Are you not a big fan of crafts and are you looking for ideas for DIY St. Martin's lanterns that are quick and easy to make? Or do you just need something last minute because you will unexpectedly be taking part in the move? You can make quick lanterns using simple materials!
Use everyday materials that you already have in the house or quickly get some from the craft store. Then you can make lanterns with your children or implement the projects at daycare or elementary school.
Of course, craft projects are particularly easy with templates, but they are not always necessary. With a little imagination you can create beautiful things even without.
From oneCheese box conjures up a lantern
If you do crafts often, you already know that you should definitely keep all the packaging that comes up in everyday life. Not just milk cartons andToilet rolls are perfect. For example, you can make really quick lanterns using cheese packaging.
- Tracing paper (A3 format)
- round cheese box (made of cardboard or wood, as desired)
- Tissue paper in different colors
- Piece of wire, 45 cm (if the wire is very thin, make it twice as long and double it for more stability)
- Glue stick
- possibly white acrylic paint and brush
- Scissors
- tape
- LED tea light
- Toilet roll with a slightly larger diameter than the tea light
How to make quick lanterns:
- Cut a hole in the lid of the package. Leave a short edge.
- If some of the image on the package is still visible, paint over it with acrylic paint.
- Cut a ring off the toilet roll. Its width should not exceed that of the candle.
- Glue the ring to the center of the bottom packaging part. You'll put the tea light in there later so that it doesn't slip.
- Tear the tissue paper into many small pieces.
- Apply some glue to one side of the tracing paper and stick the tissue paper pieces in place. Work in sections as the glue dries quickly. At the end, all of the parchment paper should be covered and there should be no empty spaces left. But also make sure that you don't make layers that are too thick, as the light can no longer penetrate through.
- Finally, you can seal everything with a final layer of glue.
- Form the paper into a cylinder, take the bottom of the cheese package and glue the cylinder to the inside (you can also shorten the length of the cylinder beforehand if the lantern would be too big for you). It's best to use tape.
- Now glue the lid in place in the same way. You can reach inside through the hole and press the cylinder against the inside of the lid.
- Poke the wire through the edge of the lid that you left behind and twist the end around the longer wire part.
- Bend it into a U-shape like a handle, pierce through the opposite side and twist again.
A notice:The A3 format is suitable for a pack with a diameter of 10 to 12 cm. If you want to use a larger wrapper for a larger lantern, you will also need a larger sheet of tracing paper).
Balloons are also a great craft material.How to make lanterns.
Make quick lanterns with milk cartons
With milk cartons you get a perfect base with which you can make quick lanterns. In the instructions below you will see how to cut the cardboard (the square packs are best) to create windows for the light to shine through. You will now find out what you need and how to make the small lantern out of milk carton yourself:
- Milk carton, well cleaned and dry
- craft knife
- Acrylic paint and brushes
- Glue
- wire
- Parchment paper, white or patterned
- optional: printed templates for designing silhouettes
Make Saint Martin lanterns, quick and easy:
- To make the St. Martin's Lantern, open the top of the box and cut off all the elements above the three equal sides of the square. Instead, you can simply leave one of the sides open later so that you can put a tea light inside (you can also make a holder like in the example above).
- Cut windows into the sides.
- Paint the lantern any color you like.
- Glue any tracing paper to the inside pages after cutting them to fit.
- If you use milky white paper, you can design the inside with one of our motifs. Print and cut out the templates. You can glue the black ones directly. Transfer the white ones onto black paper and cut them out before attaching them.
- Attach the wire to create a handle.Cool tip:If you still have old wire hangers, you can use them.
Craft ideas for fall, Halloween and St. Martin
Use pipe cleaners as handles
You can decorate the windowsill with the lanterns
You can also search for and use other silhouettes. Our ideas for motifs are very popular with children and some of them also fit the season very well.
Owls and bats as decoration
Make lanterns with free, printable templates
What else can you make with milk cartons?Read here!
