DIY Paper Plate Lantern: 2 Cute and Easy Fall Crafts for Kids Ideas

Fall is craft time and what better way to celebrate it than with some twinkling lanterns? Children love them and can let their imagination run wild when designing them. Let’s take a look at how to make a fall paper plate lantern.

Fall officially begins this week, so we have prepared some great lantern craft projects for you. Different materials are used so that everyone can find a suitable idea.

DIY Paper Plate Lantern with Children

Today we’re crafting with paper plates. They are a cheap and versatile material that children can use to get really creative. The project we would like to introduce today requires only two paper plates per lantern and is great for children ages 4+ with adult supervision. Let’s start!

You Need These Materials:

• For a lantern you need the following:
• 2 paper plates
• Acrylic paint and brush or sponge
• Transparent Paper
• colorful ribbons, thin
• Leaves stickers
• Mini fairy lights with battery
• Glue
• Scissors
• optional: stick

DIY Paper Plate Lantern: Instructions

Cut out a large circle in the center of each paper plate. Take one of the plates and cut out a small piece at the top. This is where the fairy lights will go in later.

Paint the bottoms of the plates with orange acrylic paint and allow the paint to dry.

Then cut out two pieces of transparent paper that are larger than the cut out circles in the paper plates. Glue them on the inside over the cut holes.

Cut the ribbons to size, creating several strips of equal length (approx. 4 inches/10 cm long). Now apply some glue to the inner edge of the cut out paper plate and glue the ribbons to the bottom edge. Place the second plate on top and glue them together. Leave the top edge open.

Decorate the front and back of the lantern with fall leaves and place the fairy lights inside the lantern.

Make a hanger out of a piece of ribbon and glue it to the top edge.

You can tie the lantern to a stick with some ribbon.

Also read: Easy Fall Leaf Crafts for Kids to Decorate Your Home This Season

Easy Fall Crafts for Kids: How to Make a Paper Plate Owl Lantern

You can use these paper plate lantern craft instructions to make lanterns with different animals. It’s really easy. All you still need are some features of the animal you want to craft. You should also use the right colors when painting and decorating the paper plates. Otherwise the lantern is made using the same method.

For an owl, for example, you can print out the template below and cut it out of colored paper or foam rubber. Additionally cut out wings and glue them to the back of the lantern. Position the eye mask over the transparent paper so that they glow and draw eyes on it. Cut out a small beak from orange paper to add the finishing touches to the owl lantern.

Also read: Valentines Day Construction Paper Crafts for Kids: 5 Easy Ideas to Try This Weekend