Rainbow Lantern

To light up up our St.Patty's day celebration we decided to try our hand at creating a bright rainbow lantern. I have never done paper mache and as we were creating it I had my doubts it would all hold up once it was dry. I was happy to see that that it worked and that the process left us with a lovely lantern!

To create you will need

rainbow tissue paper

glue

balloon (we used a punching balloon for an extra large lantern)

paint brush

scissors 

battery operated tea light (or real tea light in a small pie plate)

To begin, cut your tissue paper colors into strips and then into squares.

Cover your work area with protection (this is going to get messy!)

Blow up your balloon.

Secure your balloon into a stand (a bowl or a strip of cardboard taped together to form a circle...) so that you don't have to hold your balloon up as you work. 

Mix your glue with water (with the ratio 4:1 ~ 4 parts glue, 1 part water).

Paint a strip of glue around the top of your balloon and place a layer of squares on top of the glue. Then cover the strip of squares in glue once again. Continue going around the same strip of color until you have three layers.

Keep going all the way down your balloon in strips, following the colors of the rainbow.

Tie a string around the top and hang to dry for 24 hours. 

Pop your balloon and pull out the pieces.

Add your candle....

and enjoy!

With warmth, 

Love Lanterns

It is mighty cold here in Ontario right now and it is all about staying cozy in this deep freeze! To bring some extra light to our evening snuggles by the wood stove, we created some love lanterns.  

To create you will need

pale pink tissue paper

mod podge

glass bowl

paint brush

pressed tulip petals

The wonderful thing I discovered with tulip petals is that they form hearts as they dry! 

To create these petal hearts, start by getting yourself a much needed of bouquet of tulips (ah.... spring in the dead of winter, medicine for the soul)!

 Press the tulip petals in a heavy book between two sheets of paper. Give them a week or so to dry and then voila... tulip petal hearts!

Cut or tear your tissue paper into strips.

Apply a layer of mod podge onto your bowl the length and width of a strip, place a strip on top and then apply another layer of mod podge.

Keep going until your entire bowl is covered.

Place it on a bottle to dry.

Next, add mod podge and then your hearts where ever your heart desires!

Finally mod podge very gently over top of your heart.

 Allow it to fully dry.

The tissue paper and hearts will remain fairly fragile until they are dry, so handle with care.

Light up your love lantern and find a snuggle partner to enjoy it with!

In love & light