PAPER BAG SNOWFLAKES
Who knew a lunch bag could be so pretty!
This project is appropriate for kids, seniors, and pretty much anyone that can manage a scissors and a glue stick.
Grab some lunch sacks and let's get started!
Project time is approximately 30 minutes.
SUPPLIES
• White paper lunch bags
You will need a package of white paper lunch bags. I recommend these, from Walmart. They have no stamp on them, as many others do. A manufacturer's marking peeking through the folds can really ruin a pretty snowflake.
• Purple tinted Elmer's Glue Sticks
• Scissors
• Small binder clips
• Pencil
• Ruler
PREPPING YOUR BAGS
It's your choice on the number of bags you want to use for your snowflakes. For my recent window display project, I used approximately 9-12 for each snowflake and found that 9 works best. The smaller the amount of bags yields larger sections between the points, and conversely, the larger number you use creates a very full and pointy snowflake. For the sake of this tutorial, we will be using 9 bags. Separate the bags into (3) piles of 3 bags.
BUILDING YOUR SNOWFLAKE
The idea is to glue all 9 bags on top of each other. *** However, you will want to do this in groups of (3), for ease of design and cutting, later.
1. Paper bags should all be placed with that bottom piece face-up as shown in the pics. ALL of them need to be stacked in this manner. If you reverse one of the bags, your snowflake will be sad.
2. Use your glue stick to create a vertical line from the top of the bag all the way to the bottom and go over that flap, just as you see in the pic.
3. I covered HALF of the section of that flap with glue on the bottom, and try to go all the way to the edges on both sides, and especially all the way to the bottom of the bag as well. This is the area that will be the core of your snowflake and the bags need to be firmly glued to each other. You want a strong snowflake!
4. Try to be precise on stacking the bags so that your bottoms are placed carefully on top of each other. Use your hands to press firmly over the bag after it's glued and smooth over them with your fingers to get a nice and tight seal.
5. You will repeat this process for each of your (3) stacks of 3 bags. Remember, you are only gluing 3 bags, one on top of each other and you are doing this for 3 stacks of bags, totaling 9 bags all together.
When you are finished gluing, your stacks should look like this. (3) stacks of 3 bags, glued on top of each other.
Using a ruler, on each of the (3) stacks of bags, draw a pencil line across the bag below that carved out arc on the top of the bag with the jagged edge. This is not a necessary step but if you want a clean tip on your design, this will eliminate a fuzzy edge. Do this for each stack and cut that section off as seen in the pic.
After you do this to one stack, place that stack directly on top of another stack and trace that line. This will provide you with evenly-sized bags for all 3 stacks.
ADDING YOUR DESIGN
Now comes the fun part! It's your time to let your creativity shine... create a design for the tops of the bags! For this tutorial, I have kept it simple and drew a plain tulip edge to the top of the bag.
After you draw the design, use a scissors and cut out the shape, as seen in the pic.
Once your shape has been cut, place that group of bags on top of the other 2 groups of bags, trace the shape and proceed with cutting those as well.
Now we can build our entire snowflake by combining our (3) groups of bags together. Be careful to place them directly on top of each group and try to follow the cut lines so the bags are stacked nicely when finished. You will be using the same technique to glue these groups, as you did the individual bags.
* * * VERY IMPORTANT * * *
Now let the entire stack dry for approximately 10 minutes. If you move on to the next step with no dry time, the bags can easily fall apart and your snowflake will melt.
FINISHING YOUR SNOWFLAKE
After 10 minutes, you will repeat the glue application one last time to the stack of your pile of 9 bags.
Then, quickly, stick one hand in the top bag, one hand in the bottom bag and pull the snowflake together and press firmly as shown in the pic.
I would have (2) binder clips ready and pinch the interior area of those 2 sections together with the clip.
This will keep the core of your snowflake together tightly while you firmly press and hold for about 1-2 minutes the upper
sections of those bags in which your hands are inserted.
HANGING YOUR SNOWFLAKE
Let dry for another 10 minutes and your snowflake is complete!
To hang, use a hole punch on one of the sections and use some decorative string, ribbon, or fishline .
ADDITIONAL NOTES
In the sample pics at the beginning of the post you will see that my snowflakes have cut-out designs and creative edges. This is easily accomplished by cutting out small shapes on each side of your bags. You will follow the instructions the same as you did for this tutorial, but instead of only creating a top design, you will add beautiful nuggets of shapes to your snowflake to give it some dimension and let the light shine through. The pics below illustrate the example of how to do this.
Experiment with different sizes of bags. For my window display installation, I used 2 different sizes and to create more all you need to do is trim a large chunk off the tops of the bags to decrease the height.
Get creative and paint, embellish, color, or texturize the snowflake to your liking. Adding color with spray paint in a well-ventilated area is a great method to add color to your snowflakes. Or, you can purchase colored bags and eliminate the need to add your color!
Enjoy the winter wonderland you don't have to shovel!