Skip to content
Home » How To Make Tissue Paper Light Shades

How To Make Tissue Paper Light Shades

  • by

Tissue paper light shades are quite simple to make and you don’t need lots of expensive supplies.

Tissue paper light shades are only for use with battery operated tealights or battery operated candles – they must never be used with naked flames.

tissue paper light shades
Some of my easy to make tissue paper light shades
Please note these tissue paper light shades are for battery tealights only. Never use them with a naked flame.

You can find the full tutorial on how to make your own tissue paper light shades on my YouTube Channel.

All you need is coloured tissue paper and lots of white glue. The trick is being able to cover the sheets of tissue with PVA glue without losing your patience!

In the tutorial, I show you two easy ways to do that without using too many swear words.🤪

When I was making my tissue paper light shades, even I had a couple of teeny problems.

It wasn’t all plain sailing – these are two failed tissue paper light shades.

The hardest part of making these shades is getting the glue onto the delicate tissue evenly and then drying it without it all sticking to itself or to the drying surface.

You will see my easy methods in the video.

You can see by the above screwed up pieces of tissue – I had two mess up on me. I use waxed paper taped down to a glass cutting mat as a base on which to work and then I just let the sheets dry right on there.

But even then I had to keep moving the sheets around a little throughout the drying time to stop the tissue from sticking in places.

Once you see the basic technique for making tissue paper light shades, you can start exploring ways to decorate them using your own ideas.

For these purple ones I used some round gold cord I had. I sandwiched it in between the sheets of tissue.

I used lace strips for another one and fancy wool on a third.

But you could do stamping or doodling on the tissue with Sharpies before you put glue on.

When you put battery operated tea-lights or candles inside these lanterns it gives you room a cosy glow. NEVER use naked flames in them.

Hope you have fun making lots of lovely lights to brighten up these strange times we are all living through.

If you aren’t sure where to get any of the supplies and tools you see me use in my video, do check out my Amazon storefronts by clicking one of the two Amazon links below.

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

My Amazon Affiliate statement

If you made these tissue paper light shades, let me know how you got on by leaving me a comment on my YouTube channel.