One of the most popular Halloween traditions is trick-or-treating.  Kids of all ages love to go door-to-door and shout out trick-or-treat while they hold out their bag for the candy they are sure to receive.  But what bag will they hold open?  Do you have one?  While we used old pillow cases when we were kids, children today want something a little more fashionable and you can help with that.  It can be really easy to make your own trick-or-treat bag and this will mean that your child will have a bag that is fantastic and totally Halloween.

The first thing you are going to need is a bag.  A bag that is one of the Halloween colors is best so if you can get an orange, black, or even white bag, then you are set.  You can use a fabric shopping bag, a holiday gift bag, or you can make a bag if you have some basic sewing skills.  If you choose to make a bag, then you will need fabric, which you can purchase from a fabric store or you can get from old clothes that you may want to recycle.  If you go to a fabric store you will have a wide range of Halloween fabric from which to choose and depending on your budget you can get spiderweb fabric, witchy fabric, or any other type of fabric imaginable.

Once you have your bag purchased or made, you will want to decorate it, especially if it is made with plain fabric.  You can do this by getting a Halloween stencil or you can design your own picture to put on the bag.  Whether you are using a stencil or your own design, you will need to make sure it screams Halloween.  It can be a haunted house, a ghost, a Jack 'O Lantern, a skeleton, a cemetery, or some other scary scene.  After you have done this there are a couple of options, depending on how crafty you want to be and how much time and effort you want to put into making the bag.

If you want to keep it really simple you will want to transfer your design to a piece of tracing paper and then you will want to cut out the design from the tracing paper.  Then you can tape this tracing paper to a piece of construction paper, the color of which contrasts the color of the bag.  Once you have this cut out of the construction paper, then you can glue it to the side of the bag, making sure that the bag is flat and the design does not have any bubbles in it and is glued on flat.  If you want to get really crafty and you know the bag will be used for years to come, you can use fabric markers or paint and create your designs directly on the bag.  You can even embroider the design on.

Once you have the main design on the bag, you or your child can then add extra decorations to the bag.  You can use glitter, Halloween stickers, and anything else you can think of to make your bag look fabulous and unique.  Other tips include making the bag out of waterproof materials, using old bags and clothing from thrift shops, and even making the bag in a Halloween shape, such as that of a black cat, a witch's hat, or a pumpkin.  Adding reflective strips is a good idea for safety.  No matter what, make sure that the bag has string handles and is big enough to hold lots of loot.  Your child will want to bring lots home and you want to be sure there is enough for you too.  Making your own Halloween bag is fun and a creative and thrifty way of making use of things you have on hand to make something unique that you can use year after year.  So enjoy making your bag, share the experience with your child, and have a Happy Halloween.