DIY Book Pages Hanging Pendant Lantern

Never one to waste effort or decorations, I knew I would reuse the circle banners from August's birthday somehow in our home. We left the banners and balloons hanging in our hallway for 3 weeks after the party until I came up with my idea: a Book Pages Hanging Pendant Lantern. (Also, the longest DIY name ever.)

Supplies:
an old book*
a hoop OR a piece of thin cardboard (around 12"x12")
string or fishing wire
a hook or thumb tack

Tools:
circle punch
sewing machine
hot glue gun

1. Make the circle banners
a. Use a circle punch to cut circles from a book or some other cute scrapbooking paper. Alternatively, you can cut the circles by hand by following a circle mold cut from cardboard. Keep cutting. You will want a lot of circles! (I cut around 250 for the party and used most of the banners for this project.)

b. Run each circle through the sewing machine, one after another, making your banners. Depending on the size you want your lantern, only sew between 10-15 circles together. Leave excess thread at the end of each banner.

2. Create the pendant
a. You can use a hoop from a craft store and skip to step 3
OR
b. Cut a piece of cardboard into a circle (like I did). My original idea was to use a hoop but I didn't want to run to the store. Instead, I traced a lampshade circle on a piece of cardboard.
b. After you cut out the circle, use a hole punch to create 3 holes evenly spaced around the edges. This is where we will tie the string to hang the lantern.

3. Fashion the lantern
a. Use your hot glue gun to adhere the banners to the cardboard circle or hoop. If you are using a hoop, glue the excess thread to the top and drape the banner over the outer edge. If you are using cardboard, glue the first circle in your banner to the top of the cardboard and drape the rest of the banner over the edge.

b. Optional: I had a lot of banners from the party and I wanted a really full lantern. If you do too, glue the first circle to the bottom of the cardboard so that the banner hangs in the middle of your lantern. Space evenly throughout so your lantern is level.

4. Hang the lantern
a. Tie your string or wire through the holes or around the hoop in 3 locations. Gather your strings together and tie so your lantern is level.
b. Hang from a hook or with a thumb tack. Stand back and fall in love with your new lantern.


*A note on using books in crafts: My mother-in-law was (justifiably) surprised that I was tearing and cutting up books for August's birthday party. For this project, I used a really old travel book that was no longer accurate. Also, if a book is too dirty to be handled by children, I do not mind using it for a craft project. (Think of pages eaten up by little animals and other unpleasant things that happen after years of sitting in an attic.) Instead of throwing away a book like that, I try to keep it with my art supplies to use for these types of projects.


Fun fact: Mum and I used an old, dirty book of Shakespeare to package purchases from our Etsy shop. We'd make the huge pages into envelopes; somehow it felt like we were secreting a censored book to our customers. Have you read the Book Thief? It will make you never want to throw a book away again!

Thanks for reading my first DIY post! What did you think? Would you like more DIY projects from the Loy household?