Recycled Lanterns

Recycled Lanterns

It's always fun making lanterns from jam jars and my mum was playing with turning plastic milk bottles into lanterns too. How great to turn all this recycling into something beautiful.

What you'll need:

  • PVA glue
  • Smallish paint brush
  • Coloured tissue paper (I got a pack in BMs)
  • Cleaned out jam jars with any labels removed
  • A washed out plastic milk bottle cut in half. (You want the bottom half)
  • Scissors
  • Inspiration to look at (I like to look at Polish Wycinanki)
  • Wire for a handle (on the jam jars)
  • A nightlight candle (real or battery - please be careful with how hot real ones get when placed inside the plastic milk bottles)

1. Start by thinking about what shapes will fit your vessel best. I like flowers and star shapes. Have a look at Polish paper cut outs online for ideas.

2. Carefully cut out your shapes from the tissue. When you fold over the tissue multiple times you get multiples of the same cut out shape - bonus!

3. When you are confident about the composition, cover the surface of the jar or milk bottle in PVA glue. Please note - This will make the glass jar look frosty when it's dry, which I quite like. Carefully place your shape on the glued areas, smoothing from the bottom up using the brush. Cover the tissue shape with PVA on top to smooth it down too. You can layer the tissue colours on top of one another.

4. Leave to dry then make a handle from wire (glass jars) to loop around the top.

Note:

If your kids are small just let them rip up the tissue and stick it on, it still looks lovely!

Please be careful with how hot real candles get when placed inside the plastic milk bottles

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