Upcycle some children’s art work into some gorgeous paper lanterns to make a creative and vibrant display in the art area! A great way to re-use all those lovely paintings that the kids keep on producing!
Our kids like to do a LOT of painting, drawing and creative experiments on paper. Some we frame on the walls in our mini art gallery, some gets stored in large art folders, we turn some into birthday cards and wrapping paper and the rest eventually makes its way to the bin. So I’m always on the look out for new ways to up cycle their art work into something new and beautiful as ideally, I’d like to keep and display as much of it as possible.
I thought it would be fun to try turning the art into another form of art for display, namely Chinese lanterns to string up and hang above our art gallery space! Making these was really simple and slightly older kids can do this independently.
Start by choosing some art which has been produced on similar sized pieces of paper, using a range of bright colours and various different media, colours and techniques. I found a straw blown picture, splatter painting, Paul Klee inspired painting, Van Gogh inspired finger printing and a muffin tin op art picture. Quite a range of styles and colours!
Simply fold each picture in half, length-ways, and then make snips 3/4 of the way across towards the outside edge, all the way down, using scissors. Then open the picture out again and bend it around to form a lantern shape. Stick the paper where it overlaps using glue, staples or tape. All done!
To display them, either stand them up on a table top for a mini-art gallery installation, or try stringing them up like we did by sewing a thread through the centre of each one, leaving a short length at either end to fix to the wall or ceiling. I stuck pieces of tape on the inside edges of each lantern to keep the thread secure and the lanterns evenly spaced when hanging.
Then I hung them above our art gallery in the creative area, as a new way to celebrate their achievements and bring some colour to the bare walls!
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