Tutorial Tuesday- Paper Lanterns

Disney's Tangled comes out today! The hubs is out buying it right now. Tangled quickly climbed it's way to my Top 10 Movies list right after I saw it during Thanksgiving break. I saw it two more times in theaters. I LOVE Tangled. To honor such a glorious day, I decided to make paper lanterns! My dad sent me this link on how to make actual floating paper lanterns, but I didn't have all the materials I needed to make it. {sad face} I still wanted to make some lanterns, so I settled on fun origami balloons instead that I am calling lanterns. 

I was so bummed out. I planned on making a bunch of them and hanging them from Christmas lights, but while I was looking for the lights I realized that we took all of our Christmas stuff to our storage unit 20 miles away. Boo!! So for now, just pretend ok?

The construction of the lantern is simple origami, and chances are you've made these as a kid! I used cheapo dollar store colored printer paper because it's thinner than regular printer paper aaaand I didn't have origami paper! Cut it into a square. (8 1/2" x 8 1/2")

Fold it in half. Since it's a square, it doesn't matter which way you fold.

Fold it in half again.

Open up one of the squares (see how it's going all triangley?)

And smash down that little triangle. Make sure all the corners and edges are nicely lined up before making a crease.

Flip it over.

Push gently on the fold (the one by my thumb.)

And smash down the triangle. Everything should all be triangular now. Make sure you make nice creases!

Just like this!

Fold down one of the corners to the bottom point of the triangle.

Repeat with the other side.

Flip it over and fold down those corners again.

Now, fold in those side corners to the middle of the balloon.

Do it again on the other side.

Flip it over and fold in those corners again!

Right above those folded in corners should be lose flaps. If they aren't there, turn it upside down, they're on the other side. :) Fold the flap down.

And then fold it in.

This is the trickiest part. Flip up the folded flap (say that five times fast!) and it will reveal a little pocket! Gently stuff that folded flap into the pocket.

 See where the pockets are?

And see how it fits in? As long as you gently stuff in it, it should fit in nicely. Do this again for all the other flaps. (Three more times)

Tadahh!! You're done with the folding!

Look at your lantern. One end will be closed, and one end will have a little opening like this. Blow in it. Yes, blow in it, it is a paper balloon after all!

You may have to manipulate it a little bit, tug on some edges and shape it to make it it nice and square. When you're done, you'll have a little lantern/balloon!

I painted a little sunburst on it like from the movie with acrylic paints.

Since I forgot about the lights, I decided to hang them up a different way. I took a toothpick, broke it in half, and tied some thread around it.

And then put the toothpick in the little hole. When you go to pull on the string, it toothpick will prevent the thread from coming out and you'll be able to hang it!

Tahda!! (Again!) I really do wish I had the Christmas lights so that they would look more like the movie, but I think if I make a few more of these and hang them from a mobile it will look mildly authentic. If you need a more visual tutorial, check out this video for a step by step walk through. And for an alternate way of creating the lanterns, click here.

Happy paper folding/Tangled watching! :) Don't forget to check out where I link up!