Easy and Fun Paper Bag Snowflakes From Lunch Bags

You know I love an inexpensive DIY that looks expensive…that’s how I feel about these paper bag snowflakes and they are such a fun way to decorate for the holiday season! A few years ago, I bought paper snowflakes to put up in my dining area and paid almost $12 for a set of three. To make my version of these natural colored paper snowflakes were $1.98 from Walmart and I had bags left over for school lunches! a 50 bag pack will make about 3 large paper snowflakes. You could even make GIANT paper bag snowflakes with grocery bags.

To Make this project, you’ll need a few supplies: Brown paper lunch bags like the kiddos takes to school, a hot glue gun or super tacky white glue, strong scissors, stapler, White paper bags or natural kraft colored bags,  and clear tape or staples. You can try glue sticks for littles, but the glue might not hold well enough after.

To start making your paper bag snowflakes, lay the first bag flat on a work table surface. Run a bead of either hot glue or tacky white craft glue down the center of the bag and at the end of the bag at the base where it would stand up at the folded bottom (this is the best option if the kids are doing the project), creating an upside down T shape.

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Lay the second bag on top and repeat the process for the next paper bag as well. Continue laying the next bag on top of each other going in the same direction until you have a stack of about 12- 15 bags glued together.

At this point in your paper bag snowflake making, if you are using white craft glue you will have to wait until the glue dries. If you are using hot glue, you can continue on to the next step of cutting your snowflake pattern. If the glue isn’t holding a well as you would like, use a stapler on the edges to staple together near the bottom.

This next step is where you are going to make your snowflake pattern by using your scissors to cute to create different patterns and different shapes at the open end of the bag. I found when creating my paper stars to use a marker to draw my shapes on ahead of time It’s important to leave some intact places at the sides of the paper bags so they don’t come a part when “unfolding”.

When making patterns on your snowflake DIYs, try varying the cuts. To make a more pointy snowflake, cut the top of the bag to a point,and a gentler curve to make it more rounded. Try cutting large and small shapes out in the sides, always leaving a little bit of the edges of the bag attached.

I did find sometimes the bags together were too thick, and I had to cut through the side of the bags a few at a time instead of tackling the entire stack at once to get good cuts and shapes.

Once your paper bags are cut, grab the top of the first bag and the top of the last bag and gently open up your paper bag stars. The top edges should open until they touch each other. At this point you want to either staple, tape, or paper clip them together to hold the star in place.

While I made brown paper bag snowflakes, it’s pretty to mix white paper bag snowflakes in with them. You can even use a hole punch to make different designs and try large and small angle cuts.

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I added mine to my slat wall to dress up the holiday decorating in my dining area. I made a smaller snowflake by cutting the larger bags in half down the middle, and re-gluing the open edges. This is also a great way to get some different shapes snowflakes…they almost look more like stars. This size would be fun to make a paper garland with.

If you cut your bags down and glue the open edges, just make sure that all of the edges are lined up the same way, otherwise the DIY paper bag snowflakes won’t open correctly.

I love how they look. I bought some white paper lunch bags to hopefully make some smaller ones for my tree. They are such a fun and inexpensive way to add holiday cheer. You can also hang these with a piece of twine. They really remind me of war time holiday decor. In think my grandma had a version of these made from old wallpaper or tissue paper. There is a way to fold wallpaper to make smaller versions for Christmas decorating with. I think I might have to tackle that next!