Wedding Blog

One of my mini projects-in-progress is white paper bag luminaries to line the walkway in front of our site. I wasn’t even planning on having them, but last time I was at Michael’s I was bored and browsing and thought, “Hey, what’s one more DIY? I can do it! This’ll be fast and simple!”

There are a couple styles: cutout and applique. The ones I’m making and using in my wedding are cutout, but I *promise* that sometime I’ll get around to instructions for the applique style.

In keeping with my “star” themed wedding, the luminaries have star cutouts. I had Daddy Blueberry make them on the computer; I believe he just inserted a piece of clipart and made it several sizes, then printed it on cardstock (sturdier) for me to use. Of course, you could use whatever shapes you want, though simpler is obviously easier. At some point in the future I may play around with more shape ideas, too.

SUPPLIES:
Paper lunch bags ($0.29 each at Michael’s, probably cheaper at Wal-Mart)
Xact-o knife
Kneadable eraser (available at most craft or art supply stores)
Pencil
Cardboard insert (cut to a size that will slide comfortably into the paper bag)
Stencils (homemade or store-bought)

DIRECTIONS:
Here is my template sheet–I cut the stars out of this, then traced around them to use on the luminaries:

One white paper bag (bar code is on the bottomed of the opened bag, not the side):

Here’s the cardboard insert I made. It is just small enough to slide inside a closed paper bag, to protect the backside of the bag from being cut all the way through (otherwise you have a more difficult time and end up with a bunch of “half-stars” on the sides of the bag. Trust me, it’s just easier to do one side at a time).

I traced the stars onto each side of the bag, using a pencil and my homemade stencils:

Then I slid the cardboard in and used the Xact-o knife to carefully cut around each star. You could use a ruler for this task, but I have a pretty steady hand so I just used my pencil lines as a guide.

In that last picture, that ugly grey blob is my eraser. I love it–it leaves no dust and doesn’t require a lot of “scrubbing” to pick up the pencil marks. You can also see how I’ve got the cardboard slid into the bag to prevent cutting through both sides of the bag.

After everything is cut out, use your eraser to remove all traces of pencil marks–give your product a more professional look.

One finished product!

I left the cardboard in for the photo just so you can see the star shapes more easily.

On each bag, I scattered the stars randomly–some have more than others, some have different sizes of stars, etc. I like the whimsical look this produces. I also put cutouts on both sides of the bag, though you could just do one or the other.

At Michael’s you can get these great scissors that put a fancy edge around whatever you cut–zig-zags, scalloping, etc. Mom Blueberry has some and next time I’m home I’m going to use them around the top of the bags to add a bit of pretty detail.

When you’re ready to display the luminaries, put a ziplock bag of sand (or some small rocks, or some other weight) in the bottom of each bag to prevent them getting knocked over, and add a tealight (either regular or LED).

Speaking of LED tea lights, I picked some up at Michael’s, $6.99 for 6. They were with the Halloween stuff (for Jack-o-lanterns, I imagine) and may be a seasonal item, but I know you can find them online year round.

Definitely one of my easier DIY’s, just right for this icky rainy Tuesday :).