Create Your Own
“Trick or Treat!” Goodie Bags
Level of Difficulty: Medium - This craft is simple enough for a 5 or 6 year old to do with adult
supervision, and one that kids of all ages will enjoy making and using. If you have any questions
while doing the craft, please click on Contact Us and we will respond as quickly as possible.
Estimated Completion time:
30 - 90 minutes (drying time for paint may vary)
List of Materials you will need:
•
Goodie bag – A recycled fiber-cloth grocery bag with handles. (These are given away with
purchase or for low cost at many retailers. If you do not have a spare bag around the house, try
using a pillowcase or purchasing plain cloth bags at a craft retailer.)
•
Version 1 - Painted:
o Paintbrush
o Basic Craft Paint
o Paper or plastic to protect your work surface.
•
Version 2 – Peel & Stick:
o Scissors
o Double-sided sticky Tape
o Felt &/or Fabric
o Trim to match your costume or theme: fake fur, tulle, etc.
Introduction:
You can make your own “Trick or Treat!” Goodie Bag to match your costume or just to add to
the general Halloween theme. These days there are many stores that give away strong fabric
bags with handles made from recycled plastics. Hopefully you have one or more of these
around the house. If not, you can buy a new one at the craft store or use an old pillowcase.
Another option is to use a paper bag with handles and reinforce the whole bag and handles
with duct tape. It is easiest to start with a bag that is already a color that works with your
costume or theme, but like our Frankenstein example, we started with a white bag and painted
the whole thing green and black.
If you’re planning on having a Halloween party you can make this part of the festivities by
providing miniature bags that you’ve decorated in advance or have the kids decorate their
own as part of the fun.
When you are done we would love to see your creations. Please go to our gallery and upload
your finished masterpiece.
Instructions:
Version 1 – Painted
1. Decide upon a theme for your bag. For this example we
used Frankenstein but you can also just make general
Halloween themed bags, with orange and black and bats
and spider webs and “Happy Halloween!”
2. Take a plain bag and place a piece of paper or plastic
inside the bag so that when you paint on one side it does
not bleed through to the other side and stick together.
Also, if there is any printing on the bag, paste a piece of
paper or cloth over the printing with a color of paper that
matches the bag.
3. Paint your background colors first
and set aside to dry.
4. When the first layer is dry, go back
and paint the details. If you’re not
sure how to create a specific animal
or character try going to Google
Images. In this case I typed in
“Frankenstein” and was able to see
many pictures to help me define him.
5. If you have any “glow-in-the-dark” paint
you can use this for accents, like the
eyes or words. Or you can glue on 3dimensional accents. For Frankenstein,
we added faux fur eyebrows and a
foam neck screw.
Version 2 – Peel & Stick
6. For this example we made a Kitty Cat from a brown cloth bag. The bag had a lot of
writing on it, so we covered all these areas with cloth. If you are making your costume
you might be left with scraps of fabric which you could use to decorate a goodie bag or
you can use old remnants from around the house or from the fabric store.
7. Cut out pieces of felt and/or fabric that match your theme and attach to the bag with
double-sided tape.
8. You can combine this with paint or work entirely with fabrics and trims. For this kitty, we
used fabric for the face, felt for the eyes, velvet paper for the ears, nose and mouth. The
stripes on the eyes are done with paint and the whiskers are black string. Meow!
HAVE A SAFE AND SWEET HALLOWEEN!!