Tissue Paper Fish Bowl Lanterns

My daughter and her friend went to the Environmental Nature Center on Valentine’s Day and the craft they made that day were these super cute heart glass jars.  It’s a very simple and easy project for the kids and it’s super cheap too!  All you really need is glue, tissue paper and an up-cycled glass jar.

A few days later I just so happened to be googling some ideas for crafts and I stumbled across this DIY Fish Bowl Tissue Paper Lanterns by TD 365.  I just couldn’t resist having the girls make these  very impressive looking fish bowls.  I think they would make a great gift for a teacher or grandmother’s day.

Supplies:

-Small fish bowl
-White glue
-Warm water
-Tissue paper
-Scissors
-Glitter (optional)  I found blue tissue paper that had glitter already inside it, so we didn’t use glitter)
-A sponge or paint brush
-Decorative stones (optional)
-Tea light candles
-Lighter (use under supervision of an adult)

Directions:

First take a trip to your local Dollar store…all the supplies listed above can be found there.

To prep for this craft I first cut out some large fish from some rainbow striped tissue paper (I thought it would look pretty with all the colors…but definitely use whatever color you wish).  I also cut out some tiny fish out of orange paper, and some seaweed/kelp out of green tissue paper, and tore some blue tissue paper into pieces for the water.

You will also want to prep the paste. About 3 parts white school glue with 1 part warm water is perfect.  It doesn’t need to be perfect.  Your objective is to have paste that is a tad bit more watery.

Next, I had the girls use a foam paint brush and apply the watered down glue over the entire outside of fish bowl.

After covering the entire fish bowl with watered down glue, have the kids cover the entire bowl with blue tissue paper (for the water).  It really doesn’t matter how perfect the kids lay on the pieces, or if they get wrinkled…this project will come out great no matter how it’s done.  If the kids want to add a little glitter around the bowl, you can add it during this step too.

After we were finished adding our blue tissue paper, the girls painted the outside of the fish bowl again with one more layer of watered down glue to seal the tissue paper in.  Then we started adding  our fish and seaweed/kelp to the bowls.

Delicately adding a little gold fish to the bowl…

Once the kids are finished decorating their bowls, make sure one more layer of watered down glue is brushed on, so that the tissue paper is sealed to the bowl.  Then let them sit out to dry.

Once the bowls are dry, you can add the decorative stones into the bottom of the bowl.

We then lighted a tea light candle inside our fish bowl.  I really wanted a flame-less tea candle so the girls could keep these in their bedrooms as a nightlight, but I couldn’t locate any in time to do this craft.