Who would think that a paper bag with a candle inside would glow so beautifully, welcoming guests to your home during the holidays? For a recent eHow article, I showed how to make luminaries using image templates. The puzzle I was trying to solve was, once I cut out the outline of a shape, all the interior details would disappear. So how could I retain all the intricacies of the template? (There are a lot of rhetorical questions in this post, aren’t there?) The key was to insert a piece of clear plastic in the bag so that I could glue the interior pieces onto the plastic, like they’re floating. Of course, the over-achiever that I was (well, I was raised by a tiger mom), I traced the design with some glitter glue and added a feather boa to the rims of the bags. I’m also using LED candles here to avoid fire hazards. I think these would make really great gift bags too. For the complete step-by-step how-to article, click here.

How to make holiday luminaries