Halloween Sidewalk Lanterns
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Light up your walkway with these adorable (and fun to make) Halloween Sidewalk Lanterns. All you need is plastic cups, glue, tissue paper and battery powered candles!
💌 Save this article
Enter your email and have it sent to your inbox!
Halloween Sidewalk Lanterns
We live in a neighborhood with no street lights or sidewalks. It’s a very pretty setting and normally I like the lack of light pollution, but not having street lights makes it extra difficult for trick-or-treaters to find their way to our house!
We turn on all our lights on Halloween, but I still feel like have to encourage the trick-or-treaters to stop.
I’ve always loved the look of Sidewalk Lanterns and I thought that a DIY Sidewalk Lantern would be the perfect way to go.
Paper Mache Lanterns
Can I just say, you can never go wrong with a paper-maché type craft?
The kids just love getting their hands messy and I love that they stay occupied for at least a good hour! (Obviously, I love paper-maché too. We’ve got paper-maché Christmas Trees and paper-maché Piggy Bank crafts on the blog already. What’s one more, lol?)
I brainstormed a few ideas for the sidewalk lanterns… First, I thought about using mason jars and spray paint like I did with our little luminaries from last year, but I was afraid they might get kicked or broken by small children, plus I wanted more light than the opaque spray paint would give.
I spotted these plastic cups at the party store and knew they would be the perfect vessel for our lanterns.
The process to make the lanterns was super easy and in no time at all, the kids and I had made 14 little sidewalk lanterns. (Amazon has a 24 pack of these tea lights/flameless candles w/ replacement batteries for around $12.)
If I have time, I might even make a few more.
Would you like to make a few sidewalk lanterns? Here is how it’s done:
Materials Needed for the Halloween Lanterns:
- Plastic Tumblers (any sort of clear plastic cup with no lip would work great)
- Tissue paper (I used orange, but yellow or white might be nice too)
- Modge Podge
- Luminaries/tea candles
How to Make Sidewalk Lanterns
- Gather your supplies.
- Pre-tear your tissue paper into large and small pieces.
- Use your finger to spread glue all over the cup and cover with a large piece of tissue. Keep adding tissue and glue as needed.
- Let cup dry.
- Use an nail file to file off any excess paper hanging over the edge of the glass. I found that trying to rip the tissue made the edges ragged and not as pretty.
- Add a flame-less tea light and your sidewalk lanterns are good to go!
They even look pretty during the day and with the lights on.
TIP: If it’s windy out, just put a few river rocks at the bottom of the cup, under the the tea light to weigh the lantern down!
Aren’t they great? I will be saving these to use for night-time parties or maybe at Christmas time too!
Want more fun Halloween Projects?
Be sure to check these out! (click the title not the photo to visit the post.)
Wall Bats (free pdf and svg template)
Halloween Nightlights from a Foam Cup 
Don't miss any more posts!
