8:45am
Good morning everybody!
Today I want to introduce you to one of my new favourite things: The tea bag lantern.
I found it on pinterest, firstly as Tea Bag Paper. Tea is one of my absolute favourite drinks, so the paper is easy to make for me.
Here are the links to the paper, and the lantern, as my instructions may be a little different or incorrect.
Tea Bag Paper Tea Bag Lantern
The first thing you should know is that you need two tea bags to make one piece of paper, so it takes a bit of patience to make the lanterns. Second, to make the lanterns, you need little wooden rods/dowels. I found a package of 10 but had my dad cut them in half. You need them to be 6" (half a foot), and the rods I picked up were 12" (one foot). However, if you are interested in making taller lanterns without shortening your rods, I will write down how that would, in theory, be put into practice (I have not yet tried it myself, but I know how it would work).
What you need:
- 8 or 16 tea bags
- 4 6" or 12" wooden dowel rods
- Cereal/snack box or any non-stick surface (wax paper might work?)
- Mod-podge (I use spray mod-podge, but it doesn't work as well as the spread-on mod-podge. However, I will also post the recipe for mod-podge at the bottom of this post so you don't have to worry about purchasing another item : )
- pressed flowers, butterflies, papers, sparkles or anything else to decorate your paper's inside (opt.)
- Elmer's glue (I used 'glue-all' which works on wood, so I'm not sure if you have to use that instead of plain glue. However, because the paper is so thin, it sticks and dries on the wood very easily. If you want to be extra secure, use hot glue, although this would not really be necessary).
- Battery operated tea lights, a flashlight or anything small that would fit inside the lanterns. (I highly advise against a real flame unless it is contained very well, as the whole lantern is very flammable!)
Instructions:
Tea Bag Paper:
Let your tea bags dry out for a day. Cut the string and carefully open it up, gently running your fingers down the perforation in the middle. Shake out the tea leaves and set aside. Once all tea bags are opened, throw out the tea leaves or use them in your plants as fertilizer. Either way, you will not need them in the making of this lantern, unless you plan to use them as your decoration.
Fill a shallow dish with lukewarm/cool water. Lay your tea bags, one at a time, in the water, tapping the bag with your finger to bounce off the leaves. Lay it on the surface of your choice and repeat with the remaining tea bags. Change the water 2 or 3 times, as it gets filled with leaves pretty quickly.
Spray or gently spread your tea bags with mod-podge. Lay your flowers/decorations on top. Lay down another tea bag and spray with mod-podge. You will end up with 4 or 8 double sided, decorated papers.
Tea Bag Lantern:
Once your papers are dried and secure, carefully peel up from your non-stick surface. Be very gentle, as the paper is thin.
Take your rods, and squeezing glue onto the side of it like a hot dog, lay it on the ground, glue side up.
Fold a sliver of the long edge of your lantern (Decoration side up!) up against the glue on your rod and gently press down, smearing the glue and making sure it's secure.
Let dry and repeat with the other 4. Join rods together with glue and let dry.
*Note: You can keep this also as a little screen for your shelf or dresser and place a light behind each paper, or you can join together into a box to make a lantern.
Once your lantern is finished, set up on your table or shelf and place your light carefully inside. (Works best in the dark <3)
*Note- to make a tall tea bag lantern:
When making the paper, take two tea bags and lay them above each other like this: | |
| |
Then, glue the bottom of the top one to the top of the bottom one, just a sliver of the short edge.
Continue making them completely as normal, just remember to glue your top papers together as well, before mod-podging them.
You may want to enforce the middles where you joined the bottoms of the papers with smaller rods, back & front (you would need 8 smaller rods). Again, I have not tried this, so adapt as needed.
Then join together with 12" rods instead! You will want to use a much taller light in this, such as an upright flashlight, taller 8" battery candle, or an oil lamp enclosed in it's glass shade.
It would also work to use your phone's flashlight or any app that may have a timed light on it inside the lantern if you put it on a stand, as the phone will be too heavy to stand against the lantern's fragile paper.
Mod-Podge Recipe:
Mix equal parts flour, sugar, water and white vinegar to make your own mod podge. (I'm guessing a 1/2 cup each? That would make about 16 oz. of mod-podge, if I'm correct.
Disclaimer: This recipe was just on a post on Pinterest, the instructions/measurements were basically non-existent, but it shouldn't be too hard to mess around with the ingredients! I also have not tried it, so if it doesn't work, don't blame me, because I don't actually know. However, I used to make myself glue with flour and water and it worked just fine, so this should work!
The differences I have noted between my tutorial here and the ones in the video (I made my own paper & lantern and wrote this from memory, I have not looked at the videos since before I made the papers & the lantern) are these:
- She does not dry the tea bags (idk why I remembered it as she did) Looking at the videos, I just made it harder for myself, haha)
- Her mixture of glue and water, as opposed to my using mod-podge; essentially I think they'd both work the same, but glue and water could be more inexpensive.
- Her lanterns also have a base around them. (I suppose this makes it look a little sturdier, and it may or may not have a 'floor' in it as well, which you could make out of paper of any kind, wood, or any cardboard. I will have to try this on my next lantern. Making it without a base does allow it to be more portable, however, as you can fold your lantern easily.)
I hope you try making one and show me how it looks!
