DIY Penguin Party Lanterns ~ Quick Craft Tutorial

When I first started planning for my younger son’s fourth penguin birthday party, my first idea was to create penguins out of black party lanterns. Initially I was going to stack two lanterns and create a stand-up penguin. However, they didn’t stack well, and I could not get them to stick together for anything. So I switched tactics, and ended up with these cute penguin party lanterns!

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Penguin Party Lanterns Craft Tutorial

Supplies needed – Most of what I used I was able to find at OrientalTrading.com:

Black paper lanterns
Super Huge Googly Eyes
Extra Large Glue Dots
12″ x 12″ Card stock – black, white, orange
White paint
Paintbrush
2 large scrapbook hole punches, different sized
double sided tape runner (or glue)

How to assemble your penguin party lanterns:

Open up the black party lanterns and insert the wires per the product instructions.
Trace a large heart to fully cover a piece of 12 x 12″ white card stock (not so important what color this one is – it’s your template for painting the penguin bellies). Round out the pointy bottom of the heart.
Carefully cut the heart out of the paper without cutting “through” the side of the paper (you’ll have to bend the paper in half to achieve this!). Be sure to cut a rouned bottom to the heart, not a point.
Hold or tape the heart template over one of your paper lanterns. It will stretch around the globe of the lantern a bit, and that is good.
Using a large paintbrush and white paint, carefully paint inside the template, being extra careful around the edges. Allow to dry.

Creating the penguin parts:

Fold a 12 x 12″ piece of orange card stock in half gently. On one side, free hand draw two penguin “feet” – basically, just create 2 sets of 3-4 “bumps” that look like webbed feet. Be sure to fill the entire half side of the paper with your drawing.
With the paper still folded, cut out the “webbed feet” through both thicknesses. Then cut through the center – you’ve just created 2 sets of “feet.”
Cut hearts about the size of your palm or smaller out of orange card stock. These will be turned upside down to become penguin “noses.”
Punch out two large black circles and two medium orange circles out of card stock.
Affix extra large glue dots onto all items.

Assembling your penguin party lanterns:

Use three glue dots to attach feet cut outs to the bottom of the lantern.
Use one glue dot to affix an upside down heart “nose” to the upper middle section of the painted white portion of the lantern for a penguin “nose.”
Use double sided tape or glue to stick together the paper punched rounds, smaller on top. Use a large glue dot to affix the googly eyes to the paper rounds.
Use another glue dot to affix eyes over the penguins nose.

Don’t worry too much about perfection. The penguins may all look a little different from each other. Some of mine even look a little “angry penguin!” Ha!

You can use these penguin party lanterns as a tabletop decor (although they have a tendency to lean forward because of the wire). Or hang around your party area for a festive look!

You may chuckle to know that after the party, my husband has been using these lanterns in our garden as “scare-penguins.” They won’t last beyond the first rainstorm, but I’m sure our neighbors are wondering what is going on! 🙂

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This post was sponsored by OrientalTrading.com. All opinions are my own.

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