Craft flower for home: Scalloped Paper Lamp

Craft flower for home: Scalloped Paper Lamp

(in only 1 hour and 25 minutes)

So, let's get on with the show...

What you need:

a paper lantern
(you can do as many as you like - I embellished 2)

fabric
(I had 4 scraps measuring 27.5 inches x 9 inches each ...
that would come out to be approximately one yard or 1/2 yard per lamp)

fabric glue
(I used Elmer's Craft Bond fabric and paper glue)

scissors

I wanted my individual pieces to be about 2 inches in width so I cut up my fabric accordingly starting with 6 x 9 inch strips.
(I used 2 scraps measuring 27.5 inches x 9 inches for each lantern)

Then, I piled those on top of one another and cut them into more 2 inch strips. I was left over with a one inch strip that I saved in case I needed it.

Then, cut those strips into 2 x 2 inch squares. Now you have this...
(I used approximately 8 minutes to cut)

Then, I took each of those piles, 8 layers in each pile, (the fabric is VERY thin and sheer) and rounded all the edges until they looked like this...
(I used approximately 9 minutes to round all the edges)

Now we are ready to get all those rounded edges to make a scalloped lamp shade!

First, I used a Popsicle stick to apply the fabric glue ... just enough to get that fabric to adhere.

WAIT ... Let's stop for a second. Let's talk placement.
I knew I wanted about a 1/2 inch overlap with all my layers, so I started with placing my first row of pieces with a 1/2 an inch hanging over the bottom edge. This will keep it all consistent.
It also created my little scalloped trim ...

Okay ... push PLAY.

After smearing some glue, I placed each piece overlapping slightly with the piece before it going around the lamp.
(maybe 1/4 of an inch overlap).

Then made sure it was secure.

Then it looked like this ...

Once I was finished with the first row, I started the next row ... in the back of the lantern just in case my rows didn't all match up how I wanted.
Here is where the 1/2 inch overlap going up the lantern will come into play. I made sure that overlap would cover up my glued edges.
Then, I went around the lantern exactly how I did the first row.

Now, just keep going. You will start to see it come together ...
that's when it gets exciting!

Every once in a while my edges wouldn't stay down. When that happened, I just took a little bit of glue and smeared it on top of the aforementioned edges to keep them from curling.
Almost like I would on a Modge Podge project.

Keep gluing, placing and overlapping until you get to the top of your lantern and it looks like this ...
(I used approximately 66 minutes to glue all the pieces on)

Then, I took the pre-sewn hem from the sides of my curtain that I cut off earlier and glued them around the very top of my lantern to finish it off. You could use any trim you would like to finish it off.