By General Crafts Contributor Michelle
Make a pretty string of lanterns for a party, or just to decorate your home. Because they’re battery operated, you can hang them where you like–no need for an outlet.
Here’s what you’ll need to make your own:
To begin, wrap a piece of your scrapbook paper snugly around the edge of your tea light to figure out how wide your pieces of paper need to be. Mark, and cut the paper width to size.
Then, figure out how tall you want the lanterns to be, and mark and cut your paper.
Fold your paper in half length-wise.
Cut slits evenly spaced along the folded edge, getting no closer than 1/4-inch to the top edge. Unfold the paper.
Wrap the edge of your paper around the base of the tea light (totally hiding the candle), so the candle flame is facing up into the lantern, and adhere the paper to the candle with your hot glue. The candle is going to be the TOP of your lantern, because if the candle is on the bottom of the lantern, it’s weight pulls the paper too much, and you lose the nice lantern shape. So, if you want the design on your paper to be right-side up, glue accordingly.
Carefully line up the side seam of your lantern, and use a bit of hot glue to adhere the edges together, being careful to evenly line up the top edge.
Cut a small length of twine, and glue into a “u” shape on the top of your lantern.
I varied the shape of my lanterns by gluing a solid sheet of paper into a cylinder around the candle first, and then gluing a cut lantern piece over the top. You can also cut your slits different widths to vary how they look.
Hang your lanterns on their own, or cut a long piece of twine, and string all the lanterns together.
The flickering of the battery operated candles really makes these little lanterns extra pretty.
Happy crafting!
