Recycle your glass jars and make CNY lanterns!

The end of the Chinese New Year is marked with a Lantern Festival. Traditionally, children carried simple paper lanterns to the temple at night. Over the years this has evolved into parades with thousands of lanterns lighting up the night sky.



Emma and I enjoyed creating our own version of red lanterns out of tissue paper and recycled glass jars. They turned out so pretty I don't think we'll limit ourselves to just CNY to use them.



Supplies needed for this craft include:

Empty glass jars (with the labels soaked off)
red tissue paper
scissors
glue
brushes
(glitter, ribbon..etc) for embellishments



Step 1. Gather up some empty glass jars (here's a good excuse to clean out the refrigerator) and let them soak in hot water to remove their labels.



Step 2. Make a simple solution of white glue and water, using equal parts of each. I poured our solution on a paper plate.



Step 3. Cut up a bowl full of one-inch squares of red tissue paper (the size isn't that important). You could even tear up your tissue pieces for a more custom look. Set aside your tissue paper.



Step 4. Using a brush, paint the sides of the jar with the glue solution.

Step 5. Paste one layer of red tissue onto the jar.





Step 6. We then covered the tissue with another coat of glue and set the jars aside to dry. I put our jars over a heat vent to dry faster, but you could even put them in front of a fan to speed up the process. It took a little over 2 hours for them to dry completely.



Step 7. Decorate your jar with glitter, stickers, gold wire, ribbon or whatever you can find. We had several different types of red envelopes for the CNY and I cut out some of the decorations on the envelops to put on the jars.





Step 8. Put a tealight candle in your jar, and you're ready for your very own Lantern Festival parade! Happy Crafting!!