Advent Paper Lace Lantern: Adding Beauty & Light to your Sanctuary this Season
Each Advent, we create a design for paper lace banners inspired by our theme. With this year’s What do you fear? Advent series, our branding has centered on lanterns as a symbol of hope held tenderly in the midst of fear. To continue the lantern imagery, our paper lace banner design has been created so that it can be wrapped into a large scale lantern (about 50” tall) for your worship space. Keep reading to learn how to transform simple paper and string lights into a beautiful art installation.
About the Pictured installation
Hannah Garrity, who designed the paper lace banners for our What do you fear? Advent series, also serves as a liturgical artist for the Montreat Conference Center. This summer, she utilized these banner designs as part of a “Christmas in July” installation for their Summer Worship Series. Along with other paper lace banners she created using purple paper, Hannah turned our What do you fear? banner designs into lanterns using white paper and craft paper of different sizes, copper piping, fairy lights, and purple tulle.
Installation tips
We recommend creating four copies of the banner designs: one to hang as a banner so people can see the full design, and three to turn into lanterns. (Tip: You can double layer the paper in order to cut 2 banners into 4). Instead of copper piping, we’ve simplified the installation instructions below. Please feel free to adapt the instructions as needed to create your own liturgical art installation.
We can’t wait to see your installations this Advent! Share photos in our Facebook group, tag @sanctifiedart on social media, or send photos to us at contact@sanctifiedart.org.
What you’ll need
Projector
Painter’s tape (to attach paper to the wall)
Pencils
Cutting mats or folded up newspaper
Glue (hot glue works best)
Stapler
22” macrame hoops (1-2 per lantern)
24” dowel rods (2 per lantern)
String
Remote control string lights (1 set per lantern)
Tulle (about 3 yards per lantern)
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1
Cut a 69” length of 53” wide photo backdrop paper. Project the banner design image horizontally and tape the paper to the wall using painter’s tape. Make sure that the top and bottom of the design line up with the top and bottom of the paper.
Tip: If you cannot project the whole design at once, use the hash marks on the design to realign the projected design as you shift the paper.
Optional: If you’re planning to cut multiple copies of the design to create multiple lanterns and/or banners, cut a 138” (11.5’) piece of the paper and fold it in half. You can trace once and double-cut, then cut apart the banners after Step 3.
Step 2
Trace the design using pencil. Mark the black sections of the design (which will be cut out) with X’s as you go.
Step 3
Cut the design using disposable utility knives, removing the sections you marked with an X. Protect the table or floor while you’re cutting with cutting mats or folded newspaper.
Tip: If your lanterns tear, use a stapler or clear tape to repair. Don’t worry—it won’t be visible from the congregation!
Step 4
With a bit of your extra photo backdrop paper, cut and glue rectangular tabs 2” wide and 10” long to the top of the cut banner. We recommend 6-8 tabs spaced every 8-12” along the top.
Step 5
Curve the tabs over a 22” hoop and staple them to the top of the lantern.
Tip: Let the natural curve of the paper decided which side is outside and which is inside the lantern. You can erase any stray pencil marks from the outside of the lantern, though they won’t be visible from a distance.
Optional: Repeat steps 4 and 5 if you'd like more structure on the bottom of your lantern.
Step 6
Line up the ends of the cut paper, overlapping the repeated parts of the design, and staple.
Step 7
Use small dowel rods to create an X across the top of the lantern. Lash the dowels in place with string.
Step 8
Hang remote control fairy lights from the dowel rods in the middle of the lantern. Hang tulle over the lights, also from the dowel rods.
Step 9
Hang the lantern with string.
Step 10
Use the remote control to turn your lantern on and watch the light shine through!
Hannah Garrity
Founding Creative Partner of A Sanctified Art
Hannah (she/her) is an artist and an athlete, a daughter and a mother, a facilitator and a producer, a leader and a teammate. She is the Director of Christian Faith, Life, and Arts at Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, VA, an art in worship workshop leader wherever she is called, and a liturgical installation artist at the Montreat Conference Center, Montreat, NC.