5 DIY Halloween Paper Bag Lanterns to Light Up Your Porch

¡Ojo! Lantern

No mal de ojo (evil eye) on these Halloween paper bag luminaries:

1. Use letter stickers and a white paper sack to spell out this hidden meaning. (The word "ojo" forms two eyes—or ojos—and a nose.
2. Put one letter on each paper sack and cut up extra letters to make eyelashes for the two O letters.
3. Add googly eyes to watch over your trick-or-treaters or guests attending your Halloween party or Dia de los Muertos celebration.

4. Spiderweb Lantern

   Make this simple spiderweb with a white paper sack and a roll of thin black tape:

   1. Stretch the tape in alternating lines to cross in the center and stretch all the way to the bag's top, sides, and corners.
   2. Add shorter pieces of tape to connect the lines. Start from the center and work out, making connecting lines spaced an inch or so apart on the bag until the web pattern is complete.
   3. Use glue to add a plastic spider to your web; you're ready to go!

   4. Tombstone Lantern

      Make this (sort of ) creepy tombstone for Halloween spookiness:

      1. Brush blue or grey watered-down acrylic paint onto a white paper bag.
      2. When the paint is dry, cut the top opening of the bag into the curved shape of the top of a tombstone.
      3. Attach small adhesive letters to spell out your spooky sayings, such as "beware!" and "RIP." If you don't have adhesive letters, you can use a thick black marker to write out your phrase.

      4. Pumpkin Lantern

         No Halloween lantern set is complete without a classic black and orange jack-o-lantern face:

         1. Brush watered-down orange acrylic paint onto a white paper bag.
         2. While the paint dries, cut face shapes from vinyl to make a spooky (or silly) jack-o-lantern.
         3. If you don't want to freehand the design, browse our selection of free pumpkin face stencils. Use your printer to scale down the designs, and use them as a template.

         4. Spooky Skull Lantern

            Go full-on spooky with a bright green lantern adorned with a skull design:

            1. Brush watered-down green acrylic paint onto a paper bag.
            2. When the bag is completely dry, attach a skull shape to the bag—you can cut your own from black adhesive vinyl or look for a store-bought sticker.
            3. Swap out the skull for a radioactive symbol or a ghostly ghoul for a set of extra spooky lanterns.