Wishing you the very best this holiday season

Thursday 24 December 2015


We would like to extend our personal thanks to our family, our friends and most importantly our customers. From all of us at Creative Bag, we wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and much success and happiness in the New Year.




Bartender in a bottle gift ideas featured in Food & Drink

Friday 18 December 2015


We are exactly one week away from Christmas day and everyone I talk to seems to be in the final stages of getting ready to entertain family and friends for the holidays. Today I thought that I'd share with you some of the amazing ideas for holiday entertaining by the oh so talented gift stylist Corinna vanGerwen in the lastest issue of Food & Drink magazine.

bartender in a bottle ideas by Corinna vanGerwen featured in Food & Drink magazine

The LCBO's Food & Drink magazines always fly off the shelves quickly and it's not always easy to get a copy. You can always read it online here!

bartender in a bottle ideas by Corinna vanGerwen featured in Food & Drink magazinein 

We adored all of the diy ideas featured in the Bartender in a Bottle editorial feature. 

The packing details on these pre-made drinks (above) are fabulous and simple. Corinna recommended using candy canes or paper straws to recreate this project yourself.

bartender in a bottle ideas by Corinna vanGerwen featured in Food & Drink magazine

Still looking for a homemade hostess gift idea? Not really a baker? Then you have to check out this homemade mulled wine idea ...

bartender in a bottle ideas by Corinna vanGerwen featured in Food & Drink magazine

and these homemade cocktail gifts. You can find all of the recipes and packaging tips and tricks online.

bartender in a bottle ideas by Corinna vanGerwen featured in Food & Drink magazine

We also loved these mixed juices packaged in mason jars. Use them for a takeaway gift or to use at the party. Add a gift bow or pom-pom to the mason jar to make them look a little more festive!

create your own "bartender in a bottle" gifts using products from Creative Bag

Here's a few of our products to help you recreate these great bartender in a bottle ideas.






custom packaging inspiration from our customers

Tuesday 15 December 2015


custom boxes | Creative Bag

Beautiful packaging always gets our office staff a little excited. And that is exactly happened when we started passing around these custom boxes for ICLS

Of course, I had to add satin ribbon and a little holiday pick to dress up one of the boxes for holiday gift giving! 

custom boxes | Creative Bag

The box is from our exclusive Urban Market collection and the logo was hot stamped in silver foil. If you were thinking about having custom boxes made for your business or special event contact our Custom Services to find out more.

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Our friends at Petite and Sweet have published another online magazine. "She Entertains by Elle Daftarian" has a number of holiday entertaining and gift giving ideas in this winter edition. My diy project for adding gold foil dots to our canvas and linen bags is featured in the online magazine. 

diy gold foil gift bags | Creative Bag

You'll find the complete tutorial for decorating the bags here. 

diy gold foil gift bags | Creative Bag



our store holiday hours

Monday 14 December 2015

Our store staff are looking forward to spending some time off with their families during the holiday season. These are our holiday store hours for the end of December.




Join us for a Special MAKEFUL Workshop at BRIKA Yorkdale!

Saturday 12 December 2015

I'd like to personally invite you to attend a special Makeful Workshop at BRIKA Yorkdale on Wednesday December 16th from 6 to 8pm. This can be such a busy time of year so treat yourself to a couple of stress-free hours crafting with me. 

I'm going to show you how to use chalk markers so you can personalize a gift box and we'll create a festive tissue paper tassel garland. 

Space is limited and you must RSVP by December 14th to blueantevents@blueantmedia.ca

In lieu of a workshop fee everyone is requested to bring a non-perishable food item or small donation for the local foodbank. 

The BRIKA pop up shop in Yorkdale Mall is located just across from Second Cup. I hope to see you there on Wednesday!




free download and your last chance to enter the holiday gift away

Sunday 22 November 2015



In our last post about our third holiday giveaway I featured a picture of a tote bag filled with holiday goodies. The bag was embellished with an iron on transfer that I designed to go along with our 1961 collection. Today I'm going to share the graphics for the iron on transfer with you as a free download.


You can use the large iron on transfer on our large cotton tote bags


There are also two smaller designs in the printable that can be used on our small drawstring cotton and linen bags. If you like free downloads and printables you may want to follow our printables Pinterest board.


If you have not yet entered to win the 1961 holiday giveaway, this is your last chance ... time is running out. You can find the contest post to enter here.






third times a charm! enter our third and last holiday packaging giveaway

Tuesday 17 November 2015


Third times a charm! Didn't win our last two holiday giveaways? Don't worry ... we are going to give you one more chance to win! This third prize package is full of packaging and decoration products from our 1961 collection.


This bag is included in the giveaway. It's actually one of our plain cotton tote bags that I embellished with an iron transfer that I designed to co-ordinate with our 1961 collection


Here's a another look at all of the goodies in this prize package. Good luck!!


Countdown to the holidays inspiration from Style at Home and Creative Bag

Friday 13 November 2015





If you are planning to create a advent calendar to count down the holidays, November is the month to start planning and get your diy on. 

We were very excited to see what blogger Jennifer Flores from Rambling Renovations created using our cotton drawstring bags. You can see it in Style at Home November 2015 magazine.


Jennifer's refined rustic room was so beautiful - contemporary with lots of natural details. The fabric bags hanging on the mantle make such a great focal point and make a beautiful holiday decorating detail even if you don't have small children. You will find more decorating inspiration for the holidays on Jennifer's blog here.


Looking for more count down inspiration? Check out our Creative Living online magazine from last year here as well as on our Pinterest board



wrapping paper cake stand liners - make it yourself for the holidays

Thursday 5 November 2015



wrapping paper cake stand liners diy | Creative Bag

Wrapping paper can be used for so much more than just wrapping gifts. Here's another idea that you may want to add to your holiday diy list - make your own cake stand liners. 

wrapping paper cake stand liners diy | Creative Bag

Use the same wrapping papers that you have purchased for your holiday packaging to make your holiday cake stand liners. I also cut up a paper shopper and large pillow box to make a couple of my cake liners because I wanted a few different patterns that co-ordinated for a sweet table set up.

wrapping paper cake stand liners diy | Creative Bag

You can find a tutorial to make these here. Basically, you cut the wrapping paper into a shape that is slightly smaller than your cake stand and laminate the paper shape. You want to keep a sealed edge so that the paper will be waterproof. Cut the laminated paper so there is a quarter inch clear edge all around.

How do you laminate wrapping paper? You can use self adhesive laminating sheets or a laminating machine. Don't have access to a laminating machine? Don't worry, most local print shops offer same day and next day laminating services and they can laminate larger items easily.

wrapping paper cake stand liners diy | Creative Bag

 Mix patterns in similar colours to match your holiday decor. 
Tip: If you are using a square cake stand you may need to round the corners.

wrapping paper cake stand liners diy | Creative Bag

 It's a little easier to see the clear laminate edge on the cake liners above.

wrapping paper cake stand liners diy | Creative Bag

These were created using a combination of wrapping paper, a pillow box and a paper bag ... we'll be using them all together for a sweet table presentation.

wrapping paper cake stand liners diy | Creative Bag

We have a variety of different cake stands and wood slabs in our stores. These wrapping paper cake liners would be perfect to use on wood slabs too!

wrapping paper diy ideas | Creative Bag

There are so many things that you can do with wrapping paper this holiday season. Here's some ideas that we featured last year - frame it for instant holiday art, sew these little advent treat bags, decorate candles for a centre piece and cover up books on your bookshelf to match your holiday decor.

Have you used wrapping paper in a creative way? We'd love to see what you've done! Leave us a comment and a link to your project below.




enter to win our second holiday packaging giveaway!

Tuesday 3 November 2015



Here's another chance to get an early start on your holiday packaging and decorating with an assortment of black and white products from our Urban Market collection

holiday giveaway #2 - enter to win! | Creative Bag

This reusable tote bag is included in the prize package. The bag folds up for easy storage and I talked about how easy it is to customize this bag in this post. 

holiday giveaway #2 - enter to win! | Creative Bag

Here's another look at all of the goodies in this prize package. 



Creative marketing tip: customize our reusable tote bags with your logo or artwork

Thursday 29 October 2015



customize reusable tote bags | Creative Bag

Looking for a creative way to market your business this holiday season? Let us add your logo to our reusable tote bags. It's a great way to promote your business and give your customer something that they can reuse again and again.

Use these bags as a gift with purchase (GWP) for instore promotions, load them up with your products for holiday gift giving, include them in a giveaway gift basket or hand them out at tradeshows and charity events.

customize reusable tote bags | Creative Bag


We have a variety of reuseable tote bags to choose from and they are all available in a number of different colours. Don't think you will meet the custom order minimums - think again! Our minimum for printing one colour on one side is only 150 bags! Contact our custom services department for a quote and more information about our custom products




love you more than candy!

Thursday 22 October 2015


Halloween falls on a Saturday this year and a lot of our customers have talked to us about their holiday entertaining plans. If you are hosting a Halloween party and still looking for some over the top entertaining ideas you're going to love the newest edition of SheEntertains by Elle Daftarian. You can view the online magazine here.

diy treat bags | Creative Bag

Featured in the magazine is a diy watercolour tutorial using our cotton tote and drawstring bags. I created these for Elle to use at a kid's Halloween party for favor bags. 

diy treat bags | Creative Bag

Although these projects were designed for a Halloween party, I think that they could be created for anytime of year because hey, who doesn't love watercolour art and candy?!

candy and favor packaging | Creative Bag
Have you or are you planning on using our candy and favor packaging for a special event? Post it on Instagram with #creativebagco so we can see what you've been up to!