fun lil (christmas) craft: making paper lanterns

every year at christmas my family makes ginger bread houses out of graham crackers. this year we didn't. instead- we all got a little addicted to a simple little craft that my friend megan introduced to me.... making paper lanterns. its nice because its a good reuse for all that tissue paper that is used to wrap presents this time of year.

its ingredients can pretty much be found around the house. all you need is:

-tissue paper of various colors

-white glue

-balloons (we used water balloons, but you can use any size..it just depends on what size lanterns you want)

-a bowl and spoon

-scissors

-water

steps

1. cut tissue paper into 2x4 inch strips. we decided it's easier to cut the paper up ahead of time, rather than while you're covered in glue and making the lantern.
2. put an ounce or two of glue into the bowl, add twice as much water as there is glue. mix glue/water mixture together with spoon.
3. set up work space. you're gonna get glue on your hands, the table and maybe the floor, so you might want to put down a plastic table cloth. we didn't do this, but we definitely had to clean up some table goo as a result.
4. blow up balloon to desired lantern size.
5. start working! dip the tissue paper pieces one or two at a time into the gluewater. it helps to squeegee the excess glue off the paper with one hand while you hold it with the other. or let it drip for a few seconds.
6. put paper on the balloon in a circle so that there is no paper within several inches on the balloon's nipple. otherwise you will have a funny egg shaped lantern. you can also push the paper down to the desired size/to make is even after you're done, but this makes for a thick edge.
7. cover balloon with 4-6 layers of paper. we used white as the first few layers of paper and then used fun colors on top of that.
8. once you're satisfied with the beauty of your balloon, hang it up to dry for 24 hours. we hung up a piece of string over a window and hung around 15 balloons off it.
9. pop the balloon once it is dry!
10. do with your lanterns as you wish. you can put tealights in them. or you can poke holes in the bottom of the lantern and stick christmas lights through each one (what we did- as you can kind of see if the first photo above). tis quite nice. and soothing to make.