DIY Paper Bag Pumpkin {Easy Halloween Craft}

Last week the kids and I had fun making this DIY paper bag pumpkin craft. These pumpkins probably look a little bit different than the other paper bag pumpkin crafts you have seen.

These pumpkins turn out big and 3d and are perfect for an easy Halloween craft and a fun decoration.

You can easily make these paper bag pumpkins into jack o’lanterns which is what we did to give them a little bit of a Halloween feel. But they are also cute to leave as a pumpkin without the face.

You can easily make these pumpkins in different sizes and different colors (we recently learned that some pumpkins are blue!). We made three different pumpkins and have them hanging above our piano in the living room as a fun fall decoration.

When you first see these pumpkins your might be wondering how in the world we made them. Let me tell you it’s easier than you think. My preschooler and 1st grader each made one on their own and of course, I had to make my own pumpkin too! (I couldn’t let the kids have all the fun.

Supplies

To make these pumpkins you only need a few basic supplies. There is a good chance you already have everything you need to make these.

• Brown or White Paper Lunch Sacks (we used white bags)
• Glue (school glue, glue stick and hot glue all work)
• Paint (traditionally orange but you can get creative)
• Black Construction Paper or Printable Jack O’Lantern Faces (get free printable at bottom of post)
• Stick (from outside) or a brown/green ribbon for a stem

How to Make Paper Bag Pumpkin

To start making your paper bag pumpkins give each kid a stack of 9 paper lunch sacks and glue. I would recommend using a glue stick for younger crafters.

We tried using school glue and let’s just say that liquid glue can be a pain to use when doing this craft with kids. We ended up with bags sliding since the glue doesn’t dry quickly and parts of the bags glued together that shouldn’t be.

If an adult is making this paper bag pumpkin use a hot glue gun it’s the quickest and easiest way to get the pumpkins to stick together well.

Once each person that is making the pumpkin has the lunch bags and glue you’re ready to start putting together your brown bag pumpkin.

Making the Paper Bag Pumpkin

First, place one bag down on the table with the flap side of the bag on the table. Make sure that the open end of the bag is at the bottom. (the bottom of the bag is at the top)

Use your glue to make a line across the top of the bag (the folded end of the bag not the end that opens) and down the middle of the bag. Making a big letter T.

Take second bag and placed it on top of the glue, positioned the same way as the previous bag. Repeats this over and over until you have 9 bags stuck together. (8 bags might work but our pumpkins looked better with 9 bags)

Make sure that the bags are stuck together really well. You might need to go back and reglue some areas.

Once everything is glued well grab the top and bottom layer of your stack of paper bags and pull it open.

The bags should all stay glued together and open accordion-like into a circle.

Opening the stack of bags the first time is so cool. It’s really amazing to see how it works.

Now that you have seen what your “pumpkin” looks like add a line of glue to the bag on the top or bottom then open the stack of bags into a circle and glue those sides together so the pumpkin stays open in a circle.

I put my hands inside the bags and pressed the bags tightly together to make sure they were glued securely.

Now it’s time to add a stem to your pumpkin. We used a stick we got on one of our walks, but you could also use a brown or green ribbon so it looks like a stem and you can easily hang your pumpkin.

If you use a stick for the stem have an adult help the kid’s hot glue the stem to the top of their pumpkin (glue the stick inside the open bags).

If you decide to use a ribbon as the stem I found the easiest way to attach the ribbon was to fold down one of the middle parts of the bag (where you glued) and make a little cut with some scissors then fold the bag back.

Now you have a hole in the top point of the pumpkin to easily feed the ribbon through.

Tie the two ends of the ribbon together to make a big loop and you’re ready to hang your pumpkin (once it’s decorated).

You’ve done the hard part you have a pumpkin (ok I know right now it looks like a 3-D circle). Now it’s time for some fun.

Related Post: Brown Paper Bag Snowflakes

Decorating Your Brown Paper Bag Pumpkin

We started off decorating our pumpkins by painting them. The kids wanted to use watercolors to paint their pumpkins. My daughter used a mixture of colors for her colorful pumpkin and my son used orange and red for his pumpkin.

Watercolors work ok and give the pumpkins a unique look, they won’t show up very well if you use brown paper bags to make your pumpkin instead of white ones.

I tried mixing orange paint with water and then spraying my paper bag pumpkin. It turned out looking awesome. I would highly recommend painting your pumpkin with spray bottle paint.

If you decide to spray bottle paint your pumpkin take it outside before painting or make sure you have a paint-safe area because you will get some random paint dots when you spray the paint. (especially if kids are doing the painting!)

Another paint option would be to get orange spray paint and use that, it’s up to you how you decide to paint your pumpkins and what color you make them.

After the pumpkins are painted you can be done and have a fun brown paper bag pumpkin or you can add a face to your pumpkin and make it a brown paper bag Jack O’Lantern.

For some of our pumpkins, we cut out the face from black cardstock and then glued it to the pumpkins. But since I’m not really great at freehanding different shapes and making them look like a face I also used a printable face.

You can get 3 different jack o’lantern faces in the printables below. Print the faces on cardstock cut them out, and attach them to your pumpkin. (or you can print them on regular paper and use them as a template to cut out faces from black construction or cardstock.)

That’s it you have a fun fall pumpkin perfect for decorating your house, using it as a wreath on your door, or any other creative purpose you can think of.

I hope you had fun making these kid-friendly brown paper bag pumpkins and that you love your fun fall decorations.

Printable Jack O’Lantern Faces

If you want a printable jack o’lantern face to easily cut out and add to your paper bag pumpkin you can click the button below. Please keep these printables for personal use only.

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