Paper Party Lantern Craft

I recently had a small "Luau Party" of sorts.. that I never thought to get a picture of. I did however get few pictures of the awesome lanterns I made spur of the moment. I was originally going to have these sitting out on a side table but when my almost-two-year-old decided she was in love with them, they needed to go somewhere a bit higher out of her reach.

 

Please excuse the popcorn ceiling and brown wood and powdered blue and very off white door. We just moved in a couple weeks ago and haven't gotten around to painting anything. That will be in another post, it will be too shocking of a change for it to not be!

Anyway, back to the lanterns. Now I had done this craft wayyy back in kindergarten, so I am pretty proud of myself for even remembering how to do it. Since this is a easy craft, it would be perfect for a kids craft or a classroom party craft or even as a game for kids to do at a birthday party.

What you need are:
Cardstock or construction paper

Scissors
Glue
Hole Punch
Ribbon or string (if you intend on hanging them)

Step one! Gather materials. Obviously.

Step two! Fold your Piece of paper in half vertically. Like a take-out menu. So LONG not SHORT

Step three! Start making  about one inch snips all the way up the paper on the folded side, leaveing about an inch to an inch and a half of room at the top. That is where you will glue the two sides together. So do not cut all the way off the paper. Or you'll just have strips of paper ;]

Fourth step! Cut through out the paper. They don't have to be even lines, you can't completely tell once the lantern is completely assembled.

Step five! Open up your folded paper and on one side dab a couple dots of glue.

Fold over the other side and hold in place until the glue is either dried or tacky enough to hold itself.

And there you have it, a lantern! You can push down a little on the top while its standing to give it a more bulky look if you prefer the fat lanterns.

Now I was originally just going to have them standing with tea candles in side, but since I needed to move them out of the way, I punched two holes on opposite sides of the lantern and tide a piece of skinny ribbon between both to give it a handle for hanging.

oh I cannot wait to paint these walls...

- peaceful crafting =] -