DIY Diwali Paper Lanterns / Kandil

In my delayed series of posts sharing my Diwali crafts from last year, I add yet another DIY beauty. Kandils! They are pretty easy to make and looks great! Don’t trust me? See for yourself.

I created some Kandils last year which were pretty easy to make and lovely to look at. That time I was in rush and did not get to enhance the basic (but neat) look created by another crafty blogger. I had plans to make it more intricate and beautiful the year after but seems I am always short of time :-P.  Well.. I got to execute some ideas last year and made plenty of them to decorate my backyard for Diwali party. Have a look!

Here is a quick tutorial of how I made these.

Material –

• Construction paper Sheets
• Tissue paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Decorative Tape / holographic paper sheets
• Border punch (optional)
• Rhinestone, Flat silver circles or any other embellishments (optional)

 

Instructions –

• Using color of your choice, cut a rectangle (approx 6 inch by 12 inches). This will be the base or central part of your kandil.
• Cut 8 small squares (3 inches) and 8 big squares (4 inches) using contrasting colored paper sheets.
• Paste / attach the smaller squares in center of bigger squares
• Hold the opposite corners of square and glue them together making a roll.
• Fold 2 tissue sheets lengthwise and cut using scissors to make frills
• Take the base rectangle and glue tissue paper sheets to the longer side of rectangle.
• Attach the roles made at 4th step to the rectangular sheet leaving just enough space to seal the main rectangle as a cylindrical shape.
• You can add some decorative tape or strips of holographic paper sheets on the longer ends of base rectangle. This will hide the ends of the smaller rolls that you have attached, and also adds to the beauty of your kandil.
• Once done, fix the base rectangle in a cylindrical shape using either stapler, glue or tape.
• Attach a string at the top for hanging the kandils.
• Decorate the kandil with embellishments of your liking.

Tips

• I used a X-acto scallop scissor to cut my squares and that gave a much nicer look then straight lines. For some of the Kandils, I went a step further and punched the squares with a designer border punch to give a ever more intricate look.
• For the frill part you can use contrasting or same color tissue sheets.
• You can fold one of the sheets couple of inches at top to have 2 different sizes in your frill, which will make layers even more distinctly visible.

Looking for more Diwali craft inspirations? Here are some of my previous creations, click on images to learn more.

 

Tags: akash kandil, christmas, craft, decor, diwali, diy, easy, free tutorial, kandil, lantern, luminaries, paper craft