Luminous Paper Lantern

Since the season turned to Fall here we have the house full of warmly scented flickering candles. Today I was feeling a bit crafty as usual and I wanted to make a paper lantern to go over a candle.

I originally saw the idea for a paper lantern in a Martha Stewart magazine. If you want to make a lantern for yourself, I am sure you could visit her site to find a template or
just make your own like I did.

I had to improvise a little bit, because I only have so many materials on hand. Here is what I used:
8.5 x 11 black card stock, 8.5 x 11 white vellum sheet, sharpies, tape runner, flower punches, scissors and some puffy black paint.
First I designed my template for the lantern onto a regular sheet of paper. Then I cut the template out and traced it onto my black card stock sheet twice and cut them out. Then I taped the two black lanterns together on one side.
Next, I drew some silhouettes onto my vellum sheet (I originally tried to print my images onto the vellum using my printer... this did NOT work, oopsie).
I then cut out my windows to fit the windows in the lantern. I then taped the vellum windows into place on the black lantern pieces.

Finally I taped the final lantern side edges together. I also decided to embellish it with flowers and some pretty puffy and shiny black paint.

For the candle: I used a glass jar and dropped a votive candle in it to protect the fragile lantern from catching fire. This also allows the color of the candle to flicker through the windows of your lantern.

This was a fairly simple project and fun to do! If you decide to create one of your own, please do share!
Happy Creating!
KB

*PS* I just started a new blog that I am posting some of my crafty things on... Please visit www.MyEnchantedMoon.blogspot.com