wrapping ideas from creativebag.com | Lorrie Everitt's elegant rustic theme

I love our Rosanna cake stands. They are timelessly beautiful and I think that they would make a wonderful holiday gift. (Hint hint to my family if you are reading this!) But did you know that you can use our cake stands as a part of your holiday packaging!!  I guarantee when you walk in the door with this gift EVERYONE is going to be hoping they are on your holiday list this year.

In this holiday packaging project I combined one of our cake stands with two round boxes. I wanted to create an "elegant rustic" look so the burlap pattern on these boxes worked perfectly for me. We have an great assortment of colourful round boxes that will fit our cake stands and give you a completely different look! You can use whatever decorative elements you want to work with your colours and theme or just use ribbon and no extra decorations for simpler version!

Here's what I did ...
holiday gift wrapping ideas from creativebag.com | Lorrie Everitt's elegant rustic theme
a Stack the boxes from largest at the bottom to smallest at the top on the cake stand. To tie a ribbon around the boxes like mine, start at the base of the cake stand as shown in b and pull the ends of the ribbon up to the top of the smallest box. You can simply a knot with the ribbon or create a fabulous bow.  I also tied a piece of twine to the smaller box as a decorative detail. c I wanted to create a natural woodland theme to my packaging so I added a bird with a clip to the top of my "cake".  d The next layer down, I added a floral element on the left side. e The next layer down I added a small grouping of silver balls and burlap "leaves" on the right side to balance the floral element above.

holiday gift wrapping ideas from creativebag.com | Lorrie Everitt's elegant rustic theme
Here's another look at my gift packaging. It's almost too pretty to open! Don't you agree?

If you like the "elegant rustic" look for holiday packaging, here's two more ideas ...

holiday gift wrapping ideas from creativebag.com | Lorrie Everitt's elegant rustic theme

I love these silver glitter boxes with windows and attached ribbons. The boxes are beautiful and the best part is that the glitter does not come off! I told you in an earlier post how I make  wrapping paper bands using our wrapping paper cutter. I did the same technique for this package only I also used a Martha Stewart paper edge punch to create the scallop edges on my kraft paper band. I glued a David Tutera burlap flower to a mini clothespin and attached the clothespin to the ribbon. A small piece of diamond wrap was taped onto a plain kraft tag to add a little bling.

holiday gift wrapping ideas from creativebag.com | Lorrie Everitt's elegant rustic theme

And here's one more elegant rustic packaging idea. This time I used one of our burlap bottle bags to package a bottle of wine. It's embellished with a wool snowflake ornament, satin ribbon and a kraft tag embellished with glitter tape. I wrapped the satin ribbon around the top of the bag a few times to hide the drawstring on the burlap bag.

Creative Bag's cake stands by Rosanna featured in new Weddingbells magazine

Our Rosanna cake stands have been featured in the new Weddingbells magazine. Don't those cakes look amazing!!! The cake stands make a wonderful wedding keepsake that will be reused for many more years. You can purchase or order Rosanna cake stands in any of our retail stores.