On Thursday evening, my friend Maria and I took the girls to see the Lantern Festival at Missouri Botanical Garden. It was absolutely breathtaking! If you ever visit St. Louis in the summer, I highly recommend a visit to this annual exhibition.
![]() |
Photo by Jade Dong, courtesy of Missouri Botanical Garden |
![]() |
Photo by Brian Mueller, courtesy of Missouri Botanical Garden |
![]() |
Photo by Brian Mueller, courtesy of Missouri Botanical Garden |
On the way home, Miss Imp plucked all of the strings out of her lantern's tassel. As of today, one lantern is completely dead and the other is barely hanging on. Yes, I should have known better.
If I had a do-over, I would make and bring these paper lanterns to the festival. I started with the basic paper lantern that everyone learns in grade school. To make it sturdy, I used a leftover shirt box.
To light up my lanterns, I glued battery operated tea-lights to pieces of twill tape and suspended them inside. After gluing in additional pieces of the shirt box for support, I added grommets and a wire handle.
I used pieces of wood dowel for the sticks. To join the stick to the lantern, I screwed a tiny eye-hook in the top of the dowel and attached a light weight split key ring.
Here are the lanterns lit up. With the flickering tea-lights, it almost looks like there are real candles inside.
The girls are ready for next summer's lantern festival!
These lanterns are beautiful. I remember making them as a kid, but I love your paper choices, and I love that you have the light inside. Fun project for kids. Thanks. Jodi @ www.meaningfulmama.com
ReplyDeleteGreat photos and very cute lanterns you made! Thanks so much for sharing at Etcetorize this week~
ReplyDeleteCute! I'm sure the girls loved it. I'm stopping by from a blog hop
ReplyDeletewww.iheartpears.blogspot.com
Beautiful lanterns, but the girls stole the show! Thank you for sharing this at my Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. Hope to see your prettiness again on Monday. Wishing you a grand week. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse
ReplyDeleteSuch a sweet project! thanks so much for sharing on Craft Schooling Sunday!
ReplyDeleteSo so cute! These would make fun camping crafts for the kids! Here from GingerSnaps- cute blog! :)
ReplyDeleteThese are great! Found you on Gingersnaps!
ReplyDeleteYours are so cute! Crafters can always make it better. ;). Thanks so much for linking up at I Gotta Create! <3 Christina
ReplyDeleteSuch a CUTE idea!!! Love that you put in little lights in there too!!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing this at The DIY Dreamer.. From Dream To Reality!
I love those lanterns! They look so summer-y! We went to the Botanical Gardens when they were setting up for the Chinese Lantern Festival. It was incredible! When the heat subsides, I would love to go out in the evening to see it by lantern light. Thanks for sharing your version at the Pomp Party! Pinning to our Pomp Party board!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pin!
DeleteThese look great! I would love to invite you to share this on Saturday Show and Tell: (www.cheeriosandlattes.com/saturday-show-tell-20/). I know that my readers would appreciate this and some of your other posts. Thanks and have a great weekend.
ReplyDelete-Mackenzie
http://www.cheeriosandlattes.com
Linked!
Delete