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So we read Tubby and the Lantern again and and again…

It is such a lovely story filled with adventure and surprises on every page not to mention… No one expects that when Tubby starts making his enormous lantern that the story will involve traveling to distant lands and only just escaping pirates and getting home in time for a birthday party.

And then I read the Shishi Girl’s “Merry and Bright Post” and we were inspired to make lanterns… and lanterns galore.

So here we go Se7en lanterns:

• Drip candles: Let’s start with drip candles, because that’s where Tubby the elephant began. Heat your candle wax in metal cans taller than the candle you are after… and then dip away from color to color… We placed ours in a little box of sand (the candle bases weren’t well squared off and the sand held them upright) and you have a very festive result.
  
  

  If you have little ones that you don’t want near hot wax, then pour the wax into ice cream containers, while the wax is soft cut out the shapes with cookie cutters and make a hole in them with a skewer. When they have cooled completely you just stack them and thread your wick through them.

  

• Lava lamps: I got the directions for making these from Family Fun and we have made them countless times since. Fill a jar with water and a layer of oil, sprinkle some salt and some glitter into the jar. And you are done. The oil attaches to the salt and sinks, but oil is less dense than water and rises and repeat… If you shake it it goes cloudy, otherwise you can watch the glitter and oil rise up and down in your mini-lamp.




• Glass and tissue paper:

We made this one as part of our Christmas Advent Fun, inspired by the Bella Dia’s Fabulous Advent Crafts. We used an empty glass jar, tissue paper and we used wall paper glue.




• Tissue Paper Pinatas: We made some pinatas out of tissue paper (for directions go here) and then we cut them in half and popped a tea light into each of them – makes for very pretty lanterns.

  

  

• Simple Paper Lanterns: We printed these fun dragon lamps and if you need instructions then you can’t beat these.

  

  

  

• Tin cans: You know how I love tin cans and tin can crafts. I have tried these before and they have always been a disaster, until… The Shishi Girl mentioned to fill the cans with water and freeze them – genius!!! It works and my children did not manage to kill themselves or lacerate any little fingers… definitely an under adult supervision only project.

  
  

  

  
  
  
  
  

• Paper box lamps: Print the template from the Shishi Girl (you need four copies of page 2 for each lamp) and away you go… color with crayon, paint over with food coloring, cut, glue, fold, glue… done!

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

That’s it – All lit up!!! – Have Fun!

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