Traditional Lanterns Are Boring: Upcycle An Old Juice Carton With An Easy DIY

The next time you’ve poured your last glass of OJ, consider giving that empty carton a chance to shine instead of immediately chucking it into the recycling bin. While cardboard has an impressive recycling rate of around 70 percent to 75 percent, with more than 33 million tons recycled in 2025 according to the American Forest and Paper Association, the bin is still only second-best to your creative whims. Repurposing the carton allows you to squeeze a little more use out of the packaging instead. And, with a few strategically placed cuts and some translucent paper, that basic utilitarian carton can become the base for some downright magical ambiance.

TikTok creator @sibster_made puts this idea to work by transforming an empty juice carton into a whimsical handheld lantern, complete with glowing windows adorned with pressed flowers and decorative silhouettes. Battery-powered fairy lights illuminate the designs from within, while a simple twine handle makes the finished lantern easy to hang.

You don’t need a big budget or an overflowing craft closet to recreate this project, either. Along with a clean, empty milk or juice carton, gather wax paper, pressed flowers and paper silhouettes, low-heat battery-powered fairy lights, twine, double-sided tape, a glue stick, and a small amount of Mod Podge. You’ll also need scissors and an X-Acto or craft knife to create the windows. As a note, @sibster_made typically uses clear contact paper rather than wax paper for similar lanterns, so that’s another option.

To transform an old juice carton into a lantern, @sibster_made cuts each side to create windows, starting with an X-Acto knife and finishing with scissors. Next, she cuts wax paper to fit each opening and decorates the non-waxy sides with paper silhouettes and pressed flowers, using a glue stick for the silhouettes and a small amount of Mod Podge for the flowers. Go easy on the adhesive, she advises, as too much can cause the wax paper to warp. She then glues each wax paper panel inside the carton so the decorations peek through the windows. To finish it off, she adds battery-powered fairy lights, secures the battery pack with double-sided tape, and finishes with a twine handle.

@sibster_made

One of our favorite ways of reusing milk or juice cartons is turning them into lanterns. I cut the center out of each side to turn them into a little windows. I start with an X-Acto knife and finish it off with scissors. Normally, I use contact paper and flowers to fill in the windows, but this time I decided to go with wax paper I started by cutting pieces of wax paper that would fit each side perfectly I got these cute little silhouettes from my friend’s Etsy shop Light of tge Stone. I glued the silhouettes and pressed flowers on the non-waxy side of the paper. I did the silhouettes with a glue stick, and the pressed flowers with a tiny bit of mod podge. You don’t want to put too much glue because the paper will start to warp. Then I glued each piece inside the juice carton. The last piece gave me a bit of a hard time so I decided to use a skewer through the hole to press it in. What you could also do is remove the whole top completely, and that would make it super easy. after that, I added fairy lights and attatched the battery piece outside with double sided tape. I added a twine handle and it’s ready to go on our walk with us. #lantern#diylantern#trashintoart

♬ Gnomes and Fairies – Marco Cutini

If you’re finding the glue and wax paper tricky to work with, @sibster_made’s alternative method of laying contact paper over the decorations can simplify the step. Clear contact paper has a self-adhesive surface, so pressed flowers, paper cutouts, and other flat embellishments can be arranged directly on it before another piece is placed on top to sandwich everything together. Whatever you choose for the windows, though, always stick with low-heat battery-powered lights inside the finished carton rather than a candle or other open flame.

Now that you’ve learned the basics, you can think outside the carton and make pickle jar lanterns, glass bottle lanterns, empty soup can lanterns, or whatever else captures your fancy as you rummage through your recycling bin.