A couple of weeks ago my daughter and I decided to make wax paper lanterns. She loves decorating our house for holidays and, since Halloween is right around the corner, we used black and orange colors to create something that could double as Halloween decor.
Although the project is incredibly simple and well-suited to children, the results are very dramatic and sophisticated.
Here’s how we made them …
We gathered the following materials:
- Wax Paper
- Crayons (we used black, orange, gray and white)
- Potato peeler
- Scissors
- Iron
- Cylindrical glass vase or candle holder
- Battery-operated candle
I started by cutting a large piece of wax paper that was approximately twice the size of the inside diameter of our vase. I folded the paper in half to create a crease, but left it open in order to add the crayon shavings.
After removing the paper wrapping from the crayons, we used a potato peeler to shave small pieces of crayon onto the wax paper.
A moderate amount of shavings that leaves some large areas of white space seemed to work best for allowing light to shine through the lantern.
Once the crayon shavings had been added, I folded the wax paper so that the crayon portion was fully covered by the paper. I placed a piece of printer paper on top of the wax paper and then used an iron heated to the lowest setting to gently press down on the paper until the crayon melted.
At this point, it looked a lot like splattered paint.
Once the wax paper was cool, I placed it inside the glass container and marked the height of the glass with a pencil so I could trim the paper to size.
After inserting the trimmed wax paper into the vase, I added a battery operated candle.
I think the results look equally dramatic by day and by night.
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Julee