PRETTY LANTERNS

Shine a light inside these so the cut shapes really show up at night.

YOU WILL NEED

✽ Pencil ✽ A4 tracing paper

✽ PVA glue ✽ A4 plain-coloured card ✽ Patterned paper ✽ Wide paintbrush ✽ Craft knife and cutting mat ✽ Double-sided tape ✽ Stapler

✽ Florist or garden wire ✽ Glow stick or battery-powered lights

TO MAKE

❶ In pencil, draw simple flower outlines all over a piece of tracing paper, keeping them spaced apart and 2.5cm from any edge. On each flower, make sure there is space between each petal and the petals are disconnected from the centre.

❷ For each lantern, glue together two pieces of coloured card (or a sheet of card and an A4 piece of patterned paper). Use a wide brush to cover one piece of card in glue, (spreading it right to the edges), stick the two sheets together, then place a heavy weight on top so it dries flat.

❸ Once it’s dry, choose which side will be on the outside, then transfer the flower design on to the back by turning over the tracing paper and drawing over the pencil marks.

❹ With the card on a cutting mat, carefully cut around each petal with a craft knife (always cut away from your hand). Stop before you reach the centre, so the petals remain attached to each flower.

❺ Gently push all the petals from the back, so they stick out on the front.

❻ Make the card into a cylinder by pulling around the short ends to overlap by 1cm. Stick in place using double-sided tape and two staples.

❼ Pierce two holes 1.5cm down from the top edge on either side of the lantern and thread some wire through them to make a hanging loop.

❽ Snap a glow stick to hang inside, or place the lantern over a battery-powered candle or short string of bright fairy lights.