Fall Leaf Lanterns

Here’s a quick, fun craft to help you and your little ones celebrate the beautiful leaves falling all around, similar to our leaf placemats and inspired by Red Ted Art. Cute leaf lanterns can help make dinner a little more fun or would be nice to just sit by on a cool fall night. I will say, always make sure the lanterns are supervised, especially with little ones around! But, here’s what you need to make your own lanterns:

Leaves gathered from outside (you can press them in a heavy book if you want for a few days, but it’s not necessary), wax paper, and an iron.

1. Gather your leaves. The more colorful and fun shaped, the better!
2. Get out your ironing board. Tear off a long strip of wax paper (12-18 inches) and fold it in half lengthwise (hotdog style).
3. On one half of the wax paper, have your little ones lay out their leaves however they want them. My 4 year old just threw his on there, my 6 year old made a “jack-o-lantern” leaf face on his.
4. Fold the other half of the wax paper on top of your leaves. Put blank printing paper under and on top of the wax paper and iron for a few seconds. The wax will seal the leaves in the paper.
5. Wrap one end to the other end to make a tube, and staple the ends together.
6. Put a tea candle on a plate and light it. Carefully put the lantern over the candle so the candle is in the middle. If you have electric tea candles, use those instead! Either way, just make sure your little ones are supervised around your lanterns! I’ll be linking up to: Works For Me Wednesday,  Look What We Did, Mom’s Library, Let's Hear it For the Boy! Clever Chicks Blog Hop,Share it Saturday, Fine Craft Guild, Share Wednesdays, TGIF.