One day while surfing around I found some awesome looking luminaries on grandinroad’s website. They are no longer available for sale, but when they were they were $99.00! Ouch. I wanted to see if I could make something similar using my Silhouette machine and good ole paper grocery bags.

My inspiration: from grandinroad

They came out pretty cool I think.

The only thing that honked me off was the seam line that goes up the center of the bag. When the light is on inside the bag you can see the seam, ugh. You’re probably thinking “Duh, why didn’t you use the front of the bag where there’s no seam?” Well, because the grocery store logo was plastered all over the front :-P

The other issue I had was that it was hard to find anything bright enough to actually illuminate these bags! Who know grocery bags would be so impenetrable! I ended up going to Home Depot and buying four of these bad boys ($7 each):

I found some cool Halloween fonts that look like blood, though I couldn’t find the one that grandinroad used. I printed them on black vinyl and stuck them to the bags.

Then I measured where I wanted my fonts to be and marked with a pencil.

After applying the vinyl to the bags, I used antiquing gel to stain the outer edges of the bags.

Using a rag to wipe off the excess and smear it around a bit.

Then I mixed some black paint in with the stain…

Then blotted it on with a rag, darkening some of the edges.

Then they were done!

After putting the lights in, I did fold down the tops of the bags to keep as much light inside as possible.

Print Project

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Big Paper Bag Luminaries

Author: Amanda Formaro

Supplies

• paper bags
• Sylvania Dot It lights
• vinyl
• ruler
• pencil
• rag
• black paint
• Halloween fonts

Instructions

• I printed them on black vinyl and stuck them to the bags.
• Then I measured where I wanted my fonts to be and marked with a pencil.
• After applying the vinyl to the bags, I used antiquing gel to stain the outer edges of the bags.
• Using a rag to wipe off the excess and smear it around a bit.
• Then I mixed some black paint in with the stain…
• Then blotted it on with a rag, darkening some of the edges.
• After putting the lights in, I did fold down the tops of the bags to keep as much light inside as possible.