Okay, so this is one of the cutest crafts we have ever done. It was also easy enough for the boys to do with little guidance from me. I hate it when I pick out an activity and I end up doing most of it while the boys wait for me to finish. I try to come up with ideas that we can all be involved in. It is also important for kids to do things on their own to learn confidence in themselves, and it gives them a sense of pride.
Let’s get started! You will need a few items before you begin this project. I have the links to all of the products below to make it that much easier for you to get this going. My youngest son wanted one of these lamps that he saw on YouTube. They were very expensive, and made of really high tech materials. I looked at them and thought I can make one of those. It may not be as fancy, but it will be a lot more fun! So here’s how we did it.
First you will need: a paper lantern, fiber fill, craft glue, a sponge applicator, LED lantern light , and decorations for personal touches. We made faces for our clouds out of paper, and also tied ribbons with confetti as raindrops to hang down from the cloud. This part is up to you.
First thing you will do is open up the lantern all the way. We sat our lanterns in bowls to keep them balanced as we worked. Start by spreading a generous amount of glue in a small section. Remove a small clump of fiber fill and stretch it out a bit. Press it onto the glue on the lantern. Continue this process over the entire lantern until it is full of fiber fill and looks like a cloud. Can you believe how easy that is??? That’s really it, the hard part is over. Now it’s time to customize.
There a is bar that goes across the top of the lantern with a hook for hanging. This is the where you will put the light pack. The Led light pack actually hangs from the bar at the top of the lantern into the center of the lantern. I did add a bit of hot glue to the hook to keep it from sliding on the bar. I found that it held up pretty well that way. We chose to hang our ribbons with raindrops from the bottom bar of the lantern.
If this is the look you are after, then you are done!!! Otherwise, you can add a face. Cut out eyes and a mouth out of cardstock, and glue them to the fiber fill to make a face. This is where kids can get really creative and decide what type of cloud they want. My boys like to have it on the blue setting for a more storm cloud feel with the raindrops. Maybe your child wants more of a rainbow type of cloud. The possibilities are endless.
Like I said, this is probably one of the cutest and easiest projects I’ve come up with. I hope you have as much fun making them and using them as we do!!!
Here is what you need:
Paper Lantern:
LED Lantern Light:
Fiber Fill:
Craft Glue:
Sponge Applicator:
Confetti for raindrops:
