4th of July Lanterns

 

Welcome to Under $10 on the 10th! This month our theme is the 4th of July and I am making some of the cutest 4th of July lanterns.

Just in case you don’t know how Under $10 on the 10th works, a group of fun and talented bloggers get together  on the 10th of the month and share great ideas for under $10.

I found these pretty blue hanging lanterns at the DollarTree and knew immediately that I had to make some lighting for the 4th of July!

Supplies

Here’s what you will need to make a  few 4th of July lanterns.

Wooden stars in various sizes

Acrylic paint or paint pens

Bakers twine

Tea lights Or LED Bullet Light

Scrap ribbon

Lanterns

Folk Art Extreme Glitter Pain

Painting the Stars

Step 1: Paint the stars.

I chose to use some acrylic paint pens that I had on hand to paint each star, however you could use acrylic paint applied with a paint brush.

My stars were painted a traditional red, white and blue.

Add a little Bling

Since it’s the 4th, I thought that these stars needed a little bling.

Once the paint was dry on the stars I painted a top of coat of glitter paint.

Put A Bow On It

Next, let’s make a criss cross bow.

To do this, cut 2  4″ – 5″ pieces of ribbon, dovetailing the ends of each piece of ribbon.

Lay them out in a “criss cross” pattern, then pinch the center of the bow.

Using about a 12″ piece of small ribbon, wrap around the center of the bow and tightly tie.

Do NOT trim off the excess ribbon you just used to tie the bow.

Add Ribbon to the Lantern

Using the extra ribbon length, tie your bow to the side of the lantern.

Add Lighting

I’ve had these tiny LED lights for some time so I decided to use what I had on hand.

However, you could also use tea lights.

These lights are so tiny that I hate fishing them out of the lanterns every time I want to turn them off and on.

So I decided to make something to help me out.

On top of these mini led lights is a small loop.

Using a 3″ piece Baker’s twine, I threaded it through the loop and tied a knot.

Once that was done I glued the other end to the top side of a red star.

Be sure to place the twine on the right hand side of the star.

Pull the light and the twine down and underneath the red star.

Next, place glue on the very right hand edge of your red star.

Butt a blue star up against the red star, then glue a white star on top.

This is what it will look like.

The light will hang from the bottom when you pick it up.

Now just drop the light into the lantern, placing the stars across the mouth of the lantern.

This makes it super easy to turn the light off and on.

Using A Tea Light

But what if you don’t have a tiny LED light and you just want to use a tea light instead?

No problem!

Just add a cute wooden star to your bow, tie it to the lantern and pop a tea light into the center!

Easy peasy!

So how much did my lanterns cost?

Tea Light Lantern

lantern: $1.25

Tea Lights: $1.25

Bow: $0 I used scraps that I had.

Wooden Star: A large bag cost $2.29 ( I’d pro-rate the cost but there are a ton in the bag so I have no idea!)

Paint: $0 I used what I had.

Total Cost: $4.79

Small LED Lantern:

Lantern: $1.25

Small LED light: They come 15 to a package at $8.99 a bag. Making them .54 cents each.

Wooden Stars: $2.29

Everything else I had on hand.

Total: $4.08 each!

Even if you bought the ribbon ( the Dollar Tree has some really cute ribbon) there is still almost $5.00 left to grab some.

Now it’s time to visit all of the other bloggers participating in Under $10 on the 10th this month.

I hope that you will visit them with me, I’ve listed them below to make it easy for you to find them!

The Little Yellow Corner Store

Life As A Leo Wife

Junk To Gems

Decorate And More With Tip

Through A Vintage Door

 

Until Next time…

Tammy

 

Be Sure To Pin It For Later!