easy-paper-lanterns

Chinese New Year – this year the official day is February 10 – as we go from the Year of the Dragon to the Year of the Water Snake. As a small nod to the new Chinese year we made these simple little lantern shapes to hang in garlands around the garden, or around a room.

chinese lantern tutorial

You will need:

– red paper or thin cardboard

– twine – you can buy similiar from The Twinery

– Brads – we bought ours from Spotlight

– holepunch and scissors
chinese lantern tutorial 3
Measure along the long edge of your paper or card in 2 cm strips. Cut out. The longer the strip the bigger the lantern. Tip: If you want a firmer lantern which better holds its shape when hung, use cardboard.chinese lantern tutorail 8

Stack eight strips on top of one another and punch a hole in the end. Repeat this for the other end of the strips.

chinese lantern tutorial 10

Put the brad through the hole and arrange the strips into a circle.

chinese lantern tutorial 2

Gather the strips and secure with another brad.

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Wind your twine around the brad, spacing your lanterns evenly along the twine.

chionese lantern tutorial 6

To make them even more festive you could further decorate these with tassles or glitter.