 |
A couple of weekends ago I went to a huge craft fair with 250 vendors! One of the things that I noticed were the lanterns used for decoration and I thought they were so cute. Some of them were painted and some of them has lights inside. It made me remember that I had a lantern down in my storage room that I could use!
I don’t remember where we got this lantern. I think we picked it up used for my daughter to repaint and put in her bedroom but she never got around to it. My mom used to have several oil lanterns and when the power would go out during summer storms, she would light the lanterns and we thought it was so cool! I have some Martha Stewart silver gilding that I got as part of that big box of craft supplies I posted about recently. I used a little of it when making the grapevine ornaments but I wanted to try it on something of a bigger scale so I chose this lantern.
The first thing I tried to do was to take apart the lantern but when I couldn’t figure out how, I spent way longer than I want to admit, taping the glass on the lantern so that it wouldn’t get silver on it.
I used an old paintbrush to paint everything at was yellow. The silver gilding has a strong smell so I worked near an open window and when I was finished I set the lantern outside to dry. I threw away the old paintbrush when I was done because I still don’t have any xylene to clean my brushes.
After the lantern dried I discovered that it did indeed come apart. All I had to do was lift the top of the lantern…oops! So, I found another old paintbrush and added some more silver gilding.
After the gilding was dry, I stuffed the glass with a string of 25 diamond cut LED lights. I shoved the extra wire up in the top of the lantern. The plug comes out the back of the lantern from under the glass globe.
It was hard to get a picture of what the lights look like when they are on and this is the best I could do. I love how it turned out and the lights are bright enough that they can be easily seen when it is light in the house.
I’m not sure where I am going to keep this lantern yet but I will figure it out once I get the rest of my Christmas decorations out.
Have you started decorating for Christmas yet?
This is NOT a sponsored post but I was previously given the Martha Stewart silver gilding.
Hello, I'm Tonia. Welcome to The Gunny Sack, my online place to inspire others through recipes, crafts and tutorials.
What a great holiday decoration! It turned out awesome!
Thanks Lindsay!
I just took out my bin of Christmas Decorations..Wow I really need to replace some of them. The kids always love looking through the bin to see the decorations that they have made over the years. Love the lantern.
My kids are asking me to take out my decorations but we haven’t had time yet. I usually like to wait until December 1st…which is SOON!!
Tonia, besides you keep coming up with these fantastic ideas, your photography is amazing. Great idea.
Anne xx
Thanks Anne! Now I need to make about 20 more decorations before I can call it good!
This is gorgeous! I love how it turned out.
This is so cool! I love your idea of putting the lights inside!
So cute! I love the way it looks with the lights on … might have to try to find an old lantern now!
I love this!! I actually have a bright yellow lantern that might be fun with some lights inside- never even thought about it
thanks for sharing !
Girl, you are so clever and crafty, love it! Awesome make over to the lantern!
love how this transformed Tonia and love those little lights!
That looks great! So pretty with the lights on!