Paper lanterns give a very oriental look to your home. There does not need to be a staged festival for you to make these and hang them in your homes which will provide you a lovely ambience in any room.

To make a paper lantern, you will need a piece of parchment or wax paper, ruler, pair of scissors, pencil, paint brush and a light pain color so illumination will shine through, and some decorative material like glitter, a single hole puncher and a glue stick which holds on well.

Step 1 - First off you need to take a piece of the paper and fold it lengthwise as many times as possible, making creases. Then you need to cut along the creases with scissors keeping about an inch from the top and the bottom of the paper and the edges on either side. You can even use a ruler to make sure that the cuts are even. Otherwise, it’s going to prove a little difficult when making the lantern.

Step 2 –Unfold the paper. If you want to add any decorations to your lantern, now would be the time. You can use your paint brush and add color to your lantern, add some glitter or even put some crepe paper on the bottom to make it look more festive.

Step 3 – Once this is done and dried, fold the lantern together and paste the two sides together using the glue stick, so that it looks like a barrel. You can even use two paper clips on the sides to keep it in place until the glue dries. While it dries, use the single hole puncher and make two holes on either side of the top of the lantern so that you can put a ribbon through it to hang it later on.

Step 4 –Measure the bottom of the lantern and cut out a piece of cardboard keeping enough space to paste it on to the lantern.

Step 5 – The last step is to place a bulb or a candle on the base of the cardboard to light it.

A word of caution to the lantern makers is that you should make sure not to leave lit lanterns unattended even if you use a bulb and not a candle to light it.

Be sure to make a few more of these lanterns so that you can add a more festive glow to your home.

Cody Scholberg, a lighting expert, writes at the paper lanterns guide. Check out this post on using chinese paper lanterns to repel mosquitoes!