How To

Make Halloween Treat Bags

Halloween treat bags can be made for parties, trick-or-treaters, or to share with friends and loved ones.

Six brown paper gift bags with black and white or orange and white ties, and one bag featuring a black bat with newspaper background.

Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine

Photo Credit : Katherine Keenan
If you celebrate Halloween, then you probably have several opportunities to share Halloween treats with others.  Whether you’re hosting a party, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, preparing goodie bags for your child’s classroom celebration, you will most likely need treat bags!  I have purchased treat bags before but most of them lay flat which makes prepping several bags at once a challenge.  This year I bought plain miniature paper bags and used a quick design to create my own Halloween treat bags.
Halloween Treat Bags
Halloween Treat Bags
Photo Credit : Bonnie Thomas

Materials to Make Halloween Treat Bags

  • Miniature to small paper bags (these can be purchased at a craft store, usually in the gift bag section)
  • Black and orange decorative ribbon or twine
  • White and black acrylic paint
  • A paper plate
  • A pencil with an attached eraser that hasn’t been used
  • A hole punch
  • Scissors — if you have a pair that cuts with a decorative edge, that’s even better!
  • Glue
  • Newspaper, old newsprint, or an old book page
  • Black Sharpie marker
Halloween Treat Bags
Halloween Treat Bags
Photo Credit : Bonnie Thomas

Directions to Make Halloween Treat Bags

  1. Divide your bags into 3 equal piles.
  2. To make the polka dotted bags, pour a small amount of the white or black paint onto your paper plate.  Dip the tip of the pencil eraser into the paint and then use the eraser like a stamp to make a line of polka dots across the bags.  Do 1/3 of your bags with the white polka dots and then 1/3 of your bags with a line of black polka dots.  Set these bags aside to dry.
  3. To make the bat bags, use your scissors to cut small squares of newsprint.  Draw and color a bat onto each square using the black Sharpie marker.  Glue the square onto the remainder of your bags. (If you do not know how to draw a bat you could use bat stickers or draw something else that you feel comfortable drawing, such as a pumpkin or ghost).
  4. When the bags have dried, fold the tops over and use the hole punch to create 2 holes along the top edge.  You can put them close together or further apart, but you will need 2 holes.
  5. Stand the bags up and fill them with with your holidays treats (or tricks!).
  6. Fold the tops of the bags over and then tie with your decorative ribbon.  As you can see, I used different ribbon and experimented with different ways to tie them.
    Halloween Treat Bags
    Halloween Treat Bags
    Photo Credit : Bonnie Thomas
Halloween Treat Bags
Halloween Treat Bags
Photo Credit : Bonnie Thomas
Halloween Treat Bags
Halloween Treat Bags
Photo Credit : Bonnie Thomas
These treat bags will surely please any goblins you share them with.  Happy Halloween! This post was first published in 2014 and has been updated. 

Bonnie Thomas

More by Bonnie Thomas

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