Materials needed for this project:

  • Tissue paper: You can try any color, but we used white.
  • Elmers Glue
  • Balloons
  • Paint brush– We used the foam sponge brushes.
  • A container to place your lanterns in when they are drying.
  • Led tea light
  • Water
  • Leaves! We headed outside for a leaf hunt to find colorful leaves of all different shapes and sizes.

Step 1.

Search for some beautiful fall leaves! We looked for leaves of all different colors, shapes, and sizes!

Step 2.

Now set up your lantern making station. We set up our area with our supplies and got right to work. For the glue mixture, I used half a bottle of Elmers Glue All and mixed in equal parts water. This doesn’t need to be exact.

Step 3.

For the first layer of covering, we just used plain water without glue. Dip the tissue paper right in the water and start a single layer without glue. This will help the balloon peel off the inner layer of tissue paper when you pop it later.

Step 4.

Now add another layer of tissue paper, but this time add the glue mixture on top of the first layer of tissue. You can start to add leaves after you have your second complete layer of tissue paper on your balloon. I would suggest four layers of tissue paper at most, but we stopped at three layers to allow for more light to shine through the lanterns.

Step 5.

Let them dry. Set the lanterns in a container, so they could dry evenly. Once the tops were dried, I took them out of the container to make sure the bottoms of the lanterns were 100% dry before we popped them. Give them about 10-12 hours for them to dry completely.

Step 6.

Pop the balloons. This is always a fun process!