Garden Party Paper Lantern

Put on a fancy dress and hat, get out the tea set, and have some quality time bonding and creating with the little princess in your life! These flowery paper lanterns are fun to make and will add a touch of whimsy to your little girl’s room. She’ll never forget the wonderful time she spent making the lanterns with you.

This craft makes 3 Paper Lanterns.

For ages 3 and up. This craft contains some small parts, which may pose a choking hazard. Please be careful with your young crafters.

Materials:

3 pieces colored cardstock (I chose light pink, dark pink, and green)

Scissors

Glue

Silk Flowers (about 30)

Clear Sequins (about 75)

Mounting Squares (about 18)

3 pieces pink ribbon 

3 pushpins

Flower Tip: You can buy the fancy flowers that come in the little containers from the scrap booking section of your local craft store, but that can be a little pricey.

I buy one bunch of silk flowers from the floral section when they are on sale. Then I just pull the flowers off the stems. If you do this, you'll probably even have flowers left over for another project.

This picture is from the Garden Party Paper Lantern Kid Kit in my etsy shop. Your supplies will look a little different: Your paper won't have the dotted lines, the handles won't be cut yet, your glue won't come in a little cup, and you won't need a glue spreader for your glue.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR PAPER LANTERN

1. MAKE YOUR LANTERN

Fold a piece of the colored paper lengthwise. Starting at the fold, measure in about an inch and cut toward the opposite edge. For the 1st cut you can cut all the way across because this will be your handle strip. 

After you cut off your handle strip, continue making cuts, but make sure to stop cutting about an inch away from the edge. This is great scissor practice! 

Fold the paper along each cut that you made to crease the sides of your lantern.

2. DECORATE YOUR LANTERN
Using the glue, decorate your lantern and lantern handle with the flowers and sequins.

Tips: Try to keep the glue in the middle of each flower as it can make the petals look oily. It looks pretty to place a sequin in the middle of each flower. (This is a good idea especially if you pulled the flowers off a bunch, because the sequin will cover the hole that's in each flower.) You will want to leave one end section of your lantern free of decoration because you will be overlapping the sides later on.

3. FINISH YOUR LANTERN

Using the mounting squares, connect the short ends together, creating a cylinder. Attach each end of the lantern’s handle inside the top of the lantern. To use a mounting square, peel away the tab. Place the adhesive square on the lantern paper and peel it away from the backing.

Loop a piece of ribbon through the handle and hang it up on your ceiling with a pushpin. It's a good idea to cut the ribbon in different lengths so that you can group your lanterns together for a designer effect.

Happy Crafting!