Paper Bag Portrait Luminaries

Now that October has finally arrived we are ready to cover our houses with all the ghosts, goblins, and ghouls! Much like around Christmas time, I love walking around the neighborhood to check out all the different decorations that will soon greet the Trick-or-Treaters. So with that in mind, we decided to create some paper bag portrait luminaries to line your walkway to welcome all your spooky guests! You’ve probably seen a rendition of paper bag lanterns, but these ones each don an old black and white portrait to give a spooky touch. Think Disney’s Haunted House. With basic white paper bags, a printer, and some tea lights, you can create these easy lanterns and make sure your guests are properly watched over 😉

Continue to get the full tutorial!

Paper Bag Portrait Luminaries

Materials: 

• White Paper bags, we used 5″ by 9″ bags
• White printer paper
• Ink-jet printer
• Scissors
• Gluestick
• Tea Lights
• Creepy Portrait Images to Download

Instructions: 

1. Size the images to fit the size of your paper bag
2. Print images out on regular printer paper and trim off any excess white paper.
3. Cut a window out of one side of the paper bag, slightly smaller than the image so there is a small overlap when the image is placed over the window.
4. Apply glue along the edges of each image and place directly over the cut window on the paper bag. Make sure the image adheres to the bag.
5. Fill with tea lights or other candle and line your walkway with all your friendly guests!

Alternate process for direct printer :

1. Using paper bags with no waxy finish, flatten each bag so that it lays as flat as possible.
2. Adjust your ink jet printer settings so that they fit the size of your bags.
3. Print off the portraits onto each of the bags.

Photography by Clara Jones