How to dress up a plain gift bag with a marker!

 I bought my friend, Pattie, a housewarming gift and like routine, I went and picked up a gift bag. But Pattie is a hardcore crafty type like me - I couldn't give it to her undecorated! So I worked a little marker magic like this...

 Here's the blank bag. I love the brown paper, perfect for drawing on! I just started in one corner and made swirly flowers in assorted sizes.

 Next, I added leaves, and then I drew doodles inside each flower to make them stand out. I also added accent lines in the open spaces.

Pattie loved it. I didn't tell her I made the bag, later she found out I did and was even more excited. "I thought you bought it this way!" she squealed. That made my whole day!

The lesson here is that you don't need a lot of fancy supplies to embellish a gift. One black marker can go a long way. And it looks great on any solid color, or maybe even a patterned background! You can also make your own wrapping ppaer by buying a roll of brown paper and tearing off large sheets and doodling on them. Watch a movie or listen to your favorite music, make a night out of it!