Back to school with creative lunch bag decorating ideas

Three paper lunch sacks—a blue one, a yellow one, and a bright pink one—are decorated with cut paper shapes of different snacks, including watermelon, bananas and pretzels; they're sitting on a white countertop in front of a white brick background, with a container of mini pretzels, an apple, and a Just Because mini card sitting nearby.

As a kid, being handed a packed lunch full of my favorite snacks before school was the first step to having an awesome day. (Because who wouldn’t get excited about eating fruit snacks and chocolate pudding in the same meal?)  

The only thing that might’ve made that even more special is seeing cool artwork on my lunch sacks—and showing it off to the rest of the lunch table. Surprise your own kids on a random Tuesday or add a special touch to a big day with these fun, colorful lunch bag decorating ideas.   

Inspired? Create and share by tagging @HallmarkStores.

Supplies needed for this DIY are paper lunch sacks, construction paper, scissors, a glue stick, a paint palette and brush, and paints.

 

What you’ll need:

This is one of those “use what you have handy” DIYs. Here’s what we used…

  • Paper lunch bags (we used these brightly colored ones but you could also use kraft brown)
  • Construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Glue stick
  • Markers
  • Acrylic paint or paint markers
  • Paint brush
  • Paint palette

 

For our decorated paper lunch bags, we chose a highly appropriate theme: our favorite snacks. 

Raid your craft stash for paper and paint or markers. Go bold with your color combos—adorable is more important than realistic in this case. 

 

A bright pink paper lunch sack lays on a white surface with light pink paper cut into the shape of pretzels strewn around; a pair of scissors, a glue stick, and a paint palette and brush lay nearby.

 

Sketch out your food on the construction paper. Best advice: Keep it simple.

Then cut out your sketches and stick everything down with a glue stick.

 

Pro tip: Use a craft knife to cut the centers out of the pretzels, or gently fold the paper and snip it out with pointy scissors.

Three paper lunch sacks—a blue one, a yellow one, and a bright pink one—are decorated with cut paper shapes of different snacks, including watermelon, bananas and pretzels; they're sitting on a white countertop in front of a white brick background, with a container of mini pretzels, an apple, and a Just Because mini card sitting nearby.

 

Don’t have construction paper in all the colors you want? No biggie. We used the same pink paper for the watermelon center, but switched to paint for the rind and marker for the seeds.

The bananas couldn’t be easier. Freehand the shapes, cut through a few layers of paper to make multiple bananas at once, and add details with markers.

Look at those beauties! Simple, smile-inducing and sure to brighten your kiddo’s day. 

 

Three brightly colored paper lunch sacks are covered in cut-paper in the shapes of different snack foods, including bananas, watermelon and pretzels.

 

Want even more ways to make their school year one to remember? Start here: