Hot Air Balloon Paper Lantern

Learn how to make a hot air balloon paper lantern in minutes with this easy and fun tutorial. 

It just doesn’t get much cuter than a hot air balloon paper lantern in bright, fun colors, does it?

Hot Air Balloon Paper Lantern Tutorial 

Making a hot air balloon from a paper lantern is so easy to make!

Paper lantern hot air balloons make gorgeous decorations for a nursery or a child’s room, and would look great for a birthday party!

I originally created this tutorial for Darice’s blog as a member of their design team, and now I’m sharing the tutorial here on my own blog too.

Hot Air Balloon Paper Lantern Supplies

• Paper lanterns (any size and colors will work)
• Craft paint
• Paintbrush
• Small baskets (I used Darice’s 2″ mini baskets)
• Scissors
• String (I used kite string)
• Hot glue
• Toothpick or wood skewer

Paint the Lanterns

Choose which paint colors you would like to go with each paper lantern.

I used multiple paint colors with multiple lantern colors so that I had a nice variety of colors.

You can choose to use all softer colors, bolder colors, metallics, or a blend of these.

Be creative!

Open up the lantern that you would like to paint, and follow the paper lines to paint each section of the lantern.

Each lantern is put together using thin pieces of paper.

There is a nice straight even line where the paper overlaps that is easy to use as the edge of where you would like to paint.

I used one paint color per lantern, but feel free to mix it up a bit more and use more colors!

Let the paint dry completely.

Attach the Baskets

If your small basket has a handle (like mine did), use scissors to cut it off.

Cut four pieces of string for each lantern.

My lantern was 8″, and I cut each piece of string to be 6″ long.

Depending on the size of your paper lantern, your string might need to be cut shorter or longer.

Glue a thin line of hot glue inside the paper lantern along the paint line.

Carefully place the string on top of the line of glue, and press down using a skewer stick or something else.

Just don’t use your fingers, that glue is hot!

Repeat for each string.

Next, place a thin line of hot glue on the inside of the basket.

Press the string down into the glue with a toothpick or skewer, not your fingers!

Repeat with all four pieces of string.

Now you have a gorgeous hand-painted hot air balloon paper lantern, ready for its’ first flight!

Make multiple hot air balloons in lots of colors for a nice effect.

I have some blue paper with white fluffy clouds on it that looks great with the balloons floating in front of it!

How to Store Paper Lantern Hot Air Balloons

One of my favorite things about these hot air balloons is that they don’t take up much room to store.

Just pull out the metal inside part, and close back up the lanterns just like how they came.

They don’t take up much space, which is nice if you have boxes and boxes of craft supplies and party decorations. 😉

I hope you love these paper lantern hot air balloons as much as I do!

More Favorite Crafts

DIY Flower Straws

How to Make Treasure Stones

Under the Sea Party

Rainbow Cakes Baked in Baby Food Jars

Jungle Safari Party

Happy crafting!

 

This hot air balloon tutorial was updated in June 2021 and was originally published in May 2014.