Waldorf Star Lantern - Creative Every Day - Day 5

For the fifth day of the Creative Every Day challenge, I wanted to try making Waldorf star lanterns that I had pinned on Pinterest. The pin leads to Passengers on a Little Spaceship that has a detailed tutorial and video about how to make the lanterns.

Several months ago, Sophia and Olivia did some wet-on-wet watercolor paintings on 12" x 12" paper. I had wanted to make the lanterns back then, but never got around to it.

So, I took out the paintings again and followed the tutorial. The first lantern seemed to go well. My measurements and folding were not as precise as I normally do for my window stars. The star lanterns - just like the window stars - benefit from being accurate with folding. There was a point which didn't come out as easily as the other ones.

One of the star lanterns I made.

The second lantern I ended up folding incorrectly by doing both the mountain and valley folds on the same side. This may not seem like a huge deal, but it is when it comes to the last step of folding the points. A couple of them I tore...tried to tape it...felt it was a lost cause...and crumpled up what I had done.

Feeling defeated...but refusing to give up...I found a 12"x12" piece of scrapbooking paper. I followed the directions again and found using the scrapbooking paper to be much easier because of its weight.

The lantern went together much quicker than the first two I made.

Lantern made from scrapbooking paper

with a battery-operated tea light inside it.

Since the lanterns are made of paper, I used a battery-operated tea light. No matter where I put the lanterns with the tea lights, they weren't as colorful or glowing as I anticipated.

This is the lantern made from watercolor paper.

It did not glow and show the pattern of the painting

like pictures that I've seen of other lanterns.

So...how were the lanterns made? First, use either a 12"x 12"piece of scrapbooking paper or watercolor paper that has been painted and dried.

Next, fold the paper (with the right side up) into eight sections.

Then, divide the paper into 16 sections by turning the paper over. (Note: this is where I made the mistake with the second lantern as pictured below. The painted side should be on the wood...not facing up.) By having the painted side down, the second set of eight folds are "valleys" to the first 8 fold's "hills."

To make the 8 valley folds, line up the existing folds and the center point of the next section. See the picture below for a visual instruction. When the paper is folded over, draw a line with a pencil so that the little triangular section is marked.

Cut the triangles off so the shape looks like the picture below.

Now, with the folded sides down, fold in the sides so that the shape becomes a square. Unfold and repeat this process again by moving the paper 45 degrees. The painted side of the paper should still be face down for this step.

Next, turn the paper over so the painted side is face up. Fold in the corners (there will be marks/folds in the corners).

Out of the entire process, this last part is the trickiest step. Basically, between each of the folded corners, reach to the other side of the paper and pull the center point towards the painted side of the paper. It will turn into a triangle in the process.

Pull the triangle over the edge of the lantern until it is in the same position as the corner triangles.  The paper starts to crumple, but that is okay. 

Keep repeating this process until all the edges are pulled over. The bottom of the lantern will be pointed at this stage. Simply press down and out on the inside of the lantern, and it will lay flat on a table.

Add a battery-operated tea light...and it's done!

It feels good to be trying some of the pins on Pinterest and seeing what the results are - some I've been happy with...and others not so much. Regardless of the product, I'm enjoying the process of creating each day.