The first step is to make the skeleton. The simple shape of paper lanterns is a cube or cylinder. It is best to use flexible bamboo branches or bamboo skins to form a frame, and the joints are tied tightly with thin lines. If it is not easy to find, slender cardboard and bamboo sticks for barbecue can also be used. The firmness and flexibility will be lacking, but it is also a good decoration indoors.

Step 2, make the lamp body. Buy some white and red ordinary rice paper or golden rice paper in Four Treasures of the Study store, cut it into the length and width of the lantern skeleton, and you can design your own patterns. Calligraphy, painting and paper-cutting can all be displayed on small lanterns. After pasting, you can also use narrow strips of imitation silk paper to edge up and down, which looks more elegant, much like ancient palace lanterns. If you are not good at painting and calligraphy, there is a simple method for reference. Use a thin paper to trace the desired words on the copybook, then overlap this thin paper with crimson rice paper and dig out the words with a single-edged blade. Take off the tissue paper, and hollow handwriting will appear on the red rice paper. White rice paper is used as the lamp body, red rice paper is pasted in it, and candlelight or light is mapped out from the hollowed-out place, and the effect is quite beautiful.

Step three, make a light source. If you put it indoors, you just need to light an ordinary candle in the lantern; If you want to carry it out, you'd better make a simple circuit with light bulbs and batteries. It may look a little rough, but lighting a lantern made by yourself during the Lantern Festival will definitely have a different flavor.