Paper Lantern Fun!!

I bought these at the Dollar Tree. They are available lots of places and super inexpensive. They come in a wide range of colors, too. I have some that are solar powered on my porch but these take 2 AAA batteries to power the LED light.

If you aren't familiar with them - you just insert a small plastic or wooden ( depending on manufacturer) piece into the center and you have a perfect sphere every time. I am gearing up for a big event at church the beginning of December and these are part of the decorations. I gathered up my paper punches, cardstock, and glue gun. If you wanted the kiddos to make these then glue dots would work perfectly.

I punched and glued and cut a triangle out of orange polka dot paper and ...

.. Mr. Snowman was created in about 5 minutes and cost $1.00 !! I am making a whole garland of these to string up at our children's event in a few weeks. (Since I am in a church, we go with the  "Jesus loves You Snow Much" slogan and use wintry decorations. Now, it might be 65 degrees or warmer in Atlanta the day of the event or it could be freezing - we never know- but it puts us in the spirit !!)

and, I know, I'm sorry... I also made- you guessed it- OWLS!!!

They are so stinking cute. I used lots of punches and buttons for the eyes. I cut the wings out of polka dot scrapbook paper. It was just a circle I cut in half.

Next time I make owls I will move the wings a little bit forward and possibly drop the eyes a tad but it was my first attempt. I'm sure I'll be making more and I'll "tweak" them then. It really takes just 5 minutes to make these. I can see brown ones turning into gingerbread men faces and orange ones become pumpkins, etc. The possibilities are endless. A great Earth Day project could be done with the children - use solar powered ones, of course, and let them paint them blues and green to look like the earth! What fun.

  ** I didn't take a picture of them glowing. They look great. Just be sure to use the smallest dots of hot glue. It will hold just fine on the paper lantern and you don't want big globs showing when it's lit up.