Water color cereal box lantern

I can't help it but I'm a big fan of those paper star lanterns.  The ones that are super low quality but still cost $12 without the light bulb.

But being as I don't have endless money to spend on decorative lights, I made my own equally crappy but way less expensive version out of a cereal box.

Behold!

 What's really great about this lantern is I didn't even use a light bulb cord, I plugged a nightlight into an extension cord and didn't have to spend any money.

So to start you will need:

 Materials:
-Cereal box (I used a cheerios one because it was the biggest)
-Utility knife
-Scissors
-Hot glue gun
-Tape
-Water colors
-A pencil
-A bowl for making your circle (or you could cut it into a cool shape)

To start:

 I used a bowl to make 2 perfect circles in the box.

 Once you have your circles, fold the box 4 times so that they will sit away from each other when you attach them.  Make sure your folds stick out on the side that you want to show (the naked side of the box).

Next I etched a pattern into the circles and cut out the triangles with the utility knife.

 Then glue most of the edges together, leaving one small open edge on top and a larger on the bottom (big enough to fit your nightlight in).

 I painted it with water colors because I like the way it looks but there are a lot of really cool things that could be done to these lanterns.  I think it would be pretty to put tissue paper on the inside so that the holes project colored light.

Then put the night light in through the bottom since you want the smaller hole on top to hold the cord in place.  This way you can take it out when you want without ripping open your lantern.

And there you have it.  I actually really like how the cheerios box creates a yellow reflection.  I think it probably makes it brighter than it would be.

These look really great hanging in corners to give a bit of soft light.