Diwali Craft – Paper Diya Tutorial

Diwali is the most celebrated festivals in India and diwali craft is essential part of the festivity of course! Learn how to make 3d paper diyas this time.

The last few months of they year are often festive filled with dusshera, diwali and christmas. Do you love crafting and getting ready for the festive season? I do absolutely! Here is a fun diwali craft and its really really simple. These paper diyas could be a very fun filled activity for kids too this diwali 🙂

Get set for the diwali craft : Materials required

1. Colored papers ( I used colored vellum sheets from thecraftshop.in)
2. Circle punch (from crafters corner)
3. Double sided tacky tape ( from anandha stationery)
4. Glitter foam/gold paper/mirror paper etc (local store)
5. Scissors

Tutorial to make paper diya :

If you have a circle punch, this diwali craft of making paper diyas is as simple as a cakewalk but if you don’t, you might need a lot of time to cut out the circles with scissors. I used 2 and a quarter inch radius circle punch form EK success for cutting out the circles from colored vellum papers.

Yes colored vellum papers because I had loads of them lying waste after making these pretty aakash kandils a.k.a diwali paper lanterns but you can use any colored papers. If you are using punch of different size, I suggest you to make a trial diya first to know how many circles to be used for making one diya. For 2- 1/4″ circles, I used 12 pieces for one diya – so cut out the circles according to your calculation. I tried one diya with alternating shades but didn’t like it so much so stayed with single color for each diya.

Fold the circle across half and then again into half to form a quarter of a circle. Next you need to paste your adhesive tape from the center or the circle ie the folded corner dividing it into half.

This needs to be done on two folded sides as you can see from the picture below.

Just make sure you are pasting the adhesive tape on same side of folds for all the circles so that there is uniformity. Once you have done this for all 12 pieces, start peeling the adhesive tape cover and stick the circles together. So first you will stick the two halves of the semicircle and next you will stick two different folded circles together.

You do this for all the 12 folded circles and you will get a nested 3d figure which is expandable. Stick the open ends together just like you did for all the folded circles and you are done with the base.

Next you need a diya flame for which you can use any golden shade material available with you. I am using a gold mirror paper cut into flame shape but as an alternative you can use gold pattern paper/ foil paper/golden kundan/glitter floam sheet in teardrop shape etc.

Since the flames are 2d, they might not hold upright on the diya so cut a small portion to make a flat area at the base of flame and use hot glue/resin glue to hold them straight.

Alternately, you could try inserting the flame a little into the folds of the circles to keep it upright.

Thats it the diyas are ready. You can use them on your table/thali decor or even hang them on the sides of your main door. If your diya has a little bit gap at the center when seen from the bottom, not to worry – just add a small drop of hot glue in the area and hold it tight till it sets well.

So did you like these pretty paper diyas? I made a door hanger out of them but that I guess calls for another tutorial so here is a small sneak peak 🙂

Hope you enjoyed this diwali craft. If you are looking for more diwali craft, check them out here. If you want to try diwali aakash kandil, head straight to this blogpost 🙂

xoxo Angela