What you need:
• Tissue paper
• Glue
• A ½ inch artist’s paint brush
• Thin wire
• Birthday candles
• A bamboo or balsa wood hoop (or equally light alternative)
• Scissors
• An X-acto knife
• Wire cutters
• Plastic

What you do:
• Cover your work surface with plastic.
• Take four pieces of large tissue paper, 12×20″ each.
• Fold them in half, length-wise.
• Trace half of a bell pattern on the top sheet, from the bottom with an opening that is 1/8 the circumference of your hoop.
•  Cut out your shape.
• Unfold the tissue paper.
• Write  your messages.
• Pour some  glue into a container and thin it with water.
•  Lay the first sheet of tissue on your work surface message-down and with the paintbrush, spread your watered-down glue all the way along one edge.
• Lay a second sheet on top of the first, gluing them together along one side.
• Lay a newspaper over the glued half and fold the top sheet over.
• Spread glue along the new side, lay a third sheet atop the second.
•  Repeat the process with the fourth, then fold the forgotten half of the initial sheet over and glue it to the fourth sheet.
• Let everything dry for a few hours.( After a time, you may need to come back and glue the top of your bell to ensure that you have a completed balloon that is only open at the bottom.)
• Wrap one end of a wire around the ring, string it across, wrapping it around a cluster of birthday candles.
• Affix it to the other side of the ring, holding the candles in place in the middle.
• Take a second wire and do the same perpendicular to the first, also wrapping it around your candles, so that you end up with a wire cross in the center of the hoop with candles snug in the middle.
• Once you have your finished hoop and your dry balloon, glue them together.
• Let it dry.
• Carefully take your creation to your launch facility.( You may need to pre-inflate your balloon before lighting your candles, so use a blow dryer on low to blow hot air through the hoop, inflating the balloon.)
• Carefully light your candles, which will continue to fill the balloon with hot air, and lift your sky lantern high into the air for all to see.

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