Welcome to our first DIY Friday.  Every week moving forward, we will highlight a fun DIY.

For our inaugural week, we are showing you one of our most loved crafts: Paper Lantern Creatures: Piggie.  This is an activity I designed for my after school students.  Beyond the adorable nature of the creatures, they can also be used as a night light as they come with a balloon light.  So use it as a night light, decorate your space or as I have seen some kids do and I absolutely approve: play with your creature.

You can get the kits from our Etsy store.

In the meantime, check out the tutorial below.

Supplies: 4″ paper lantern, about 50 1.5″ light pink tissue circles, pig snout, pig ears, wooden eyes, paint brush, gold glitter (optional), pair of scissors, glue mixture (1 part glue and 1 part water), balloon light (optional), tacky glue (not shown), hot glue (not shown), sharpies (not shown), Q-Tip (not shown)

Assemble the lantern by first expanding the lantern.  Insert the wire expander and pull through the lantern loops.

Paint the lantern with the glue mixture, slightly bigger than the tissue circles.

Gently press the first tissue circle onto the lantern pressing until it lays flat.

Paint the lantern next to the first tissue.  Be sure to paint over the first circle because you will need to overlap with the 2nd circle.

Attach the second circle circle as shown in the photo above

Press the edges of the circle to make sure they adhere.

Continue with the steps: paint with glue mixture, place circle, press down and repeat until the lantern is covered.

When it comes to the top or bottom edge, be sure to place the circle over the top (or bottom) rim.

Add a little bit of glue on the inside /bottom of the circle. Then press the circle over the edge onto the inside of the lantern.  This gives you a nice, clean and finished edge.

When the lantern is completely covered, paint one coat of the entire surface with the glue mixture.

Hang the lantern to dry.

Next place the snout in front of you.

Fold the rectangular flaps under the circular part of the snout.

It should look like this.

Next fold circular part of the snout as shown in the photo above.

Apply tacky glue to the the flaps as shown above.

Wrap the rectangular part of the snout around the circular part of the snout as shown above

Apply tacky glue to the last flap and attach the rectangular part of the snout.

The edges should meet as shown above.  Set snout aside.

For the ears, find the center of the rectangular part of the ear.  Snip up until the beginning of the triangular part.

It should look like the photo above.

Fold one of the new and smaller rectangular flaps as shown above.  Repeat for the other side but fold it towards the opposite side.

Repeat the process for the other ear.

Use markers to color the eyes.  I usually do the edge around the hole and then the outside.  Sometimes I will do the inside.  It just depends on my mood.

For this DIY, I decided not to color the inside but rather add glitter.  This part is optional.  But to do it, I painted the inside of the eye with glue using a q-tip.

Then I added a little bit of glitter.  Shook and tapped the eye. to make sure the inside got coated nicely.  Then tapped out any surplus.

Eyes all done.

The next steps are putting Piggie together.  If the lantern is dry, you are ready to move on to the next steps.

Figure out where you want to place the eyes.  Add a small dollop of hot glue to adhere the eyes.

Next adhere the snout flaps as shown above and below.  You can use either tacky glue or hot glue.  Whatever you prefer.

Hold until they set.

Then add a dollop of hot glue to the snout as shown.

Place it centered between the eyes.  Hold until it sets.

Almost there.

Figure out where you want to place the ears.

Once you are happy with the placement, hold one side down

Add a small bead of hot glue to one flap and press it down.

Once it sets, repeat on the other side.

Finish up with the second ear.

Almost there.

Finally here is Piggie.  All done and ready to play

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