Orange Carton Lanterns

I've mentioned before that our family goes through a ton of orange juice, so I'm always looking for ways to do something with all the old cartons. In the sprit of Autumn and Halloween, we turned a few into lanterns this week. 

Our Supplies: empty oj cartons, black spray paint, flameless tea lights, x-acto knife, scissors, tape, black construction paper, and a hole puncher (optional: tissue paper, color tint overlays, stencils, push pins, foam board, & pipe cleaners) 

Step 1: Use the x-acto knife to cut up the orange juice carton. We discarded the middle of the carton and cut the top portion to be approximately 7'' tall and the bottom portion to be approximately 1" tall. Then use the x-acto to cut windows into the top portion of the carton, ours are roughly 3" x 3". 

Step 2: spray paint cut-up orange juice carton

Step 3: cut "panes" slightly larger than "window" openings. 

Step 4: decorate panes. There is a lot of freedom in this step. We tried a couple different techniques: hole punchers, push-pin hole designs, cut out stencils/letters with colored paper backing, etc. I think that the hole punches and the stencil cut outs ended up looking the best. 

yes, he is rocking a red mohawk :) 

Step 5: tape all your panes to the inside of the oj carton.

Step 6: if you would like to hang or carry your lantern use the x-acto knife to puncture the top with a small hole, string pipe cleaner through, and secure it into a loop. 

Step 7: use tape to secure tea light to bottom portion of oj carton.

Step 8: slide top portion of oj carton over the bottom portion. 

That's it! Now you are ready to display your creations. Here's how all of ours turned out. 

in daylight

at night

The kids all think they are pretty cool. I'm not sure they'll last long enough - they've been using them for "camping" in our playroom - but I think it would be fun to carry them with us when we go Trick-or-Treating. 

p.s. lots more great kid friendly ideas can be found at these link parties: Link and Learn, Made by Little Hands, Montessori Monday, Hip Homeschool Hop, Preschool Corner, For the Kids Fridays, and Show and Share Saturday.

p.p.s. looking for more creative home ideas? Check out these great link parities: Transformation Thursday, Inspiration Exchange, Weekly Creative, Show & Tell Saturday, Share Your Creativity,  & Sunday Life Party.