Little Mermaid Jellyfish Lantern

1. Cut two or three 5′ long wide-wired ribbons to serve as the jellyfish’s inner arms. Layer the lengths atop each other. Then fold the stack in half, and push the looped end up through the slit in the plastic cup lid, as shown.

2. Slip a short piece of thin ribbon through the loop above the lid. Then thread the ribbon ends through holes in the bottom of the colander and tie them together. Don’t pull the ends too tight — you want the ribbon arms to hang loosely (an inch or so) from the bottom of the colander once you’ve inverted them.

3. To fill out the middle, cut a few additional yard-long wired and curling ribbons. Rather than fold them in half as you did in Step 1, simply tuck one end of each up through the slit in the lid, as shown (the tension of the plastic will hold them in place). Now use scissors to gently curl the curling ribbon. To curl the wired ribbons, loosely wrap them around a spice bottle or paper towel tube.

4. For the jellyfish’s outer tentacles, cut eight or more 4′ long thin-unwired ribbons. Starting from the outside of the inverted colander, thread the ends of each through holes in the side, as shown, spacing the tentacles equidistant apart. Knot the ribbon ends to keep them from pulling back through the holes.

5. For a hanger, cut a length of ribbon long enough to suit the location you have in mind. Thread the ends from inside the inverted colander up through holes in the top of the jellyfish. Then tie them together just above the colander. Now thread the ends through the bead (if you’re using one), slide the bead down to the knot, and your jellyfish lantern is ready to hang outdoors.