It’s In The Bag Spooktacular!

4

October 25, 2012 by Decorum DIYer

Happy Thursday, everyone!  Well, I have been a busy little bee this week.  I am volunteering at my son’s school and coordinating a class Halloween party to be held this Friday.  Of course, the children will be wearing costumes, participating in a parade, and making Halloween crafts.  The other parent volunteer, my partner in crime, and I are responsible for making it a great time for the entire class and their parents.

What was I thinking?

Here is what I was working on until 3:00 a.m. this morning.  It is okay, I had my one-year old and two-year old to keep me company, as neither of them slept through the night.  Seriously, my little one, Ascher, was wide awake at 2:30 a.m., singing and talking in his crib, with an occasional karate kick to the bedroom wall.  Ugh!

Halloween gift bags: ‘Owl and Bat’ and ‘Mummy’.

I ordered plenty of craft supplies from Oriental Trading early on, but two of my selections were sold out before I even had a chance!  So, I needed to do what I do best: be resourceful to get the same crafty look.  I had an idea brewing, but wasn’t sure if it would work or not.  I thought, “Why not use crepe paper ribbon/streamers to cover the bag’s front and then add googily eyes and a mouth for a mummy?”  I checked Pinterest to see if anyone else had experimented with this idea and this is what I found:

Mummy wrapped candy bar. The bat is cute too. (Click image to be linked to tons of other diy Halloween craft ideas.)

Plain, white gift bag with black paper cut-outs to create a ghost bag. (Click image for link and how-to.)

Of course, in my mind, I saw the two merged together.

Supplies needed for 12 ‘mummy’ gift bags:

• 12 white gift bags (any size – your choice dependent upon its intended use) – Oriental Trading $8.00
• white crepe paper (2 rolls, although you could get away with one roll, if you are more economical about how you ‘wrap’ your mummy) – Dollar Tree $1.00
• white craft glue (easiest if you apply with small paint brush) – already owned
• small paint brush – already owned
• pencil (white colored pencil is best – for drawing and tracing mouth) – already owned
• scissors (for cutting out mouth) – already owned
• black construction paper or card stock – Dollar Tree $1.00
• googily eyes (size dependent upon your bag’s size) – Dollar Tree $1.00

Project budget total:  $11.00 (although I still have some supplies remaining)

Here is how I did it.  Pardon the photos, I am not a photographer (clearly) and it was approaching 3:00 a.m..

First, I adhered two strips of crepe paper ribbon to the side edges of the bag’s front using white glue.  I didn’t measure them, I simply painted a thin layer of glue on the edges of the bag, laid the crepe paper ribbon over the edge and trimmed off at the bottom.

Next I added two strips of crepe paper ribbon, the width of the bag, to the top and the bottom edges.  Again, I didn’t measure.  The top edge I dropped down about one inch from the actual top of the bag to avoid the bumps of the handles and for a cleaner appearance.

Next, using strips of crepe paper ribbon the width of the bag, I zig-zagged my way from top to bottom, being sure to leave little nooks and crannies for a ‘wrapped’ look.  I used seven pieces zig-zagged to cover the 11″ x 15″ bags.

Lastly, using white glue, I adhered two, large, googly eyes and a hand-drawn mouth I cut from black card stock.  Once I drew and cut out the first mouth, I used it as a template for the rest by tracing it.  This would give the bags some uniformity.  I was sure to tuck at least one eye partially under the zig-zagged crepe paper ribbon to further emphasize the wrapped effect.

Pretty easy, huh?  They turned out better than I thought.

Of course, I was nervous that they wouldn’t work out, so I needed a back up plan.

While at the dollar store, I saw these:

15 paper owl silhouettes for $1.00

I grabbed two packs, so $2.00 total.  Each pack contained two different cut out shapes; one of an owl on a branch, and one of just an owl.

I preferred the owl on the branch, so decided to use only that one.

‘Owl on branch’ silhouette adhered to the gift bag with white craft glue. Of course, I suppose one could find a similar silhouette online and cut it out, should these not be found at the store.

I felt the bag still needed something to balance it out, so my husband drew a simple bat silhouette for me (again, you could find one online, cut, trace, cut, etc…).

After cutting out the initial bat (using the same piece of black card stock as for the ‘mummy’ mouths), I traced eleven more.  Here I only used a #2 pencil, so it is difficult to see in the photo.

Bat silhouette traced onto black card stock.

Owl and bat silhouette adhered to the gift bag. Googily eyes added to bat (again, leftovers from the ‘mummy’ project). Although, I used two different sizes of googily eyes for the 12 gift bags, so the bats with the larger of the two eyes sizes look more like owls to me.

So, this project’s total was only the $8.00 cost for 12 large, white, gift bags and the $2.00 for the owl silhouettes.

Of course, I still have the ‘non-branch’ owl silhouettes leftover.

Both of the above projects could easily be accomplished by school-aged children with adult supervision.

24 completed gift bags for around $20!

 

Hey, don’t forget to see other amazing Pinterest-inspired projects over at Young House Love.!

<img src=”http://cdn.oneprojectcloser.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/LinkButton.jpg” alt=”The Humble Brag Link Party” style=”border:none;” />

http://www.somewhatsimple.com/blog-link-party-with-rich-mom/#comment-37747

<img src=”http://www.houseofhepworths.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/HookinupwithHoHnew2.png” alt=”HookingupwithHoH” />

Until next time…, happy crafting!