'Real'ly cute Lanterns

Read my other Rapunzel Birthday Party Posts:

Another decoration we used for Pumpkin’s Rapunzel themed birthday party were these lanterns. As you may remember, in the movie Tangled the lanterns play a big role. I thought it would be appropriate to have some up for decorations. I found a pattern for making them on the Disney Family site. Sparkly Paper Lanterns

Mr T.³spent one evening while watching TV together making the lanterns. He simply followed the directions in the link to the sparkly paper lanterns above. Pumpkin and I had picked out the paper she wanted on a recent trip to Michael’s for most of the supplies for her party.

One mistake I made in the planning for this part of the decorations was in the number of sheets of paper to get. I was using 12×12 scrapbook paper. I, of course, didn’t read the directions until Mr T.³was about to start making the lanterns. It was then that I realized that I needed paper that was 24 inches wide. Of course 12×12 paper is only 12 inches wide. So, I ended up gluing 2 sheets together. Therefore, I ended up with half the number of lanterns I had originally intended to have as decorations. It worked out fine, but would have been really cute if I had more lanterns. If you plan to make these, just keep that in mind. Your paper needs to be 24 inches wide. Then you can cut that 24 inch wide paper into heights between 6.5 and 8.5 inches.

Another idea that I saw on another blog (I looked at so many, I can’t remember where I saw it or I would give credit), if your party is going to be in the evening, you could add glow bracelets/sticks to these lanterns to make them glow. Choose thin paper (i.e. not heavy cardstock scrapbook paper but the thinner type of scrapbook paper) so you have a chance of your glow stick adding some glow. Our party was during the day. I did try putting one glow bracelet into a lantern, but between the paper being a bit thick and the daylight, it was impossible to see any ‘glow.’

From the directions on the Disney site, I of course modified things a bit as I am prone to doing! 🙂

After Mr T.³put the lanterns together for me, it was time for me to stencil again. I used the same contact paper stencil and the same gold paint that I used for the favor bags and the banners/pendants. I choose not to stencil all of them, just for varieties sake. The lanterns that I did stencil, I only added the sun on two sides. I made a total of 5 lanterns and had the sun stencil on 3 of them. I also added some small gems to some of the lanterns. The final touch was adding a purple button and varying colors of ribbon to the lanterns.

I used a hot glue gun to add the gems, ribbon and buttons. The directions on the Disney site suggest that you use glue dots and while they are certainly easier than a hot glue gun, I don’t like all the waste of them. It may be a tiny way to lighten my load on the planet, but even tiny bits make a difference in my mind. (Of course, we could discuss the use of the electricity for the glue gun versus the waste of the packaging, etc., of the glue dots…but then I might bore you all as well as let you in a bit too much on my wacky mind!)

All in all, I thought these turned out really well and really added to our Tangled/Rapunzel theme. In fact they are still hanging in my living room and kitchen as I can’t seem to get rid of them. Mr T.³was just asking when we are taking them down, since the party was 3 weeks ago now. What to do, what to do….take them down and throw them away which seems wrong or take them down and sell them like Mr T.³wants me to do….Neither seems right, so at the moment, indecision is keeping them up in my house! Well since Thanksgiving is coming soon and then I will be decorating for the holidays, I will have to decided soon!