Smiling sun lantern

Let your imagination shine!

Make this cheerful-looking DIY lantern to help raise spirits at home in a matter of moments! Simply combine bright colours, creative patterns and simple materials to conjure up this truly eye-catching accessory. Perfect if you’re ever taking part in a lantern parade. It can also serve as a unique decorative highlight for the home.

Categories: Autumn
Creative garden ideas
Products: Paint markers
Materials: Paper, carton and cardboard
Difficulty: Easy peasy
Downloads: Images (ZIP)

Step-by-step

Step 1

Lay out all your materials. For this idea, you’ll need the edding 751 gloss paint marker in metallic shades. If you want, you can use a pencil to trace your patterns first. You’ll also need an extra sheet of paper for activating your markers.

Step 2

Cut out the centre of a paper plate to create a ring. Next, cut a circle from the tracing paper, making sure it’s slightly bigger than the hole in the paper plate.

Step 3

Take your coloured card and draw triangles of equal size before cutting them out. These will serve as your sunrays later on. Cut out enough triangles to fit all the way round the circle.

Step 4

It’s now time to add some colour! You’ll first need to activate your gloss paint markers as follows: shake the marker vigorously with the cap still on, remove the cap and press the tip of the marker up and down several times on a piece of absorbent paper until ink appears in the nib. You can now get down to business! Design the face for your lantern on the circular piece of tracing paper. Trace the shapes and then colour them in using your edding gloss paint markers.

Step 5

Decorate the triangles you cut out earlier using edding gloss paint markers. Decorate them in whatever style takes your fancy! You can use dots, lines or other patterns to create extra touches to great effect.

Step 6

Now, using the glue stick, attach the coloured face to the inside of the paper plate ring, making sure it’s centred and covering the space.

Step 7

Next, stick the triangles around the edge of the plate (on the back) so that the decorated sides face outwards to help make your lantern resemble a sun.

Step 8

Finally, use the hot glue gun to attach a piece of wire (plus a light source) to the lantern. To finish, stick the second paper plate to the back of your lantern.