Cardboard Tube Lanterns

These little lanterns are a great simple way to create spooky faces, perfect for Halloween decorations. The woman things I love about these is that firstly, you can use up the whole of the tube, there’s no waste, what I call ‘Pure making’ . . . and secondly, the idea is only a blueprint, and children (and adults) can decide exactly what elements they change, or what details they add, you’ll see this in my examples below.

Just a little warning too . . . these are obviously lit with battery-powered tealights. Don’t use anything that has an actual flame, for obvious reasons.

So, this whole idea is based loosely on the mask-making techniques I’ve used for many years, just obviously smaller. I try to use whatever I cut away, incorporating pieces back into the design. So, the hole cut for a mouth then gives you a shape which you could use to make a nose, ears, horns etc. Different shapes might suggest different ideas, this is why the process is so inventive and individual.

The only extra bits I’ve added on these is a simple strip of corrugated card to make the base stronger and to fit the battery-powered tealight into (inserting the tea light first will insure that it’s a good fit). I’ve also pasted on some tissue paper to hold the shapes together better, I’ve used ‘natural tissue’ but you could use any kind, or even just toilet/kitchen roll. You can paint over these and use whatever colours you like. I’ve left mine plain so people can see the structure.

You can make absolutely any design you like, and as you get a bit more confident you could try more complicated things.