Recycled Khatam Paper Bags {Tutorial}

Sometimes Ramadan decorations can be found from items around your home. We made today’s Ramadan crafts 30 day challenge craft from leftovers.

 

As we wrap up the school year, we had some extra lunch paper bags that we turned into our decor today.  We used 8 of them to create a khatam, the Arabic word for 8 point star.

 

The khatam symbol is used quite a bit in Islamic architecture and tile design.  We have made a number of khatam crafts on this blog, including a Khatam Gift Tag Tutorial and Kirigami Khatam Tutorial.

 

My youngest worked on today’s tutorial and she would rate it as easy.

 

Supplies
White paper bags
Sharpie
Hole punch
Twine
Double sided tape
Scissors
Orange cardstock

ACraftyArab Hanging Paper Bag KhatamSupplies

 

Cut off all the bottoms of the paper bags. We saved ours for a later project since they made cute paper boxes.

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Our paper bags came with top wired enclosures, so we cut those off next and started decorating. Create a design and repeat it on all the bags, all sides of the bags. My daughter took all afternoon to color hers. If you need more stars in a hurry, you can buy pre-colored bags.

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Place stripes of double sided tape on the sides of a bag and through the center.

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Add a hole in the middle of the stack.

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Add string loosely to the middle.   The length of the string will depend on how long you want to hang your khatam.

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Cut the bags into a point and then add  tape to the last bag.

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Open your khatam and tape the two end bags to each other. Set aside.

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Cut out two equal sized squares from your colored cardstock. Double tape them together, offset, to create 8 points.

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Double tape your khatam paper center to your khatam paper bag and hang.

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Check out our A Nestling Islamic 8 Point Star Mobile for other hanging decoration ideas.

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acraftyarab

I am a Libyan American who creates art to promote a positive image of Arab and Islamic culture.