Making your own lantern is without a doubt a favorite activity for every child. Regardless of whether you want to make a lantern with your children for St. Martin, Halloween, Santa Claus or simply as a beautiful decoration for the garden and home, the little masterpieces can be easily created with the right craft supplies and in just a few simple steps.
Most of the time the children have special wishes and ideas about what their own lantern should look like. After all, homemade paper lanterns are always the most beautiful and should be as unique as possible. If you ever run out of ideas, you can easily and quickly make one of the following craft projects at home. Your little ones are welcome to help out and let off steam creatively. Be inspired by the following craft ideas!
Make your own Chinese paper lantern
Undoubtedly they areSt. Martin's lanterns with animal motifsa real classic. Using colored craft paper and a little imagination, you can create numerous animal figures that your child will be overjoyed with. The Chinese paper lantern can be easily transformed into an octopus or a tiger. You need thick paper that you first fold in half. Then cut the rays into the cardboard, leaving a 2 cm border on the open edges.
Glue the edge around a lantern base to make the lantern round and allow the candle to stand. If you don't have a lantern base, you can use a cheese box or another sturdy material. Reinforce the top of the beam lantern with tape or a strip of cardboard. Poke two opposite holes and pull a craft wire or thread through them. Let your creativity run wild and let your child put a face on the animal figure they want.
If you would like to make a decorative paper lantern to decorate the children's room, you can also make colorful ray lanterns yourself from moss rubber. For enchanting color contrasts, you can place a tube inside the lantern. This variant can of course also be made from cardboard.
Make your own round lantern from paper lantern
The owls are a great motif if you want to make a lantern yourself. These pretty owls in the picture above are made in no time from round paper lanterns or lanterns. First make a template for the large eyes, pupils, beak, feather and of course the ears and transfer it to the paper and glue it to the monochrome lanterns.
For example, you can make a panda or a great one out of the lanternsCreatures from the underwater worlddesign. Colorful jellyfish with large wiggly eyes and tentacles made of crepe paper or ribbons in different sea colors. Attach the tentacles to the inner edge of the opening with the stapler. You can also use white lanterns and let the children paint the facial features.
You can also use lanterns to create many popular animated heroes with your children. The Ninja Turtles, for example, are a great idea that is easy to implement. With masks in the colors of the Ninja Turtles, eyes and mouth, the creative and simple lantern is ready in no time. The well-known Pokémon characters, such as the cute Mantirps Pokémon or the Pikachu, are quickly made whole or with a lot of material and time.
Make 3D animal figures out of paper
Another great craft suggestion is various 3D animals made of paper. The following animal lanterns are suitable for older children to make themselves. Since the following craft projects are easier to make using stencils, the children will need your help. You have to print out the stencils for the animal's body twice and the lantern base made of photo cardboard in the desired color once.
You have to print out the stencils for the animal's body twice and the lantern base made of photo cardboard in the desired color once. To ensure that the light can be seen clearly, you will also need transparency paper for each animal figure.
You are welcome to slightly crumple the paper for the lantern windows and then smooth it out again so that the window looks more realistic. Once you have cut all the pieces, you need to glue them together and, if necessary, paint a face on them. Finally, you need to attach a wire so that the lantern stick can be attached.
For lantern lighting, you can either use a candle or use a lantern stick with a small electric tea light or light bulb. When you make your own paper lanterns, it can happen that the candles often go out, which is why LED tea lights are preferable in this case.
Crafting is child's play when you look at this great craft idea. Tiny mice eating cheese is a fun and original idea for making your own lantern. You have to cut the cheese holes into a long piece of yellow photo cardboard and stick the entire strip of cardboard behind with yellow transperent paper. Fold a triangle and glue the overlapping ends. Attach the little, colorful mice.
Create monster lantern
Another popular motif for a paper lantern are the monster lanterns. Monsters don't necessarily look scary. This smiling monster is ready without much effort and can be decorated by the children.
Create minions from different materials
If your children think the Minions are great, this pretty Minion figure is a creative craft inspiration for the upcoming lantern parade. Of course, the blue dungarees and the big glasses are a must, so that the little yellow creature looks just like in the film.
Die MinionsYou can make one out of empty plastic bottles like in this picture. Cut out the dungarees from cardboard and make the glasses from half of a toilet paper roll. To create arms and legs, fold long strips of craft cardboard into an accordion.
You can also make a cheerful Minion out of oneBalloon and paper machedesign. Paper mache is a great activity for small children too, which is a lot of fun for them as their little hands get really dirty. Place the thin end of the inflated balloon in a bowl and coat it thoroughly with wallpaper paste.
Then dip newspaper or transparent paper in blue and yellow into the paste and stick it onto the balloon. Let the homemade lantern dry for a few days. Paint or glue on the face, attach the arms and legs, carefully pop and remove the balloon and your individual, pretty Minion lantern is ready.
Create a classic square paper lantern
You can also make your own lantern using a blank lantern from a craft supply. If things happen quickly, this variant can be quickly copied. Cut the transparent paper, paint it and glue the window.
Great idea from paper plates
Alsofrom paper platesyou can create a pretty paper lantern. As you can see in the picture above, the paper plates are simply glued together and decorated as desired. The base of the plate is cut out for the opening of the lantern.
Craft ideas with plastic
An original idea for lanterns is this creative model that the little boy in the picture above is holding. The bottom part of an empty, cut-off plastic water bottle is covered with plastic spoons colored in different colors. A great and cost-effective idea!
You can make your own lantern not only for the autumn lantern parade. The lanterns are a great accessory for camping, night walks or long summer evenings outdoors. The material used for this model was a plastic container with a lid.
These cute elephant figures can be made from an empty plastic bottle with a handle, with which the children will attract everyone's attention at the lantern parade. They are also suitable for a nice garden decoration. Cut out half of the bottle and let your children decorate the animal figure using decoupage technique. The electric tea light is attached to the lid.
The empty plastic bottles are versatile and serve as the perfect lantern body. For the colorful lanterns in the picture above, the bottom part of the bottle is covered in rows with colored paper.
Have the children make small pieces of paper out of napkins and use them to decorate the bottle. If the pieces of paper are glued overlapping, beautiful color patterns are created. A piece of pipe cleaner decorated with various beads serves as a handle and makes the colorful, homemade lantern even prettier.
Flower lanterns
If you are looking for an idea for slightly older children who want to actively participate in the design, this beautiful lantern with colorful roses might be a suitable model. You can make the flowers either from paper or from scraps of fabric, which you then glue together and shape. This pretty unique piece can also be used as a chandelier, creating a cheerful, spring-like atmosphere in the room.
Simple paper lanterns
This simple version is suitable for the very little ones or when things have to go quickly. Let your children paint and decorate the paper to their hearts' content. Autumn leaves made of transparent paper, small hearts or cute spiders with cobwebs are pretty decorations for the paper lantern. Tape the bottom and paper together on the side. Attach the lantern wire and the small lantern is ready.
DIY lanterns made from sandwich bags
A great craft idea for homemade paper lanterns are these great lanterns with different motifs, which you can easily make with your children from sandwich bags. Cut out the desired motifs from paper bags, decorate them as desired and the little lanterns are ready.
Halloween idea from mason jar
Lanterns are also a popular accessory for Halloween. The colored lanterns with spider and cobweb motifs are made from empty mason jars and painted in the desired color.
You can use tea lights as a light source for the glass lanterns, as they are better protected from the wind than in a paper lantern. Even small children can take part in this simple craft project and design the mason jar lanterns.
