MooMama: Making Autumn Lanterns

Crafting with 5 little ones can be tricky business. You must be prepared to spend an entire day on just one project!

We made autumn lanterns out of clean jars (baby food jars, salsa jars, spaghetti jars). Sometimes I feel my criteria for a certain jarred food item lies in whether or not the jar has a smooth surface for future crafting.

Setting up the craft area before calling in the troops is key.

First, I cleaned and dried the jars. Each girl picked a tissue paper color to decorate and I cut the paper in strips to fit their particular size jar.

The twins were occupied with snacks and we were ready to go!

We painted a line on the outside of the jar with Mod Podge and then placed a strip of tissue paper on top. Continuing, until the entire jar was covered.

After the jars were completely covered, we let them dry. We were not particularly fussy about the top lid edge or the underneath. The top we planned on covering with ribbon.

There was a brief intermission with a session of playing outside while the jars dried. Then, a coat of Mod Podge was applied over top of the tissue paper to seal it.

While this final layer was drying, I proceeded to create endless amounts of tiny maple leaves using a hole punch.

Also during this time, Grace took a much needed nap, Daddy came home, dinner was made and consumed, and Sophia put together every puzzle in the house after a spontaneous wardrobe change to a bride dress (but, of course).

We then came back to attack our unfinished jars with an arsenal of paper leaves, ribbon from Maya Road, and (the greatest invention for crafting with children) glue dots!