Tinkerbell Lantern

All you need is faith, trust, and pixie dust…

And a small lantern, some vinyl, and a fake candle.

Adding a Tinkerbell lantern to our Disney-themed nursery was the perfect dash of magic to bring the room together. Just as simple as sprinkling pixie dust, this project takes less than a half hour to complete and is just oh-so-cute.

Here’s how to make your own.

First, get a lantern. We found this one at Hobby Lobby for 50% off. However, you can use whatever you find. Remember, if you find one that’s the perfect shape but the wrong color, spray paint is your friend. Always look at the overall design – anything can be transformed with a simple coat of paint.

To hang the lantern, we wanted something sturdy but also in the shape of Captain Hook’s hook. We got this bike hook from Home Depot for two or three dollars. I prefer the grey finish because it matches other elements in the nursery, but again, we easily could have used spray paint to change it to gold or silver. Keep in mind, a hook like this needs to be installed directly into a stud or paired with a drywall anchor.

Now, let’s get to adding Tinkerbell. This can be done one of two ways.

First, find a Tinkerbell decal at any craft store and put it in the lantern. Ta da! You’re done.

However, you could go my route and use a Cricut machine to cut out your Tinkerbell shape.

Start by measuring your glass. Leave space around your decal size. When in doubt, cut a similar shape out of paper and lay over the glass. I try to avoid wasting vinyl, so I always do a rough test with paper to get the sizing right.

Design and cut! Cricut doesn’t seem to have Tinkerbell designs anymore so I purchased this file from Svgstudio99 on Etsy. Wanting only a shadow, I hid all the color layers before sending the image to cut.

Isn’t she the cutest?!

Apply the transfer paper.

This is where the application got a little tricky. I wanted Tinkerbell’s shadow inside the lantern. My long fingers really came in handy but popsicle sticks would have been just as useful.

Transfer the decal to the glass. Be extra diligent with the bubbles if you’re applying to the inside of the glass because any defects will show on the outside…