How to Make Paper Bag Luminaries | Easy Halloween & Fall Decoration

Paper Bag Luminaries are fast, easy and inexpensive to make. They're perfect for Halloween and fall decorating.

Gather Your Materials: Leaves of various shapes and sizes or a leaf stencil; a pencil; brown, black, and white paper bags (ones from a crafts store work better than basic lunch sacks); an X-acto knife with a fresh blade; decorative-edge scissors; a large sewing needle; sand; battery-operated or glass votive candles

Get the Look: Collect leaves from the yard. (Tip: Pick leaves right before crafting so they are soft and flexible. Dried leaves are harder to use.) Next, trace the design with a pencil onto the outside of a brown or black paper bag, and cut out the design with the X-acto knife. (Note: We folded a piece of paper or cardboard and placed it inside the bag to avoid cutting through the other side.) Use scissors to cut the tops off both the dark and white bags. Place a white bag inside each darker one as a liner. Add 2 inches of sand to anchor the bag, and nestle the candle in the bottom.