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How to Make Chinese Lanterns Out of Paper

How to Make Chinese Lanterns Out of Paper

Chinese lanterns come in sorts of shapes and sizes, but the typical Chinese New Year lantern is round or capsule-shaped, with red and gold hues throughout – traditionally lucky colours in Chinese culture. These lanterns are fun and simple to create, making for fantastic decorations in your home.

You Will Need:

Baking

METHOD: Lucky Chinese Paper Lantern

  1. Take a sheet of red A4 paper and place it down landscape on your work surface. Using a ruler and a pencil, draw a series of lines along the length of the whole sheet, leaving about ¾ of an inch between each line. You should have about 15 strips in total.
  2. Cut along the lines you’ve drawn, leaving about ½ an inch at the top uncut. This will create bars to form the traditional balloon shape.
  3. Take a length of tape and hold down the strips at the bottom where you cut from. Cut out 15 strips from a gold sheet of A4 paper with pinking shears or wavy/patterned scissors.
  4. Glue the gold strips down on top of each red strip. Fold down the top and bottom of the red sheet of paper about ½ an inch.
  5. Take another sheet of gold paper and spread glue along one side, then roll to form a tube; this will be the centre of your lantern. Secure the ends with glue.
  6. Roll the red sheet with the gold strips attached around the gold tube, matching together one side of the red paper to one end of the gold tube and glue. Alternatively, secure with staples.
  7. Match the other side, but leave one end of the gold tube visible. Carefully pull apart the red bars to form a balloon shape.
  8. From your third sheet of paper, cut two ½ inch thick strips and stick them over the red ends to cover the staples and/or glue. This will create an overall neater finish.
  9. If you’re displaying your finished lantern on a table, cut off the rest of the gold tube. If you’re hanging it up in your home, cut through the bottom of the gold tube to create a thin fringe.
  10. To hang up your lantern, cut another gold strip from the A4 paper. Apply glue to each end and stick it at the top of your lantern to make a handle. Finally, tie a length of ribbon around the handle and hang up anywhere you like!
How To