How to Make Halloween Crafts With a Paper Bag

Halloween is a great time to start the holiday crafting cycle. Paper grocery, bakery or lunch bags are a versatile medium for crafters to use for many projects. You can make Halloween decorations with paper bags, or you can encourage your children to design and decorate their own trick or treat bags. Small white paper bags can be found in the craft section of stores for ghost crafts. You may want to recycle your clean shopping bags for many of these projects.

Things You'll Need

Paper bags
Newspaper
Masking tape
Paint or markers
Construction paper
Pipe cleaners
Reflective tape
Scissors
Glue
Paper punch
String or ribbon

Instructions

Making a Jack-O'-Lantern

Step 1: Crumple newspapers, and stuff a paper bag half full of them. Twist the top of the bag shut while making a round pumpkin shape.

Step 2: Use masking tape to seal the twisted top, creating a stem.

Step 3: Paint or color the bag orange using paints or markers.

Step 4: Decorate the face of the jack-o'-lantern with black and yellow construction paper or paint.

Step 5: Wrap a green pipe cleaner around a pencil. Pull the coiled piece from the pencil and attach it to the jack-o'-lantern stem.

Making a Trick or Treat Bag

Step 6: Draw a design on a paper bag that has sturdy handles.

Step 7: Paint or fill in the design with colored markers or crayons.

Step 8: Attach pieces of reflective tape to the front and sides of the bag.

Making a Halloween Garland

Step 9: Make a set of eyes and a mouth from a piece of paper bag that is painted black. Glue them onto a small white paper bag to create a "ghost."

Step 10: Punch a hole in the top of the bag on each side with a paper punch.

Step 11: Thread the end of a 4- to 6-feet piece of string or ribbon through the holes of one bag. Tie a large knot to keep the other end from pulling through.

Step 12: Draw the outline of several bats on a large brown paper bag. Paint or color in the bat shapes. Glue paper punch circle eyes onto the bats.

Step 13: Tape a bat next to a ghost on the garland string or ribbon. Thread on a second ghost bag. Continue adding bats and ghosts until done. You can also add pumpkin shapes to the garland.

Tips & Warnings
- Cut a wavy line at the bottom of the white bags to make them appear more "ghostly."