Halloween Lantern Garland

Last week I showed you the mantel I decorated for Halloween.  I’m not a huge Halloween decorator but my new mantel has me obsessed with decorating it.

On Instagram I mentioned how I filled that big no. 5 crock and how I emptied it.  You’ll have to read the comments to find out, it’s pretty funny.

I made these ‘lanterns’ out of gift bags and I didn’t want to add them to the top of the mantel as I loved all the white pumpkins there so I decided to make them into a garland.

It’s really easy so let me show you how I made this Halloween lantern garland.

So here is a close-up of that cute little lantern garland.

I used silhouette images of crows and bats and I have one printable PDF file for you below in the tutorial list!

Supplies:

• black kraft gift bags
• vellum
• cutting board
• rotary cutter or exact0 knife (*affiliate link)
• tape
• black battery-operative votive candles
• twine

Tutorial:

1. You can download and print a bat silhouette at the bottom of this post.
2. Cut out the image and tape down the stencil you’ve just created to the black gift bag.  Using a fabric cutter (great for round edges).  Put a small cutting board in bag to make sure it only cuts one side.
3. Cut a piece of vellum to a little bit smaller than the flattened bag.
4. Slip vellum into bag and tape at top on the inside.

5. Add two battery votives to each bag.

6. Tie bags with twine to a long twine to make the garland. Two large candles held the twine on top of the mantel.

These votives actually flicker so they seem like real lanterns.  They would also look really nice lining a walkway to the front door.

I was planning on taking photos of these lanterns lined up my walkway but it was been raining so hard here that it never happened.  This garland is much cuter anyway.

I love the ostrich feathers on this mantel.  It just adds so much texture.

Thanks for following the Halloween lantern garland tutorial.

Click the box to download the bat silhouette:

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Classic Black Halloween Decor 

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