Homemade Lanterns

I've never made homemade lanterns before so thought I'd give it a try with the little ones! It was a rather spontaneous decision to make these, so I'm not going to say I'm absolutely right in the materials I've used, but we used what we could find and we had fun!

I recently acquired a craft box full of fantastic bits and bobs. We dug through it to find all the tissue paper i'd stuffed in a pouch and we selected our favourite colours, which we then set about tearing small pieces from until we had a little pile sat on our table. I popped some PVA glue in an old Haribo container so there was no squabbling over it. The previous night I had washed and removed the stickers from 2 old jam jars so we were ready to go! ( I actually wound some gold jewelry wire around the neck of the jars before the children set about decorating them)

drying before adding the candles

Midge and Little A (with my help- because I couldn't resist!) stuck the tissue paper randomly to their jars and then covered the paper with more PVA so the paper wouldn't rip and come off the jar. It all dried pretty quickly and they stuck some stickers on their jars so they could tell whose was whose. We waited until outside had gotten a bit darker and dull, then we drew the curtains and switched the lights in the playroom off. I was so pleased with the results!

Midges lantern

A quick photo before heading to the playroom!

They work! Naturally not a very clear photo in that light, but you get the idea!

 I had so much fun doing this craft with the little ones and I can't wait to make it again the future, they are both up for it. Why not give it a go yourselves? Perhaps a nice craft to see the New Year in? Speaking of crafts, i'm going to be joining in with Let Them Be Small over 2015 with The Crafting Prompt, a crafting challenge for you and the little ones. Here's the first 4 weeks of crafts. Do visit Sarah's blog to find out more!

Cupcake Mumma