Especially in winter, when it gets gray and wet outside, we long for comfort. With the right lighting and oneatmospheric decorationyou can create a cozy atmosphere at home. We give you several DIY ideas on how you can make winter lanterns. From icy glasses to playful ice cream man lanterns: there are no limits to your imagination.
Make winter lanterns: ice glasses
The firstCraft idea for lanternsis super simple and can be varied as desired. Using Epsom salt and glue, you can transform plain department store mason jars into frosty lanterns. You need the following materials:
- Mason jars without lids
- Adhesive for glass
- Epsom salt (from the drugstore)
- Natural materials of your choice (larch cones, conifer or cypress branches, rose hip)
- Parcel cord
- Pillar candles or tea lights
- a brush
Directions:
- Clean the preserving jars thoroughly.
- Apply the adhesive to the glasses with a flat brush.
- Sprinkle the glasses liberally with Epsom salt and allow to dry.
- Wrap packaging string around the neck of a preserving jar and attach the natural materials to it.
Another variant is to cut a circle out of self-adhesive film and attach it to the glass with a removable adhesive. Thenthe mason jarbrush with glue and sprinkle with Epsom salts or spray with freeze spray. Allow the glass to dry and then carefully peel off the film. Pour white sand (craft supplies) into the jar so that it covers the bottom. Place small candles inside. Wrap a bow around the neck of the jam jar and attach natural materials to it.
Make your own lantern with winter motifs
If there are old glasses lying around the house, you can use them to make lanternscute winter motifstransform. For the next craft idea you will need the following materials:
- glasses
- self-adhesive paper
- Scissors
- Frostspray
- LED tea lights
- Decorative ribbon with pompoms
- Adhesive tape, transparent
Directions:
- Select suitable silhouettes (snowman, Christmas tree, reindeer), print them out on self-adhesive paper and cut them out.
- Stick the template on the glass.
- Spray the glass with freeze spray and let it dry in a warm place overnight.
- The next morning, carefully peel off the self-adhesive paper template.
- Place LED tea lights in the glasses.
- Cut the decorative ribbon with pompoms and secure it around the neck of the glass with adhesive tape.
Make winter lanterns: paint jam jars
Snowflake motifs are very popular in winter. Below we will explain to you how you can make beautiful lanterns with snowflakes yourself. You will need the following materials:
- Snowflakes, self-adhesive or a template made of self-adhesive paper
- Jam jars
- Glass painting pens
- blue paint for glass
- Paint brush
- Tealights
Directions:
- Clean the jam jar thoroughly.
- Glue the snowflakes or the template onto the glass.
- Use a paint pen to draw the pattern from the template onto the glass.
- Paint the glass blue with a brush and let it dry.
- Carefully peel off the template.
- Place the tea light in the glass.
Make winter lanterns with the children
Crafting promotes creativity, fine motor skills and increases the ability to concentrate in small children. Crafting is a great leisure activity, especially on cloudy and rainy winter days. Below we will show you some lanterns that you can make yourself with the children. If you have decorative figures such as penguins or polar bears at home, you can use them to make beautiful lanterns. You also need the following materials:
- Decorative figures from the craft store
- Jam jar with screw lid
- Mini Christmas trees made from bottle brushes
- Artificial snow or Epsom salt
- adhesive
- battery-operated mini LED light
- white organza ribbon
Directions:
- Thoroughly clean the jam jar and remove labels. Remove adhesive residue with warm water and soap.
- Fill the artificial snow into the jam jar.
- Cut the bottle brush to size and shape it into a Christmas tree with scissors.
- Place the decorative figure together with the bottle brush in the glass and stick it to the floor if necessary. However, it is better not to stick the decorative figures on, because this way you can decorate the jam jar anew every season.
- Glue the battery-operated LED light to the lid.
- Screw the lid on and tie a decorative ribbon around the neck of the jam jar.
Our tip: If you wish, you can buy decorative figures made from modeling clay, which the children can then paint as they wish.
Beautify winter lanterns with paper
The next craft idea is suitable for small children of kindergarten age. At the age of three, they are already skilled at using scissors. Cutting should therefore be trained from this age onwards. This makes writing much easier for the children later on because they can already coordinate their fingers. The next craft idea offers a great opportunity to develop their fine motor skills. You need the following materials:
- Jam jars
- Paper, green and brown
- Scissors
- Adhesive, transparent
- Paint brush
- punch
Directions:
- Cut out Christmas trees from the green and brown paper.
- If desired, cut holes in the green treetop.
- Brush the jam jars with the transparent glue and attach the Christmas trees.
- Let the jam jars dry.
- Place a tea light in each jam jar and light it.
Our tip: You can also cut out other figures. House silhouettes, for example, work well. Experienced children's hands can also cut out a reindeer.
Making winter lanterns: instructions for a snowman lantern
Make a cute snowman lantern for the children's room together with the children. You will need the following materials:
- artificial snow
- adhesive
- modeling clay
- 2 black buttons
- Pipe cleaners in red and white
- 2 pom poms
- Mason jar with screw lid
Directions:
- Form a nose out of the orange modeling clay and let it dry.
- Glue the nose and buttons to the jam jar with hot glue.
- Unscrew the lid and brush the mason jar with glue.
- Spray the mason jar with the artificial snow spray and let it dry.
- Place an LED lantern inside.
- Glue the pompoms to the lid.
- Glue the pipe cleaner to the pom-pom.
- Screw the lid on.
Winter lanterns: Make snowmen out of plastic bottles
If you have old plastic bottles at home, you can turn them into fun lanterns. For the next craft idea you will need the following materials:
- Four or more old plastic bottles
- Decorative Santa hat, fabric flowers, dwarf hats
- Painting pens for glass or plastic
- LED fairy lights, battery operated
Directions:
- Thoroughly clean the plastic bottles and remove dust, dirt and grease. Then let them dry.
- Paint funny faces or alternatively you can buy funny face stickers and stick them on the bottles.
- Decorate the bottles with the plastic flowers or put on a Santa hat.
Make frosty winter lanterns
Finally, we will explain to you how to make a frosty oneMake a winter lanterncan. For this purpose you will need the following materials:
- Whiskey glasses
- Self-adhesive plastic ice crystals or ice crystal punch, construction paper and Fixogum
- Frost color
- Paint brush
- white sand
- LED tea lights
Craft instructions:
- Clean the glasses thoroughly, remove dirt and dust.
- Punch the ice crystals out of cardboard with the punch and stick them to the glass with the Fixogum. Optional: attach the self-adhesive ice crystals.
- Apply frost paint to the glasses and allow to dry.
- Carefully peel off the ice crystal motifs and carefully remove any remaining adhesive.
- Follow the manufacturer's instructions to seal the paint. Sometimes it is enough to apply protective varnish to the glasses; often you have to fire the glasses in the oven.
- Let the jars rest overnight in a dry, warm place.
- Fill a bit of sand into each glass and then place the LED candle inside.
Creative and beautiful: winter lanterns create a cozy atmosphere in the house and garden. They can be displayed effectively on plates, trays or cake stands and look good on the table in the children's room, on the windowsill or on the coffee table.
Tea lights, pillar candles or LED candles really highlight them in the evening. Since there is always a risk of fire with candles, you should never leave them burning without supervision. Battery-operated LED candles are a safe alternative. They look deceptively real, can even flicker and are in no way inferior to real candles. This makes them particularly suitable for children's rooms. A third variant is to drape a battery-operated string of lights in the lanterns. In this case, you should put the lid on, especially if the lanterns will be on the balcony or terrace.
