How to Make a Star-Shaped Lantern from Metal

Making a lantern out of sheet metal is a good way to express your creative side and make decorations for your home that are custom made to match your choice of décor. Choose your metal, your shapes, and your designs to accent existing materials and decorations.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Sheet metal
• Tin snips or heavy duty household scissors
• Awl, tin punch, 16d nail
• Rubber mallet or hammer
• Cardstock
• Nightlight assembly

Getting Started

1. Using the cardstock, design the shape and size of your star. This will be your pattern.

2. Trace your pattern onto your sheet metal, TWICE. For a star pattern you will need two pieces, one for the front and one for the back.

3. Using the awl, metal punch, or nail, punch a design into the star pieces, making holes large enough to allow light through them.

4. Cut one rectangular piece 4” wide and long enough to go around the perimeter of the star, subtracting the length between two points.

5. Snip each star one half inch on each inside point of the star. Snip each star ½” on each outside point of the star. Snip each corner of the rectangular piece diagonally one half inch.

6. Fold over all edges of each star one half inch and lay flat. Fold over all edges of the rectangular piece and lay flat.

7. Joining folded edges, attach rectangular piece to each star piece leaving open between the two points on the bottom of the star.

8. Insert light assembly into the bottom of your lantern.

Tips & Warnings

• • Aluminum is a good choice, if you want a shiny silver surface, because it is easy to work with, very soft and it will not rust. It is also inexpensive and easy to find to purchase.
• • If you prefer a different finish, use a tooling foil such as brass or copper, you can easily find sheets of these at local craft stores. Brass and copper are both very popular at holidays, especially Christmas.
• • When choosing your punch designs, consider who and what you are designing it for. Use holiday designs for Christmas or lettering if you want to put someone’s initials on the lantern.
• • Rubs are available to use if color is desired on the lantern.
• • Curly details can be added to the lantern by cutting two slits in the metal and rolling the resulting piece around a pencil or thin rod, then stretching the piece into the desired shape.
• • Steel coated with tin is popular for roofing and can be used in decorative metal work, but it is only good for flat work. It is not recommended for formwork, such as this lantern
• • Be sure to use gloves when handling sheet metal. The edges of the sheet metal will be very sharp and could cause serious injury.
• • Do not allow lighting mechanism to touch metal as it could become very hot.