How to Decorate Halloween Paper Bags

Kids can personalize paper treat bags with scary faces, black cats and more.

Halloween is a scary -- but not too scary -- holiday that kids love. They have fun planning their costumes and masks. They enjoy parties at school, but the climax of Halloween is going out trick-or-treating and getting their bags filled with goodies. Their bags can be plain, but it is much more fun for the kids if they can decorate their own Halloween paper bags with goblins, black cats or other spooky images as they wish.

Things You'll Need

• Soft pencil
• Hard pencil
• Card stock paper
• Scissors
• Flat backed toy eyes
• White glue

Instructions

1. Find an image that you want to use to decorate your paper bag. Coloring books have simple images you can trace, or you can draw your own design on a piece of paper. Black cats, ghosts, bats and jack-o'-lanterns are traditional Halloween figures.

2. Use a very soft pencil and outline the drawing or tracing you have made. Place it face down on your card stock and follow the outline with a hard pencil. This will transfer the design onto the card-stock.

3. Cut out your figures from the card stock with scissors.

4. Glue your pieces onto the bag. Glue the moving eyes to the faces.

Tips & Warnings

• Paper bags make fun luminaries for Halloween. Paint black figures on the bags. Weight the bottoms of the bags with a few inches of sand and place a battery powered tea light on top of the sand. Do not use real candles because of the fire hazard.

• Do not allow small children to cut the card stock.

References

• Moneywise Moms: DIY Day: Halloween Paper Bag Decor
• Parents: Halloween Treat Bags and Boxes

Resources

• The Shabby Chic Cottage: Halloween, It's in the Bag!