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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

DIY Wax Paper Lantern


With a busy toddler, sometimes it can be hard to come up with something fun to make that will keep her interested and, most importantly, learn something once we're done. This kid's craft covered a little bit of construction skills, colors and color-mixing, and creating unique artwork. With a few simple supplies, you can create a cute and colorful wax paper lantern and have a great time!


To make a wax paper lantern, you'll need:
Wax Paper {any brand should work great}
Crayons in multiple colors
Craft Sticks {I got mine from CraftProjectIdeas.com}
Iron
Scrap Paper or Newspaper

*Depending on the age of the child, I would highly recommend a bit of adult supervision. There will be the use of an iron, so we don't want any little hands getting burned!


Step 1: Cut or tear a piece of wax paper off the roll about 10-12 inches long. Fold and cut the paper in half length-wise. Fold each half in half again width-wise {don't tear it!} so you now have 2 sheets to work with that are each about 5x10-12 with a folded seam.


Step 2: Depending on how hard you or your child can color, you can color your own design on one half of the wax paper sheet. My daughter tried, but wasn't getting a very dark image. The darker your coloring, the better it will turn out.

Step 2.1: Since we couldn't draw a dark enough image, we did the next best thing: place crayon shavings into separate paper cups. Sprinkle the shavings {not too many} on one side of the wax paper. From a little trial and error, adding too many shavings can make a big mess when melted and will also end up blending all the colors into one. So, use a few and spread them out a little for best results.

Teach what colors work together when mixed {like blue + yellow = green}, and what will happen when you mix colors like yellow and purple that will turn a muddy brown. We made a few extra sheets so we could experiment with different colors.


Step 3: Fold the wax paper over with the shavings inside. Place on a piece of scrap or newspaper, then cover with another piece of paper. With your iron on medium heat, run it across the paper with a small amount of pressure. This should melt the crayon shavings and fuse the wax paper together. Having the scrap paper will help absorb any crayon that melts out of the wax paper and protects your iron. You can make as many sheets as you'd like, but you only need 4 for this project.

Step 4: With a little bit of glue, or using a glue gun, glue the craft sticks together to make a square {as seen in image above}. Make sure all the craft stick frames are completely dry before the next step!!


Step 5: Carefully trim your wax paper sheets to about 4x4 inch square {measure your frame to make sure what will fit} and tape the sheet to the inside of the craft stick frames.

Step 6: To put the lantern together, start by taping two of the frames together on the inside. Line the frame sides up, and add a few pieces of tape. Add the third frame the same way, then carefully fold them all in to form a cube. Add the fourth frame, and tape both edges so that all the frames are connected.


Now your lantern is done! Add a battery powered tea light or nightlight inside and admire your work!
With all the flammables involved in this project, I don't recommend putting a candle inside the lantern at all!!

Thanks again to CraftProjectIdeas.com for sending us craft sticks to play with!

Would you like to comment?

  1. I love this! They are so adorable. I may get me some crayons and make a few for tablescapes :-)

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  2. I love this! So adorable. I may get me some crayons and make a few for tablescapes :-)

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  3. We are stuck inside today. This will be perfect for us! Thanks!

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  4. What a cute idea! My daughter would love making this with me.

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  5. How fun!! I LOVE these! It's totally rainy here today I think we will be trying these out!

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  6. I'm 29 years old and I may make one! LOL How cute! :)

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  7. My son is four and would love to make this, and we have all the supplies on hand which is great! Thanks for sharing!

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  8. Hello Lindsay, I just love your projects. I'm tucking this idea away to do with my grandchildren. I saw you at BYB & I'm popping by your great blog to say "hello". It was really nice to meet you & I'll look forward to hearing from you at SNAP.

    Warmly, Michelle
    Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust

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  9. You should be able to use the battery powered "tea lights".

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  10. This came out wonderful! I love the look of it! Just posted on Craft Gossip!

    http://lessonplans.craftgossip.com/?p=7682

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  11. Such a fun & cute little craft project! :o) Pinned! Thanks for sharing!!

    Brenda @ChattingOverChocolate.blogspot.com

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  12. Love this project...I shared on my FB page last night! :D

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  13. These are so cute and what a fun way to involve the kids in a little DIY project!

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  14. So cute! My kids would love to see the wax melt!

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  15. Love it! I am pretty much in awe of all of the crafts you do with your daughter. I sit here and go back and forth....I want to....it will be messy....she needs to learn...it will be messy...
    I need to be more like you. Maybe this activity will be a good step in the right direction. :)

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  16. Lovely and fun! Great idea for using wax paper art!

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  17. I love this idea! So creative! I am a new follower and Thanks for linking up to Talkin’ About Thursday link party. I hope you will come back next week too!
    DeDe@DesignedDecor

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  18. So pretty! And great idea about teaching color mixing while making something fun. Thanks for sharing :)

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  19. Wooohoooo! Featuring YOU at this week's For the Kids Friday link party over at Sun Scholars!

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  20. This is so fun!!!
    Congrats! Your post is being featuring in Homeschooling on the Cheap this week! Thanks for sharing it with us! http://3boysandadog.com/deals/2013/homeschooling-on-the-cheap-february-28-2013/

    Kelli at DEALS!

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  21. this is awesome! totally doing this for mother's day gifts!

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  22. Very fun! Visiting from Kelli's blog and I love this idea! Melinda is right, this would make a perfect mother's day gift!

    Lindsey @ GrowingKidsMinistry.com

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  23. This is awesome ~ I am going to make this next week with my youngest son. He will love it. Pinning to the Project Inspire{d} board!

    Thanks so much for sharing at my party!

    Hugs, Mary Beth

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    1. hi mi name is Elizabeth: I need help my friend and I tried doing this lantern last night and we could not glue the paper to the sticks, she had parchment paper, I don't know if there is a difference between parchment paper and wax paper when it comws to gluing, we tried using glue gun, tacky glue e6000 glue duck tape, nothing worked, please help my email is lizzy389@gmail.com

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    2. Dear Anonymous - The tutorial says she used tape to attach the paper to the sticks, though there is no mention about which kind of tape.

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  24. Awesomeeee idea gonna try this for sure

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  25. This is awesome..I m pinning it. Dropping by from Colours Dekor
    Nayana@cherishdreamlive

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  26. Oh, these are beautiful!! I love the idea. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!

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  27. Beautiful!!

    Thanks for sharing at Sharing Saturday!

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  28. oh my.. oh my... thats very impressive.. I love how easy it is.. Yes. sooooooooooooo beautiful!!

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  29. Very Beautiful!!

    Great Idea. I have got new experience .


    Thank you for sharing.

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  30. This is so great!! I will definitely be making some of these with my daughter and will probably even make a few as gifts for her cousins and friends!! Thanks for sharing!!

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  31. 'O' my dear this is so adorable.. beautiful and really easy design ...

    I Love it.. thanks.

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  32. I'm the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your lantern! You can see it here:

    http://funfamilycrafts.com/wax-paper-lantern/

    If you have other kid friendly crafts, we'd love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!

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  33. Simpel, fast and beautifull! Nice craft! i Love it!

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  34. Simpel, fast and beautifull! Nice craft! i Love it!

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  35. I'm 62 and I've always LOVES crayons ! ! ! LOL...

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  36. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  37. Great idea! Very simple and very cute. I liked it so much that I mentioned it at http://www.whitevenusmagazine.com/date-idea-mid-autumn-festival/

    Keep up the cute site!

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  38. What a great idea!! Was looking for lanterns to make with my twins to take to kindergarten, these are perfect!!

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  39. i am going to let my granddaughter make one i think she would love it

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  40. I love this project Lindsay! I've always wanted one of those rotating lanterns that project onto the walls, and this is just as cool!

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  41. This is brilliant. Thank you. ~Kate

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  42. What a pretty craft! It will be perfect on the table at summer dinners.

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  43. You may be able to use a warming plate to draw on the wax paper, I haven't tried it yet, so you may need a piece of paper between the warming plate and the wax paper. I don't know if it would melt.

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  44. I loved this. I tried it out but used parchment paper instead and when dry the crayon art started peeling off. Wondered if the problem was becuase I used parchment paper instead of wax paper or was it because I used too much crayon shavings. Any suggestions?

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    1. It's because of the parchment paper. This project really requires the use of wax paper.
      The parchment paper won't work.

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  45. Hi!
    I had the same problem as Vaish. The melted crayon just slid right off the wax paper. I used a hair drier instead of an iron. Don't know if it would work better with an iron.

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  46. We did this and glued on bits of tissue paper instead of crayon shavings. It turned out great- thanks for such a great idea!

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    1. That's great to know because I was wanting to do these lanterns using both the crayons and tissue paper methods with my grandchildren

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  47. Just wondering how do u get your wax/crayon to stop crumbling off the wax paper?

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    1. The crayon shavings go in BETWEEN the wax paper and you put new paper under the bottom and another on top then you iron it so the crayon shavings melt inside the 2 pieces of wax paper .

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  48. I haven't tried this yet; and wondered what kind of tape would stick well. Could you use the hot glue gun instead

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  49. I like this idea for our young camper/crafters, but I didn't see anything in the directions about building the base panel. I assume just a solid base of craft sticks?

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    1. You just make a square frame with craft sticks for each of the 4 sides of lantern and lay two of the squad. Frames down and tape them together and just keep repeating until you have you completed lantern framed.

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  50. This is awesome, I made this but using A4 sheet.

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  51. I’m about to make these with my five year old son. I printed out directions but it would be nice to have a “print” link that opens up a PDF of the directions without Having to waste ink on all the ads imbedded in the website.

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  52. can we use parchment paper instead??

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