A Floral Paper Lantern

I have a quaint little balcony in my flat. It's not very big but it's bright and sunny. It's perfect for a morning cup of coffee or to enjoy the evening breeze as well. I wanted to start beautifying it and when I looked at all the garden options available, they were so over priced that I figured why not try to make something myself. And here's the finished project - a floral paper lantern.

To start things off, I used the template available on this page. After measuring and cutting everything out I first began with the vellum inserts for the windows. I wanted a translucent glow of light from the inside and vellum is just perfect. I embossed it with a Sizzix embossing folder which made it look even prettier. If you haven't embossed vellum before, you have to try it, the effect is even better than embossed card stock. Next I added my pattern paper which is all a part of the DCWV Habitat stack - its full of earthy greens, purples and browns and a few maroons which is exactly the colours I wanted for my balcony lantern.

Then I began the process of embellishing the lantern. I used some die cuts from the Spellbinders Jewel Fantasies die pack. I covered the entire piece with Ranger Crackle Accents so that all the flourishes had a cracked kind of finish. I placed four of these die cuts and added some lovely ItsyBitsy Blooms to the corner. I distressed all the sides and edges of the lantern with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink to give an even more earthy tone to the whole project. I love how Distress Ink takes your project to a whole different level of dimension and colour.

I hung up my lantern in my balcony along and here's how it looks on a bright sunny day here in Bangalore and here's how it looks at night. I added a LED tea light inside - Don't use candles, it will all go up in flames.