string of lantern lights tutorial

We spend a lot of time grilling, eating and watching the sun set on our deck and for the summer I typically hang all kinds of lights and lanterns for an extra dose of whimsy. I wanted to purchase more lights to hang for the holiday weekend festivities but just couldn't bring myself to pay for something I knew I could make! I decided to pull out a string of red Christmas lights and transform a bag of tiny paper cups into a string of lanterns for a little red, white and blue decoration.

I started by painting the paper cups in a pretty shade of blue.

When they were dry I added simple doodles with a sharpie pen

and then filled in some of the doodles with white paint (for a little variation)

I covered all of the cups with doodles and set aside to dry.

If you don't want to doodle you could use collage, messy paint, a solid color or a even a stamped pattern on the surface

Last, I poked a hole in the bottom of the cups and inserted each of the lights.

And there you have it- a little bit of red, white and blue decoration for the holiday weekend entertaining- though I may just leave them up for the rest of the summer!