Lego Party Lanterns

As I mentioned, we just celebrated Soren's fifth birthday this weekend, and of course you probably have guessed we had a Lego theme.  So predictable for my Lego-obsessed boy.

It was a fun party to plan, from the primary colors color scheme to an easy Lego brick cake.  I'll post more about the party in the next few days.

These lanterns are a festive way to bring minifigure-yellow into your party decor.  Assuming they're not destroyed by wayward children at the party, you can reuse them in your child's bedroom or playroom afterwards.

For this project, you'll need:

• Yellow paper lanterns (I found them at a party store)
• Black, yellow and white construction paper
• Glue stick and tacky glue
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Clear tape

STEP ONE

Find an example of a Lego minifigure face, either online or in your child's stash.

This will help you with the design, proportions and placement.

For my lantern, I first drew and cut out the eyes from black paper.  I simply traced a small juice glass for the template.

You can cut out multiple eyes (I made 3 lanterns, each with faces on two sides of them) by folding your paper once or twice and cutting through a few layers.

For the whites of the eyes, I cut out smaller circles from the white paper.  I drew these freehand, but you could trace something small like a thread spool.

Next, glue the white circles onto your black circles with glue stick and set aside.

STEP TWO

Make the mouth.  Fold a black paper rectangle in half (I estimated a 4" rectangle for the mouth) and cut a rounded shape that resembles the Lego minifigure mouth.  Folding it in half helps to get an evenly-shaped mouth.  I did the same with the white paper, except I made the shape slightly smaller.

Then glue them together with a glue stick.  Set aside.

I then made the eyebrows in a similar way, cutting them out of black paper.

STEP THREE

Time to adhere the paper face to the lantern.  I used tacky glue so because it holds better than glue stick.

FIrst, bend the mouth a bit so that it will fit the curve of the lantern.

Arrange them on the lantern to make the face (again, I made faces on two sides) and stick them down.

STEP FOUR

To make the little nub at the top of the minifigure head, I cut a strip of yellow construction paper about 10" long and 2" wide.

Shape it into a circle and tape/glue it closed.

This party is probably the trickiest of the project: you need to tape/adhere it to the lantern.

I taped it to the inside of the lantern, and kind of sat the yellow ring on top.  It didn't fit the edges exactly, but you can't tell when the lantern is hanging up above eye level.

These decorations were probably my favorite decorations from the party. 

I hope you make some of your own!