Halloween Lantern Liner / Light Defuse Material?

[kmmcrafts]

I made some small tea light lanterns and I don't like seeing my tea light inside and thought I'd line it with something.. I'm not sure what they use for this type of thing. My original thought was tissue paper but I want something a little more durable than that.. thinking they make something specific for this from a real thin plastic type material.. Then wondered if there were color options.. might look neat with a orange tint to it. 

Any suggestions? 

[kmmcrafts]

Well, I asked this question to Ai and it says Vellum Paper, wax paper or more durable and expensive acrylic.. Never heard of Vellum paper so had to ask about that and where to buy it etc.  Since my wife has wax paper in the kitchen I'm sure she won't notice it's missing right?  I'm going to give that a try just to see if I like it or not. If I like it and decide to try to sell some I'll likely get frosted acrylic or a orange tint for them. 

[barb.j.enders]

I had made a lantern a while ago.  I used a nice textured hand made paper.  There was enough space to see the paper.  On a smaller one I used a thicker paper purchased from Michael's (Hobby Lobby type store)

[kmmcrafts]

Well, I think the parchment paper my wife has worked well for making the bright tea light to not glare too much. I don’t have a before the paper photo but it was quite bright and your eyes was drawn to the flickering tea light instead of the actual cutout. I think the vellum paper is maybe a heavier more durable material? 
 

I wasn’t really sure how to attach the paper so I sprayed the 3M77 spray adhesive onto the back of the wood and stuck my already cut to size pieces of parchment paper to them. Not sure how this would hold up to dusting / cleaning in the long run but I achieved my goal of defusing the light. Meanwhile I’m on the lookout for a better product so I can sell some of these with some confidence of better quality. 

[Scrappile]

That looks nice.

[MarieC]

Kevin that looks nice but Vellum comes in multiiple colors so you could use a yellow one if you wish so when the light isn't showing through it still looks nice and when it does, it will have that glowy look.  Here it is at walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Uxcell-Colored-Vellum-Paper-20-Sheet-Multicolor-8-3-x-5-9-Printable-Vellum-Paper/19395914937?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=571&adid=22222222222000000000&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=e&wl1=o&wl2=c&wl3=10352200394&wl4=pla-1103028060075&wl5=67667&wl6=&wl7=&wl10=Walmart&wl11=Online&wl12=19395914937_10000000599&wl14=vellum colored paper&veh=sem&msclkid=f0bcee417c1015584d718407a480a172&gclid=f0bcee417c1015584d718407a480a172&gclsrc=3p.ds

[kmmcrafts]

38 minutes ago, MarieC said:

Kevin that looks nice but Vellum comes in multiiple colors so you could use a yellow one if you wish so when the light isn't showing through it still looks nice and when it does, it will have that glowy look.  Here it is at walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Uxcell-Colored-Vellum-Paper-20-Sheet-Multicolor-8-3-x-5-9-Printable-Vellum-Paper/19395914937?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=571&adid=22222222222000000000&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=e&wl1=o&wl2=c&wl3=10352200394&wl4=pla-1103028060075&wl5=67667&wl6=&wl7=&wl10=Walmart&wl11=Online&wl12=19395914937_10000000599&wl14=vellum colored paper&veh=sem&msclkid=f0bcee417c1015584d718407a480a172&gclid=f0bcee417c1015584d718407a480a172&gclsrc=3p.ds

Yeah, after looking more into the stuff I did see the color options.. I thought about a yellow or orange for the Halloween stuff and greens and reds for Christmas lanterns. The one issue I have so far is... nobody locally has the colors in stock so I guess I'm going to have to order a sample pack of all colors to find what ones I like since I can't go "look" in person to see the actual colors.  Also thought maybe paint the lantern black with orange vellum paper etc.. I don't know.. so many options now, LOL

[rjweb]

Kevin, that is really neat, RJ

[Paladin]

I've always used vellum for things like that.  It works great.  They do have it in colors to and orange might look really good in that application.

[kmmcrafts]

So today out and about shopping I we went to Michael's and I bought a pack of the vellum paper.. now that I have felt how strong the paper is etc. I now ordered a variety pack from Amazon. Unfortunately, I never found any color options anywhere local which is why I ordered it online. Didn't want to order it until I was able to inspect it in person to see exactly what vellum paper was since I had never heard of it before now. Much better stronger paper than the parchment paper I used in my first lantern. Can't wait to try the orange on my lantern and see how the other colors look too. 

This is the sample pack I ordered. There is some other sample packs with other colors too but this had colors I thought I'd use best for my projects. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082CVYBVR?ref_=pe_125775000_1044873430_t_fed_asin_title 

[flarud]

I used vellum paper last year on a couple of night lights that I made.  It works pretty good.  I think I bought a variety pack off of Amazon.  

     

[kmmcrafts]

7 hours ago, flarud said:

I used vellum paper last year on a couple of night lights that I made.  It works pretty good.  I think I bought a variety pack off of Amazon.  

     

Nice job of those!

[kmmcrafts]

So I made another lantern that isn't Halloween themed since I'm waiting on the color vellum paper. I thought the white would look good on this one. I have to say the paper is much nicer to work with then the paraffin paper I first used and I think the vellum will outlast it by a long shot just by the feel and how heavy it is. 

 

It doesn't show up great in the pictures because it's light outside but, looks great in the darker room.  

Edited July 5 by kmmcrafts

[jerry walters]

going to have to give this a try.

Jerry

 

[kmmcrafts]

1 hour ago, jerry walters said:

going to have to give this a try.

Jerry

 

I got the pattern here. https://www.etsy.com/listing/4375695170/christian-cross-lantern-set-religious?ref=yr_purchases

 

I made it with my laser but there is a PDF type file that could easily be printed and scroll sawn. I modified the hole for the tea light as the original design had it in the back and the hole was way too big for the tea lights I had on hand so I moved the hole to the bottom at the correct size so it is friction fit so it can easily be changed out if it were to stop working. I intend to make this from Walnut but made this one from cheap BBply just for test fitting things etc. since Walnut is much more $$ I didn't want to make expensive fire wood. .. Oh, I also painted the inside white in hopes of brighter light reflection. This all started because my daughter got married last year and we have probably 100 battery tea lights left over from her decorations so I've been making lanterns.. Here is a few more Halloween ones. LOL. Now I need to add the vellum paper to these. 

[OCtoolguy]

Great ideas here. Maybe have to give some a try. I've really been stagnant for too long. Gotta get my creative juices flowing again. Fighting depression isn't fun.

[kmmcrafts]

5 hours ago, OCtoolguy said:

Great ideas here. Maybe have to give some a try. I've really been stagnant for too long. Gotta get my creative juices flowing again. Fighting depression isn't fun.

I hope you can find something to get your creative side going and get yourself back in the shop.. sometimes that is a therapy session right there by just getting out and puttering with something. 

[kmmcrafts]

Okay, I made one from Walnut that looks better but I messed up the joints. The walnut plywood was thicker than the birch so I needed to change the width of the slot cutouts but, in the process of that I had the aspect ratio locked so it changed the length of the slots too. No big deal as it still fits together nicely without any glue used. Another mistake is the plywood is only good on one side and one of the dove pieces should have been mirrored because one sits facing one way and the other is opposite. Also only had enough walnut pieces so the wood grain on the back side goes the opposite direction. Got to order some more walnut plywood. 
 

Speaking of glue, my wife talked me into this tape glue that’s usually used for scrapbooking? Anyway this stuff works great to just roll on the glue to stick the vellum paper without getting spray glue all over. I was skeptical about using it on wood at first but wow this works great. My wife is actually right sometimes.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHV1XPP6?ref_=ppx_hzod_title_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1_3&th=1

 

 

Edited July 7 by kmmcrafts

[rjweb]

Kevin they look great, RJ

[OCtoolguy]

Looking good Kevin. Always something new to learn. I bought a small laser and set it up in my office while I was learning how to use it. As usual, my parade got rained on because it emitted a bit of smoke and smell. So I boxed it up and put it in my closet for my next life.

[kmmcrafts]

1 hour ago, OCtoolguy said:

Looking good Kevin. Always something new to learn. I bought a small laser and set it up in my office while I was learning how to use it. As usual, my parade got rained on because it emitted a bit of smoke and smell. So I boxed it up and put it in my closet for my next life.

That is one of the unfortunate things about the small table top lasers, and unless you can build some sort of smoke extraction system they are not really safe to run inside. They are nice starter machines but many times people find out that they need to spend more for smoke filter / extraction etc.. then the cheap little lasers end up being more money than expected or they end up in a box being unused.

[wombatie]

I must admit the wax paper worked better than I expected it to.  Great work on the lanterns as well Kevin.

Marg

[kmmcrafts]

8 hours ago, wombatie said:

I must admit the wax paper worked better than I expected it to.  Great work on the lanterns as well Kevin.

Marg

The vellum paper is nicer to work with if you have a larger area to cover as it's not as flimsy but, yeah I also was quite impressed with just using wax paper. 

[Scrappile]

@kmmcrafts  I was looking at this pattern on Etsy.   It says 1 PDF file.  Usually, these laser patterns contain several different files of which one is PDF.  Can you use PDF files on lasers?  thought they threw in the  PDF for us poor scrollers.  I'm just curious.

[kmmcrafts]

1 hour ago, Scrappile said:

@kmmcrafts  I was looking at this pattern on Etsy.   It says 1 PDF file.  Usually, these laser patterns contain several different files of which one is PDF.  Can you use PDF files on lasers?  thought they threw in the  PDF for us poor scrollers.  I'm just curious.

Ready to use files for the lasers are usually SVG files.. and for a CNC it's SVG or DXF type files.. That said PDF files are very easily transformed into a SVG using my laser program ( Lightburn software ) but, I'm not sure on the other laser programs. The program I use on my small lasers can't modify designs at all so you need it to be sized and everything ready to go as it only runs the laser so no editing within that software ( K-40 Whisperer software ) which was a pain in the back side compared to Lightburn...   Though to be fair I have not updated the K-40 Whisperer software in 6 years so maybe it's different now.LOL.. I recommend anyone getting a laser to get one that can run on the Lightburn software as it's just easier to learn and all around easier to run etc.