How to Make Custom Kraft Bags for your Wedding Candy Buffet

How to Customize Bags for your Candy Buffet!

While we did not have a candy bar or treat buffet at our wedding we did serve a treat called a cake ball. Not a cupcake or a cake pop but HUGE cake balls in five different flavors. Knowing we would be serving a heavy meal at dinner we anticipated guests might want to take treats home instead of eating them at the wedding. I also knew we would have a TON left over so we wanted guests to take as much of the desserts home as possible. I did not want to use just plain old bags so I thought stamping them would be fun! Here is a short tutorial on how I made custom bags for my dessert table!

 

Here is a list of what you will need:

* Mini Kraft Bags - Purchased from Amazon in Kraft/Brown paper (they also made them in white)

* A Rubber Stamp

* Ink Pad 

* Cardboard cut from a cereal box

I got a pack of 100 bags and I stamped them all. On the first few I did, I did not put anything inside the bags - I just stamped them on the table. As it turned out, this was the incorrect way to go about it...

Now, this was NOT me over zealously pushing the inked stamp onto the paper. After I evenly inked the stamp I pressed it onto the paper but the pattern did not come out "straight". As you can see it was missing in some areas at the bottom and was too heavy at the top. This was due to the fact that the bottom of the bag is folded and the crease caused the irregularity.

 

This was my solution to the problem! I cut up two hard cardboard pieces of a candy box but you could use a cereal or cracker box. I cut two pieces just big enough to slide inside a closed kraft bag.

I slid the cardboard into the closed bag like so, and this gave me a nice flat surface to stamp on! The trick to stamping all the bags was to evenly coat the stamp and also blot it out on some paper towels from time to time to keep the build-up of ink at bay. I had recurring bird decor in my wedding so I chose a very detailed branch with birds stamp. In hindsight, a simpler stamp would probably been much easier to use.

I was very happy with how these turned out. The size of each bag was also perfect since they comfortably held two cake balls and still had room at the top to fold over. I made 100 of these but honestly I think only 20 were taken and used. We had a TON of cake left over so we invited our guests to please take another serving.

I had several people ask me months after the wedding were I got the bags because they are really perfect for candy bars at birthday parties and weddings. I purchased these from Amazon for $6.00. These are truly mini bags; they are only 3 inches wide by 6 inches tall. In terms of time spent on this project it felt like it took absolutely forever to make all these. If I had used an easier, less intricate stamp it would have gone much quicker. If I had to do it over again I probably would have used a nice printed sticker or glued something onto the bag instead of using a rubber stamp. On the other hand the stamp I used was the perfect size for these bags and they turned out really pretty.

How to Make Elegant Wedding Corsages

After I made all the boutonnieres for the men I was really, really on the fence regarding corsages. It was not that I did not want to make something special for the mom's, I was just not really into the whole concept of a tie-on wrist corsage. I am just going to be honest, in my opinion traditional wedding corsages are very much out of date. Old fashioned. Prom. My brother gave me a wrist corsage when I graduated from high school and while it was gorgeous, I bumped it on everything and some of the flowers fell off. It had to be tied onto my wrist with a ribbon as well which was not super practical. I was also bummed at the end of the night when I had to throw it away since it was made of real flowers. I knew whatever I made I wanted it to last and be a keepsake since I knew they would be kept.

This all being said, it has been much more common in recent years to give mothers, grandmothers, sisters single roses or small bouquets to hold or carry instead. Initially I was going to present our special ladies with small bouquets, however logistically this was just not going to work. My mother would be with me all morning, grandma would be arriving with my aunt, and my in-laws would be riding with my sister in law and her family. To further complicate things my brother was in charge of escorting my grandmother to her seat so she would not be walking down the aisle, and my in laws also opted to just be seated instead of walking the aisle together. I knew my mother would be wearing a chiffon dress as well, so a pin-on or lapel style would not work. So, after much things considered I went forward with a more modern take on a wrist corsage.

Here is a list of what you will need:

* Elastic Pearl Wristlets - I searched everywhere for a suitable ELASTIC wristlet and the best ones I found were at Hobby Lobby.
* Greenery - I had left over fern fronds from my boutonniere project but I got these at Michael's
* Wired Gems - Again, another left over from the boutonniere project
* Flowers or Rosettes - I two kinds of flowers found in the wedding section at Hobby Lobby
* Glue gun and hot glue sticks

If you have never used a pre-made wrist corsage before this is a bit confusing. The style I chose had a "pearl" band and it was elastic and in the center is this metal and ribbon piece. The four metal tabs bend to hold down greenery while the ribbon can be used to secure other items.

I started out by cutting and placing a fern frond in the center of the metal piece and bent the tabs down to hold it in place. I was going to cut and discard the ribbon but I thought it would look nice as an embellishment so I tied them in the center as you see above.

I then took two pieces of the wired gems and coiled the ends so it would have a decent surface area which I glued with hot glue directly onto the tied ribbon. I glued it onto the ribbon because the fern fronds were plastic and the hot glue actually made them melt a little - but once dry everything was perfectly fine and it all stayed in place.

The "chiffon" florets I chose had center stems that I cut off with scissors and these had a nice, large felt pad on the base perfect for a dab of hot glue. I glued this into the center - over the glued wire which added even more support.

I then glued two smaller flowers on each side to make the corsage "full". If you have a piece of greenery sticking out at the bottom you can cut it at this time. I cut mine then disguised the end of the stem with a tiny rosette I had on hand. I made my corsages flow in one direction since I had a fall wedding and the ladies were all in long sleeves. It would be very easy to make these in two directions however to trail down the hand and up the arm.

This is how they looked when they were done! I cut the tie down ribbon slightly but I liked that it remained. The chiffon flower I used came in over 20 different colors at Hobby Lobby so you could choose a color to fit your theme.

I made three total; one for my mother, my mother in law, and my grandmother. I chose white to avoid any clashing with whatever colors they would be wearing and I used elements that were used in the boutonnieres so it was all tied together.

This project took less than 45 minutes to make all three, and the total cost was under $15 for materials.