I love turning things from my recycling bin into something we can use. This DIY garden lantern was made from a plastic bottle and it turned out even better than I could have hoped.The lantern was inspired by a couple of garden ornaments that I had seen including these
This DIY garden lantern was inspired by a couple of garden ornaments that I had seen including these water bottle wind spirals and this plastic bottle wind spinner.
What you need to make your own plastic bottle lantern
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- Plastic bottle and lid
- Sharpies or permanent markers alternatively paint it like our wind spinner
- Craft knife
- Scissors
- Wire
- Beads
- Battery-operated tea lights or lights
- Bradawl
How to make a DIY Garden lantern
First off I set the boys off colouring in the plastic bottle with Sharpies. There is no right or wrong way to do this. The boys went mad and used every permanent marker that I had. You could, however, chose a smaller number of even add a pattern to your bottle.
I then cut lines down the bottle using a craft knife to start and then my scissors. My lines are not all the same thickness, but you could measure them if you wanted too.
Once you have cut the strips then you need to crease the strips. You do this by pushing the top of the bottle toward the bottom. This will cause the slits to collapse. Hold it in place and fold each slit in the center, creating a crease.
Then using a bradawl or a small screwdriver make two holes in the bottle lid, before taking your wire and threading throw to create a loop.
Then I threaded some beads onto some more wire and twisted that on to the cap.
You can easily add your light by pushing the top of the bottle down towards the bottom and slipping it in.
It looks wonderful in the garden during the day and spins as the wind catches it.
However, it really comes into its own as the night starts to fall. The lantern just glows with beautiful colours and I can not capture its beauty in any of the photographs I took.
It really is beautiful.
And it cost next to nothing.
I now want to fill my garden with them!
The boys had great fun making these and we are going to make a lot more so that we can see them all lit up in the apple tree.
Check out our other Plastic Bottle Crafts
- DIY Recycled Plastic Bottle Poppy Craft
- How to make a bubble snake maker
- Drink Bottle Skittles
- Plastic Bottle Wind Spiral Mobile
This is a great idea! One question though – isn’t that bottle going to melt?
It does look interesting. I do not like all the colours but still.. maybe combining only a few colours would be better. Great idea, nevertheless.
How simple Jen but it looks fabulous, well done. Mich x
We have these hanging in our fairy gardens, why have I not thought to colour them in? Really pretty with the beads at the top too and the lights inside. Pinning this to my Trash2Treasure board. Do join the linky if you get a chance.
It looks great with fairy lights inside it
Lit up it looks incredible! I could do with making these with the boys to transform our garden of an evening especially now we seem to be entertaining more x
They are so lovely – i am going to find the lights so i can make some.
Thanks for sharing x
Now that is a really lovely idea and the fairy lights make it look amazing!
Oh these look amazing! I will have to buy some plastic bottles to make some lol x
I actually really love that! I’ll have to get the girls to get their craft stuff out 🙂
I love this. We’ve loads of bottles around so may have to try this
We made bird feeders in a similar way – I love this idea though. It’s great to use recycling for something useful x
I came across a great website http://www.kidraws.com it allows kids to share their art and get it on the clothing iteams that can later be purchased and some of the money goes to the kids family
Please share it and participate in this project. It is very interesting.