DIY Halloween Lanterns

Okay, so I know we’ve all had a craft fail or two, right? You know how it goes, it seems like it’s going to be an easy craft, nothing can go wrong, and then it turns out looking…y’know…meh. Well, have you ever had the opposite happen? You’re not sure about a DIY project or craft, and then it turns out SO MUCH BETTER than you were expecting. That’s exactly what happened to me with these DIY Halloween lanterns.

I really wanted to make a Halloween craft of some sort, but I just wasn’t feeling inspired. Sure, there are tons of Halloween craft ideas on Pinterest, but I couldn’t find anything I wanted to make.

I had a bunch of these lanterns literally lying around my backyard. LITERALLY. I bought them a while ago from the thrift store (I think someone had used them for their wedding), and I tried to hang them up on our patio. But…I used nails to hang them when I should have used hooks, and they kept falling down. And I got frustrated and kind of just left them on the ground to start rusting.

Finally, I figured I should do something about the lanterns. The dogs weren’t really interested in them, but I didn’t think it was good to have rusty metal with fake tea light candles just sitting around where they could possibly start chewing on them.

So with that back story, I really had no expectations of these Halloween lanterns at all. I spray painted them with orange Rust -Oleum paint. I swear I’m not sponsored by Rust-Oleum, but I highly recommend it for sprucing up old metal items. Not only does it cover up rust that’s already happening, but it stops items from rusting further. Once again, they probably SHOULD pay me for the frequency that I use their product, but they don’t.

I printed out some free vintage Halloween graphics from The Graphics Fairy, and I glued them to the front of the Halloween lanterns. I then added some ribbon and button embellishments to fancy up the Halloween lanterns a little bit.

Seriously, I think these Halloween lanterns turned out so cute! Not to toot my own horn, but I honestly couldn’t believe something rusting in my backyard could transform into such great little Halloween decorations. Craft win!