
Decorate your home with colorful DIY paper lanterns! These are perfect for celebrating Lunar or Chinese New Year as well as any other celebration where you want to make a simple (yet oh so pretty) DIY decoration.
Kids will love making these, they are easy and the finished product looks amazing.
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You can make them in one color (red any yellow if you are aiming for more traditional colors to celebrate Chinese New Year) or as colorful as you like.

How to Make the DIY Paper Lantern
What you need:
- printable template (optional)
- scissors
- glue
- red cardstock
- color paper (red, yellow, lighter and darker pink, lighter and darker purple, blue, orange, lighter and darker green)
- circle puncher (optional)
- pencil and ruler (optional)
Step by Step Tutorial
Use our template, a circle punch, a compass, or a round object to trace and cut paper circles of the same size.


Have kids cut out a rectangle out of red cardstock and apply glue to it.


Take the first paper circle and fold it in half.


Stick it onto the rectangle as shown on the picture.


Continue with next one.


And that’s all there is to it.


Continue adding paper circles one by one.


Add more glue if needed.


Rinse and repeat.


Then add the red ones.


You don’t have to go all the way to the end of the rectangle, a portion of it has to be circle free.
Have kids cut a yellow rectangle the same length as the red one and start making cuts into it to make the fringes. Do not cut through the paper.


Have the kids make the cuts throughout the whole length.


Flip over the red paper with half-circles and apply glue along one side.


Have them glue on the yellow cut piece.


It’s time to roll the paper lantern. Apply some glue and roll the red paper into a tube.


Glue the lantern together so it stays rolled.


The lantern needs a handle, so have kids cut out a thin red strip, apply glue to its ends, and place it inside the top lantern ring.


All done!


We love the final result! It’s so vibrant!


Kids can make as many as they like!


Get the DIY Paper Lantern Template
The printable DIY paper lantern template is available to members of the Easy Peasy and Fun membership.
To access the template, log in to your account or become a member.
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