WHAT I MADE

I made a gift bag in the style of a unicorn to wrap a birthday gift for a friend's daughter! This was a project I threw together the night before the birthday party using scrap pieces of wrapping and tissue paper along with other supplies I had at home. I also added a monogrammed heart-shaped gift bag tag with a unicorn horn and ears that I designed and 3D printed.

WHY I MADE THIS

I had originally ordered a birthday gift bag online, but it was the night before the birthday party, and the gift bag hadn't arrived yet, so I needed a back up plan. I specifically wanted a gift bag because there were multiple gift items, and one of them -- a backpack -- was soft and an odd shape (which would've been hard to wrap with gift wrap). All I had available were gift bags for other special occasions (or ones that might not have looked too out of place but were way too small), plain white bags, paper grocery bags, and bags from stores/restaurants with their logos and designs. So I looked around my craft room and came up with the general idea of transforming a plain white paper bag into an abstract unicorn!

THE RESULT

This project was a fun way to use up a nice piece of wrapping paper that was too small to wrap most gifts. I was also able to reuse the good portions of a piece of torn tissue paper from a gift bag I was given. This unicorn gift bag project consisted of some other unusual uses of materials, for example:

Wrapping paper not wrapping around the gift
Tissue paper used on the outside of the gift bag
Tissue paper cut up into strips for a tail and twisted up for a flower crown

There was some trial and error involved, but I'm happy with how it turned out -- I hope the birthday girl liked it too!

Supplies

Materials

Plain white paper bag with handles
Striped wrapping paper
Tissue paper (white, light pink, dark pink, pale green) -- can be new or used (even torn!)
Ribbon (white/coordinating colors)
Clear tape
PLA filament (white, fuchsia, silk light gold)

Equipment

Bambu Lab X1C 3D printer
Bambu Lab Automatic Material System (AMS)
Hole punch (single)
Scissors
Rotary cutter
Cutting mat

Software

Autodesk Fusion 360
Bambu Studio

Step 1: 3D Model Gift Bag Tag

In Autodesk Fusion 360, I created the sketch using the mirror tool to create a symmetrical tag.

These are the tools I used to create each of the elements of the sketch (under the Create menu):

Heart & ears: Spline > Control Point Spline
Horn: Conic Curve
"H": Text

After finishing the sketch, I extruded the individual parts at the thicknesses I wanted and added a fillet to the horn for a more rounded look. Refer to the GIF for details.

I saved the mesh as an STL file and have attached it here -- if you would like other letters, feel free to reach out to me!

unicorn-heart-h.stl
Download View in 3D

Step 2: Assign Filament Colors to 3D Model

On the Bambu Lab AMS, I set up the filament I wanted for the print:

Fuchsia
White
Silk Light Gold

In Bambu Studio, using the 0.4 nozzle preset, I imported the STL file and split it to parts so I could assign different colors to each part in the Objects view. Refer to the GIF for details.

TIP: In Bambu Studio, instead of clicking or double clicking on the color/number box to open the dropdown menu to choose your color, you can simply hover over the box and type the number (i.e. 1, 2, 3 or 4).

Step 3: 3D Print Gift Bag Tag

After assigning the filament colors for the parts, I sliced the plate and printed it in about 1.5 hours.

Step 4: Make Unicorn Horn

I had a piece of scrap wrapping paper from wrapping a large gift years ago, so this piece has been sitting around waiting to be used!

Roll up a piece of wrapping paper, preferably striped (or you can try layering and offsetting two pieces of solid colored wrapping paper to create the same effect). Pull the inner edge out by the corner and make it into a horn of the shape and size that would look nice for your gift bag. Tape the outer corner.

I didn't tape the inside of mine, but I would also try a small piece of tape on the top of the inside too so it doesn't accidentally collapse.

Step 5: Secure Unicorn Horn to Bag

Determine the height you want the flower crown and add holes to the side of the bag using a hole punch -- mine were about 1" from the top.

TIP: You can fold the inside of the bag together on the crease and punch two holes at once for symmetry.

Hold the horn on the inside of the bag where you want it to be and use tape to secure the bottom of it to the inside of the bag. Use ribbon through the holes and around the horn to tie it in place. Use additional tape as needed.

Step 6: Make Flowers for Flower Crown

Cut strips of tissue paper in the colors you want for the flowers. I cut them to be about 2.5" wide and 20" long. I tried rolling these up in different ways (e.g. tightness, sloppiness) to create different styles of flowers. Each roll is actually two flowers in a group of 4 -- twist the roll in the middle to define the two flowers better.

Step 7: Assemble & Attach Flower Crown to Bag

Build a group of 4 flowers by crossing two flower "rolls" in an "X" shape and tie ribbon around to secure them to each other -- squeeze to shape the group of flowers to look nice. Punch as many holes on the bag as you need to attach your flowers and tie them to the bag with the ribbon.

Step 8: Cut Pieces for the Tail

Determine the length of tissue paper strips you need. It depends on the dimensions of your bag, how high you want to attach the tail, and how long you want the tail to hang (e.g. touching the floor or not) -- the length of the tissue paper will need to be doubled because the strips will be tied together in the middle to attach to the bag.

You can fold the tissue paper in half and hold it up to the bag to eyeball it to make sure it's long enough. You can always make them longer and trim later.

Cut the strips of tissue paper for the tails to about 1" in width.

I ended up using white, light pink, dark pink and a pale green. Consider what colors coordinate well with the horn and your gift bag tag, or use what you have on hand like I did!

Step 9: Assemble & Attach Tail to Bag

Fold the inside of the bag together and punch two holes at once at the height where you want the tail to be (mine were about 4" from the top). Use ribbon to tie all your strips of tissue paper in the middle and then pull both ends of the ribbon into the bag through the punched holes and tie a knot here to secure the tail to the gift bag.