Last updated on March 7th, 2024
Inside: These painted camping lanterns are so fun and easy to create and make the perfect little night light for your next camping trip. Read on for all the details.
I just love how these painted camping lanterns turned out! They are so cute. My toddler has been proudly carrying his lantern around with him wherever he goes.
We are planning a ‘camp in your backyard’ night, so I thought these little night lights would be perfect for our outdoor slumber party. We are going to have some s’mores by the fire and snuggle in the tent together for a backyard getaway. I know my toddler will have so much fun and he’ll love to use his new camping lantern inside the tent.
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What You Need For Painted Camping Lanterns
- Clear Plastic Cups
- Paint
- Pom-Poms
- Clothespins
- Twine or String
- Hole Punch
- LED battery operated tea light candles
- Paint Palette (optional)
How To Set Up For Painted Camping Lanterns
Set up is pretty easy for this craft. If you’re looking for a detailed set-up and clean-up for painting with toddlers, be sure to check out this post. It details all the ins and outs to painting with toddlers including the best products to use.
Once you’ve got your painting area ready to go, just squirt some paint onto your paint palette, attach one pom-pom to each clothespin, and set your cups out. I used 4 clothespins and pom-poms and maybe 6-8 paint colors. For a younger toddler, they won’t need many clothespins as they will mix the paints anyways.
What To Do For Painted Camping Lanterns
Once you’re all set up, first demonstrate to your toddler how to dip the pom-pom clothespin into the paint. Afterward, show them how to use the pom-pom to paint onto the cup. You can show them dots or circles or lines or whatever.
Next you can hand over the clothespins and just let them get creating. I promise that your young toddler will most certainly just swirl the paint all around the cup (including inside the cup!) and mix all the colors together. This is totally fine and expected/normal. Just relax and let them do their thing.
They will have fun getting messy and creating artwork. You can always try to guide them to fill in any open spots on the cup by saying, “can you make a circle right here? (while pointing)”. Otherwise, just let them go crazy with it.
Once all of your cups are painted, let them dry. After they are finishing drying, punch a hole on opposite sides of the top of each cup for the handle. Tie a piece of string or twine in each hole to create a handle for each lantern.
Lastly, add a battery operated tea light candle to each lantern and turn it on. Enjoy admiring the glow of your lanterns!
Wrap It Up
Remember, that these lanterns are made with washable paint (I highly recommend this type of paint for toddlers, trust me!). But this means that your lanterns cannot get wet. So if you’re outside and the grass is dewy or whatnot, they may smear and fade away – just keep that in mind when using them camping.
Have you done a camping trip with your toddler or backyard camping? Let me know how it went by leaving a comment below. I’d love to hear your camping stories and tips!
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