Show and Tell: Paper Lanterns

Houseful of Handmade had a great looking feature a few weeks ago where the blog owner (Kati) created paper lanterns that look like they are heavy metal versions. (Ha – Heavy Metal – I didn’t mean it like that).

I’ve been making tea light boxes since the first weekend I owned my Silhouette Cameo so I knew these were going to be fun.

And HOH has a digital download library that’s free if you’ll sign up for her newsletter (which you should, because it’s also good).

The instructions were great, the photos were great, the patterns are great. Note to other craft bloggers: Please leave glue flaps on patterns that are actually big enough to get glue (or double sided tape) on.

The day I decided to do these was super windy, and I didn’t want to spray paint in the basement, so I cheated and used paper that was printed with a metal texture.

Kati warns these are addictive, and she’s not lying. I made my second one with a glitter texture paper.

I used vellum paper for my sides (Kati uses Plexiglass). When I make these again on a less windy day (so I can paint them according to her directions), I’m going to go all-in on her instructions and do it her way.

In my photos, the one with the metal texture is supposed to have a different top, but there was an incident and I didn’t want to cut a new one so he’s a little short. And that’s why I like paper crafting!