Indoor Camp Lanterns

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine!!  The boys and I crafted up these sweet, lanterns for our indoor camping extravaganza over the weekend.  Perfect for lighting up a tent or keeping bedtime monsters at bay. 

This is my adaptation of a lantern craft seen on the Michael's website.  I purchased my clear pails for $2.99/ea. in the Michael's gift wrapping section.  I used a mid-sized version since I wanted them to be easy for my kiddos to haul about...even the 18 month old. 

I then mixed up my own decoupage solution....Elmer's school glue and water until it was easy enough to spread with a brush.  I would guesstimate a 3 to 1 combo of glue to water, but seriously, I was ad libbing.  We used foam brushes to apply and then threw them away after we were done. 

I bought the paper boats for my son's birthday party LAST July.  I had to purchase them in a box of 500....ugh...but I have been surprised at HOW many things I have pulled them out for.  Watery-glue solution was my latest repurpose. 

I cut up tissue paper into two inch (or so) squares.  My oldest is "green" to the bone, my preschooler is "red" through and through, and since Miss Baby was napping, I chose pink and yellow for her. 

The six year old independently applied his own glue and tissue paper to the pail while my preschooler required the help of his daddy. 

 

We applied a topcoat of our watery-glue solution and hung them up to dry.  After about an hour, our lanterns were ready to go.  With the addition of the most awesome, COLOR CHANGING, battery-operated tea-light ($5.99 for a pack of 4) we lit the nighttime skies in a most colorful way. 

So much fun and a project that we will use for many nights to come. 

Wishing you nights full of fireflies and campfires and many happy memories....and wishing for spring...or at least no more winter...