Paper Bag Stars
Today I have another super easy craft idea to share with you that you can get the kids involved in – it’s the most genius way to make Christmas star decorations! Credit where credit is due, it was actually my aunt who showed us how to make these, when we were visiting my parents in Germany four years ago during our time in Berlin (this is actually a revised version of a similar post I wrote back then, with new photos and updated text). Can you believe, these gorgeous 3D stars are made out of simple paper sandwich bags?!
The technique was really so simple that we ended up just churning them out, and literally had them hanging in every window of the house. It takes about two minutes per star, and it’s super cheap too – a bag of 100 sandwich bags, selling at just a couple of pounds, will give you around a dozen of these beautiful, large stars!
Here’s what you need:
- 8 white paper sandwich bags, per star (those bags with the side fold, as shown in the picture below)
- a glue stick
- a pair of scissors
A needle and thread will also come in handy, for hanging them up afterwards.
Step 1: Take the first sandwich bag. On one side, put a broad line of glue along the bottom, closed edge of the bag and up the middle, in a ‘T’ shape, as indicated by the dotted line in the picture below.
Step 2: Take your second sandwich bag, and lay it exactly on top, making sure the bottom edges and the open ends of the bags are aligned!
Step 3: Repeat the previous steps until you have all eight sandwich bags glued on top of each other.
Step 4: Cut off both corners at the open ends of the bags. It should look like the picture above > closed edge at the bottom, pointy open end at the top! I cut my corners from about half way down, to give my stars nice long ‘spokes’. The closer to the top you cut them, the shorter your spokes will be.
Step 5: Now comes the magical bit – carefully fan out the bags, add some more glue (again, in a ‘T” shape) to one of the end pieces, and glue the two end pieces together. Voila!
To hang them up, I just used a needle to thread through some thread. I’d love to see your finished stars, so feel free to share and tag me on Twitter or Instagram!
Oh wow I can’t believe you made that out of paper bags – it looks so good!
I can’t believe you made those from paper bags. It’s fantastic!! I could do with a few to decorate our place for Christmas!
I am always in awe of your craftiness. These look so effective x
That’s really good! I really like them x
Love love love this idea and so easy to make too!
Oh my goodness! These are stunning, I never realised this is how they are made, I would love to try this.
Wow these are amazing, so simple and yet so simple. I’m not great at craft, but I think even I can attempt to do this with my children :)
Such a lovely craft and using such simple materials! I love making Christmas decorations like this so might give making these a try.
Oh wow, so simple and so effective! They look like they’d be a lot more complicated to make! :)
Hi. I LOVE these. So simple and so striking! Maybe I’ve lived a sheltered life but I’ve never seen those sandwich bags in UK shops… Where do you think might sell them?..