Before I share how we made these lanterns, I have to thank Oriental Trading Company for sending me a bunch of craft supplies (like the white paper lanterns and pom poms.) I always thought they were just a party and teacher supply company, but I see now how wrong I was! They have quite the variety of craft materials on their site!
How to Use Watercolor to Paint Paper Lanterns:
Ok, so here's how we made our lanterns-The lanterns arrive flattened and I had to first put them together. Once they were assembled, we grabbed our watercolor palettes and liquid watercolors and got painting!
Here's what I learned from that process
- Liquid watercolors are hands down the best for painting paper lanterns. Their colors are just way more vibrant!
- Paper lanterns are more solid than I thought. I worried that the water would tear through the lanterns, but we never experienced a problem. (My son really likes his paint to be super wet... and still nothing ripped!)
After letting our watercolors dry, we took decorating them to the next level! We used Sharpies to add extra details. We also glued on pom poms and liberally applied glitter glue!
We also transformed a couple into jellyfish by gluing on googly eyes and tying on strands of ribbons and yarn. These were SUPER easy and SUPER cute!
My son and I had a lot of fun painting these lanterns and I am so happy with how the project turned out.
Hope your summer is starting off well. Happy making, friends!
