A heat shrinkable gift bag is configured for at-home shrink wrapping of gift boxes using a home hair dryer. The gift bag consists of a monolithic sheet of heat shrinkable plastic film formed into an envelope style bag. The plastic film is a PVC-based film having a heat activation range in the heat range of a hair dryer. The film has a gauge thickness of about 80-100 gauge, and further has a 30--30 balanced shrink ratio to provide uniform shrinkage upon the application of heat. The plastic film is converted into a side-weld type bag having a rear bag panel and a front bag panel, the front bag panel being shorter than the rear bag panel to provide a lip. The front and rear bag panels are welded along opposing side edges thereof. In order to provide tight engagement of the box to be wrapped, the dimensions of the bag are preferably about 10-15% larger than the dimensions of the box. A self-adhesive strip is disposed on the lip of the bag to close the bag. The outer surface of the plastic film has a central printed area and narrow border strips extending along opposing side edges of the central printed area. The border strips are not printed to prevent the printing inks from melting and sticking to the seal bars upon welding.