My oldest daughter recently graduated from high school, and when discussing party themes, she chose Groovy Grad. She has been very interested in 70s music and culture lately, so it was a perfect fit! She had tickets to see Stevie Nicks in concert the month before, and sadly, the show was canceled at the last minute due to illness within her band. We decided to channel all the 70s vibes for her Groovy Grad party.
I had chosen lots of decorations full of peace signs, flowers, VW buses, etc., and needed to come up with some food ideas to match the theme. We would have lots of out-of-town family visiting for the party and graduation, so I needed some ideas I could prep in the weeks leading up to the party. I decided to make some custom chip bags to match the party's theme. The chip bags were very easy to make, and could be prepped weeks in advance, but looked super cute!
To make your own chips bags you will need:
A chip bag template
Scissors
Hot Glue or Double Sided tape
And a Paper Crimper
I found this Fully Customizable Groovy Chip Bag Template. My first step was to edit the template with my daughter's name, some graduation-themed details, and our party date. This template would also work for many groovy-themed birthday parties (like 2 groovy or peace out single digits for a 10th birthday). This designer also had templates for tons of other party themes!
Once I was happy with the template, it was time to print it out. I printed 30 copies on Glossy Thin Photo Paper to make 30 chip bags for the party.
After printing I trimmed away the small white border from the top, bottom. I then flipped the paper over so I was looking at the solid white back. I lifted both the left and right short sides together and overlapped them slightly (just slightly larger than the white border).
You can use either double-sided tape or hot glue to join the sides together (I opted for hot glue). I ran a thin line of hot glue from the top to bottom on one side's white border and then pressed the other side on top of the glue.
During this step, you don’t want to crease the outside of the bag, so avoid forcing the paper to fold in this position, and just curl the outside edges together.
If using hot glue, allow the glue to cool and dry before moving to the next step. I did my bags in batches and joined the back seam together on all my bags before crimping the edges. After the glue is dry, you want to crimp the top and bottom of the bag. I used this Paper Crimper to make my bags. You open the paper crimper insert the top of the bag, close the paper crimper, and turn the knob 3 to 4 turns, then open the crimper, turn the knob 3 to 4 turns in the opposite direction and remove the bag. Repeat this step on the bottom of the bag.
This is how to crimping should look! It definitely makes it look like a store-bought bag of chips!
Since I was making my bags several weeks before my party, I left my chips inside their store-bought bag and slid it into the sleeve I had created. This is the preferred method so the chips won’t get stale or allow any grease to soak into the photo paper. If you are making them the day of your event, you could put loose chips inside. Once the store-bought chips were centered inside the sleeve, it was time to close up the bag.
You can close the top and bottom of the bag with either double-sided tape or hot glue (again I opted for hot glue). I ran a thin line of hot glue just below the outermost crimp and pressed the edges together to seal the chips inside.
As I mentioned, I prepped these weeks before the party, and on the day of the event only had to pull them out and sit them on the food table. They looked super cute and were an extra big hit with the kids that attended her party!
I will definitely be making more to match future party themes! I think these would also be great for some events at school! I am a room mom for my daughter's class and love to make their snacks cute. Our school allows room moms to repackage store-bought food, but we can't cook anything. Making some more custom chip bags would be a great way to dress up a store-bought bag of chips.
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