Chinese New Year Lanterns 红包灯笼手工制作

Chinese New Year Lantern in Japanese Style

2018-12-31T00:17:00.002+08:00

I went shopping at "Daiso" and found these very cute Japanese style New Year envelopes called "pochibukuro".

These envelopes are also used for gift money "Otoshidama" on New Year's Day in Japanese custom, very similar to our tradition of giving Ang Bao or Red packet during Chinese New Year.

Therefore, I decided to use these Japanese style New Year envelopes to make lanterns for our coming Chinese New Year!

Finally, I made this lantern successfully!!

Hope you would like my lantern idea, and I wish everyone a Happy New Year!

How to make a Six Petals Flower Chinese New Year Lantern using Red Packets

2016-01-30T22:40:00.000+08:00

This is six petals flower lantern made with 18 red packets or Ang Pows.

I've made the below video, step by step instructions to create this Ang Pow lantern to decorate our home or office for the Chinese New Year.

Materials required:
- 18 red packets
- Stapler
- a tassel
- red string

The length of the string is up to your preference how you would like to hang your lantern. You can use gold string too.

Origami- God of Wealth 可愛小財神紅包摺紙

2015-05-28T21:49:00.002+08:00

I surfed and found this interesting post on the internet. How to make an Ang Bao (we can use to hold $$$ money), using origami into a God of Wealth. This is so cute.

http://www.life.com.tw/?app=view&no=233815

Picture Source

Mid Autumn Festival 2014

2014-09-08T17:28:00.000+08:00

Mid Autumn Festival in Singapore is also celebrated by beautiful lighting and the display of lanterns.

Here are some interesting pictures taken at various places in Singapore, celebrating Mid Autumn Festival this year in 2014

Some hobbyist decorated their rotocopter with beautiful light, sharing the joy with the public at Chinatown.

This is the display of lighting at Chinatown this year.

The below were the balloon sculpting of the moon goddess and her rabbit done by volunteers, at Redhill Market.

Below is the lighting display at Vivo City. So adorable.

I hereby wish everybody Happy Mid Autumn Festival!

How to make a Triangular Ang Bao Lantern

2014-01-19T22:38:00.003+08:00

I just made this triangular Ang Bao Lantern out of the blue while I was playing with my red packets.

I used three large red packets to form a triangular upper layer, and another three large red packets to make the bottom layer.

Then I used three smaller red packets to make a "pendulum" in its centre. You can click to my previous post on my Diamond Ang Pow Lantern as a reference to learn to make this "pendulum"

After the lantern was completed, I was trying to give it an appropriate name.

I did a research on its shape, and I learned there was a mathematical term on the geometry of the upper and bottom layer, called "tetrahedron".

So if you are doing this Ang Bao Lantern with your children, you might also want to introduce to them this geometrical term "tetrahedron", when you can have fun and learn a bit of mathematics.

Here is a video that I've created to show you how I make this triangular ang bao lantern, so you can also have something special for Chinese New Year.

How to make an Lucky Star with ten red packets 福星高照

2014-01-08T21:53:00.001+08:00

In my older post "Chinese New Year Lantern - Lucky Star",
I've shared written instructions on how to make this Ang Bao Lucky Star with only ten red packets.

I've just created a video to show you how I made this Ang Bao Lucky Star.

Now you can have a better picture of the process it is being made, so you can do this simple-to-make Chinese New Year handicraft with your kids to decorate your house for this coming lunar new year!

Wishing everyone good health and prosperity, Happy Lunar New Year!

Chinatown Singapore before Chinese New Year Light Up 2014

2014-01-04T23:44:00.000+08:00

I've taken some pictures of the decorations at Chinatown Singapore before the Chinese New Year Light Up 2014

I guess this board tells us the theme for this year of the horse "Galloping to Prosperity"

During the day

In the evening

During the day

In the evening

View of the pool of coin lanterns during the day

View of the pool of coin lanterns in the evening

More pictures of decorations at Chinatown Singapore before the Chinese New Year Light Up 2014

Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2014 Official Light-Up and Opening Ceremony will be held on 11 January 2014, at New Bridge Road and Eu Tong Sen Street.

If you are a tourist to Singapore for the first time, you can take the MRT and alight at Chinatown Station or Outram Park Station.

Click the following link for details of the upcoming programme
http://chinatownfestivals.sg/cny2014-official-light-up-and-opening-ceremony/

How to make this simple Chinese Auspicious Knot 吉祥结 in only 3 minutes!

2013-12-31T01:33:00.001+08:00

When you look at some Chinese New Year Ornaments that were for sale, do you notice as I do, besides using simple tassels, there were also those very pretty Chinese knots on the Chinese New Year Lanterns.

If you are getting bored with using simple tassels to make your Chinese New Year Lantern, here is a very simple to make Chinese Knot called the "Auspicious Knot" or "吉祥结" (Ji Xiang Jie) that you can make for yourself.

I have done the above this one myself in only 3 minutes! Just by following the steps in the video below that I have found on YouTube, it's really simple.

What you need:

1. A thick coloured string of 1 metre long
2. Just follow the steps in the above video
3. If you want to make cuter, smaller knot, you might want to teach your kid to do it. They have smaller hands! Probably can give your kid the coloured string at about 90cm long.

Here are more Auspicious knots that I've made.

These Auspicious Chinese Knots make pretty nice ornaments. You can make them as gifts to friends and relatives during Chinese New Year, or during other auspicious occasions like birthday, as a simple gift to your classmates.

Below is another picture of my Chinese Auspicious Knot that I have just made and the Red Tassel that I usually use for making my Chinese New Year Lantern.

Summarized Links to the "How-to make" different Ang Bao Lanterns

2013-12-29T23:15:00.000+08:00

I have seived out and do a summary of some Ang Bao Lantern making videos that I have in my blog

How to make Ang Bao "Rotating Carousel" 红包走马灯

How to make Ang Bao "The Lucky 8" 发财“八”

How to make Ang Bao "Flower Ball" 红包绣球

How to make a Flower Ball using only 12 red packets

How to make a Ang Bao Flower Corolla

Golden Flower Corolla

How to make a simple Chinese New Year Lantern with 12 Ang Pows

How to make a simple Ang Bao Fan 红包扇子

How to make a lamp-shaped CNY lantern with 24 red packets

How to make a Diamond Ang Pow 红包钻石

How to make an Ang Bao Spaceship

How to make a fish with one red packet

How to make an 8-petal flower with bump chenille stems

How to make a simple Chinese Auspicious Knot 吉祥结

STRAWBERRY LANTERN

2013-12-20T08:00:00.000+08:00

In my previous post, I have shown you a picture of different colour packets. Now I felt so blessed to have different coloured packets in Singapore.

Well, I was trying to make a heart-shaped CNY lantern but somehow, I was quite disheartened when it end up out of shaped. Somehow, I see it look like a strawberry fruit. So I made use of the green packets to make leaves. And now I have got a Strawberry Lantern!

The moral I learnt from the process is: "Don't be disheartened. Be creative and positive, you will get a surprise!"

I wish you would also enjoy the lantern making process with my blog.

Do share with me if you have other good ideas to make use of the different colour packets to make Chinese New Year decorations.

USES OF "ANG POW" AMONG DIFFERENT RACES IN SINGAPORE

2013-12-15T18:08:00.000+08:00

Among the Chinese in Singapore, there is this culture that red packet, which inside contain money, is given during auspicious occasions such as Chinese New Year, weddings, baby first month and even birthdays.
As most of us would have known, RED symbolises auspicious and celebrations for the Chinese.

Probably taking the cue from the Chinese, nowadays, the Malays also place money in colourful envelopes, usually green packets, and give to the children when they go visiting during Hari Raya Puasa. I used to hear from a malay friend who told me that in the past, the adult would simply give money notes or coins to the kids without the envelope. Why is it usually GREEN packets, perhaps is because of this Hari Raya festive delights called "Ketupat" (rice cake wrapped with green leaves), a popular food among the Malay Muslims.

These days, when the Chinese visit our Malay friend's wedding, would also place money in green packets to give to our Malay friend to express our well wishes.

In a multi-racial country like ours, I think giving money in colourful packets is very convenient as we don't have to crack our brains to consider what might be the best gifts to our friends of different races, because our friends could buy whatever they like with the money. Different colours have their symbolism in different cultural.

I'm also surprised to find in a shop, yellow packets for our Indian friends. And we can see from the printed picture on the yellow packets, for wedding occasions. YELLOW is considered auspicious and sacred for Indians. As for the picture of the elephant god "Ganesha", it should be popular among the Indian Hindus when they celebrate Deepavali festive.

Ang Pow Baskets at Yio Chu Kang CC

2013-02-12T13:06:00.001+08:00

I'm so happy to find this video on YouTube on the making of Ang Pow Basket at Yio Chu Kang CC, taught to her students by Tai Chi teacher, Gladys Tan.

I used to learn Tai Chi from Gladys. She is a passionate lady. From this video, I know that Gladys' lessons always interactive and interesting.

This Ang Pow Basket is really beautiful. I would want to try to make one when I have the time.

Welcome the Year of the Snake 2013

2013-02-10T03:15:00.001+08:00

Wishing Everyone a Happy & Prosperous Chinese New Year. May all be blessed with Good Luck and Good Health!
祝大家蛇年行好运！恭喜发财！万事如意！身体健康！

We just went to Esplanade Drive, Singapore, and we had taken some photos of the Ang Pow River's countdown fireworks.

Mix & Match - Spaceship & Diamond

2013-02-07T23:25:00.002+08:00

We can add varieties in the making of Ang Pow Lanterns for Chinese New Year.

I combined my Spaceship Ang Pow Lantern & Diamond Ang Pow Lantern to make a Chinese New Year Lantern as shown in the picture on the left.

You may click on the following links to find out how to make the

Spaceship Ang Pow Lantern

Diamond Ang Pow Lantern

Enjoy and have fun!

How to Make a Diamond Ang Pow Lantern

2013-01-30T00:15:00.002+08:00

This Diamond Chinese New Year Ang Pow Lantern is very simple to make and it uses 4 Red Packets

Materials you need:
1) 4 red packets
2) Super Glue
3) A tassel
4) Estimated 30 cm red string ( you can decide the length you want)
5) beads (optional, I didn't use it in my video here)

Here is the video that I have created to show you how it is made. Enjoy and have fun!

2013 Chinese New Year Lantern Decoration along South Bridge Road, Chinatown, Singapore

2013-01-28T23:16:00.001+08:00

My hubby and I visited Chinatown few days ago to feel the atmosphere of Chinese New Year. Along South Bridge Road, we could see the road was decorated with a row of yellow lanterns.

We then followed the row of lanterns along road.

When we reached the junction of Upper Cross Street, Cross Street and South Bridge Road, we found this very cute snake head.

The following pictures show this long Snake from different views, which it is made of many yellow lanterns. We felt this is a very creative display to welcome 2013, the year of the Snake.

How to make a Lamp-shaped Chinese New Year Lantern with 24 Red Packets

2013-01-06T18:02:00.000+08:00

Chinese New Year (CNY) 2013 is round the corner. It's time for spring clean and make new decorations for our home.

My hubby does this "Lamp-shaped" Chinese New Year lantern. He made a pair and put them up at our door.

The lantern does give an oriental look to home decorations.

Now, you would want to get ready the following materials to make a lamp-shaped lantern:

- 24 red packets (also known as "Ang Bao", "Hong Bao" or red envelopes)

- Stapler

- A piece of red string estimated 30cm ( to attach the lantern for hanging

- A red tassel with a pearl bead.

Here's "How to make a Lamp-Shaped Chinese New Year Lanterns with 24 Ang Bao"

A Flower Bouquet Lantern Made of Red Packets 红包绣球

2012-11-10T04:00:00.000+08:00

This is another video I found in YouTube to make a "Flower Bouquet lantern with Red packets".

This video shows a different approach. It uses 60 square red packets, instead of having to trim 30 red packets into 1:2 rectangles.

I just learnt that this is also known as "Flower Kusudama"

Found Video on How to Make a Decorative Flower Ball with Red Packets 红包绣球

2012-10-15T04:00:00.000+08:00

I'm so glad to find another video that demonstrate How To Make A Decorative Flower Ball With Red Packets.

When I browsed through this video, I noticed this lantern is different from the one I made in my earlier post on "How to make a Flower Ball Chinese New Year Lantern"

This lantern is also beautiful. To me, this one looks like a flower bouquet. I would like to call it the flower bouquet lantern instead.

I counted this lantern would need 30 pieces of red packets, each red packet trimmed into rectangle of 2:1, i.e. a rectangle comprising of 2 squares.

In another words, it means there are 24 pieces of rectangles, the balance 6 pieces rectangles to be trimmed further to make 12 squares.

This video I found would demonstrate how to make this flower bouquet lantern

Tang Lung - Traditional Lantern in Mid Autumn Festival

2012-09-30T16:42:00.000+08:00

I found this video featuring the making of traditional lantern for Mid Autumn Festival called "Tang Lung"

"Tang Lung" is a Cantonese translation, it means "Lantern".

This type of lantern is made up of wire and transparent coloured paper. However, It require skills to make the lantern into different shapes, objects or animals.

The lantern was lit with a candle. Therefore, we need to exercise care when we hold the lantern.

I remembered when I was child, in the earlier 1980s, my mother bought for my younger brother and me such lanterns to play with during Mid Autumn Festival.

I also recalled my primary school teacher used to teach us make such lantern too, using wires and transparent coloured paper. It was a simpler one, we would use wires to make 4 rings, held the 4 rings with sticky tapes, and coil a piece wire to make a candle holder on the lantern. After that, we would paste on it the transparent coloured paper.

I hope the art of making this Tang Lung preserved.

Giant Lantern Made of Recycled Materials

2012-09-30T01:00:00.000+08:00

I noticed everyone who walked past Redhill Market today would stop and be impressed by this giant lantern. It's not hard to know why, because I was impressed by it too.

This giant lantern was very colourful, it was made of recycled bottles painted with beautiful pictures

I am very fortunate to meet the maker of this giant lantern, Mr Akira Takashi. He is a lantern-making enthusiast. According to Mr Takashi, he took 6 months to construct this giant lantern, including hand painted on every single recycled bottle.

This was the 26th lantern he made, and his work entered the Singapore Book of Record.

You can click on this link to read more about Mr Akira Takashi's other achievements.

Mr Akira Takashi with the giant lantern

Big Lanterns Display at Singapore River During Mid Autumn Festival

2012-09-28T00:19:00.000+08:00

Traditionally, the lantern festival falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, or "Yuan Xiao".
In Singapore, we celebrate the lantern festival on the Mid Autumn Festival or "中秋节Zhong Qiu Jie".
Mid Autumn Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the lunar Eighth month, which is on the 30th September this year in 2012.

Of course, there are many big lantern displays to celebrate Mid Autumn Festival.
Singapore River is one of the places that display these big lanterns.

Here are some photos to share with you, hope you enjoy viewing.

Fishes are Auspicious to the Chinese, it symbolizes Abundance.

This display illustrates "Spring Festival" i.e. Chinese New Year

This displays "Duanwu", which is the Rice Dumpling Festival and also known as Dragon Boat Festival

This illustrate "Qixi Festival", which is the Chinese Valentine's Day, with a romantic story

This is about "DongZhi" known as Winter Solstice Festival

This display illustrates the most happening festival in Singapore, known as "Zhong Yuan 中元节" which is the Hungry Ghost Festival, when you can see people burning offerings and stage performances in the neighbourhoods called "Getai" 歌台

Chang'er, the Chinese Goddess of the Moon, an important character for Mid Autumn Festival, with a beautiful story behind

Chinese New Year "YuanXiao" Celebration at Chinatown, Singapore on 5 Feb 2012

2012-02-06T00:30:00.000+08:00

"Yuan Xiao" 元宵节 is a festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar year in the Chinese calendar. This year, Yuan Xiao festival falls on 6 Feb 2012 which is a Monday, Chinatown celebrated Yuan Xiao a day earlier. There were parade of the Chingay floats, fireworks and firecrackers. With Yuan Xiao, it marked the end of Chinese New Year celebration for this year of the water dragon.

Here are some pictures taken at Chinatown on 5 Feb 2012 evening

2012 Chinese New Year Countdown Fireworks at Chinatown Singapore

2012-01-23T23:21:00.002+08:00

Just before midnight, we hopped over to Chinatown for the Chinese New Year Countdown. In Singapore, Chinatown is the highlight location for Chinese New Year.

Although it was raining, it did not dampen the celebration mood.

We went to the carpark level of Chinatown Complex to view the firecrackers and fireworks.

Enjoy the video.

How to Make an Ang Pow Fan

2012-01-22T15:53:00.000+08:00

This Ang Pow Fan is made using only 10 red envelopes. It is also easy to make as a decoration or gift to friends and relatives during Chinese New Year. The materials required are as follow:

1) 10 Red packets (Ang Pow)
2) Red string about 30 cm
3) one tassel
4) UHU glue or double sided tape
5) A pair of scissors (optional, in case you need to cut a ball of red string)

Here's is a step by step tutorial I've made and uploaded to share with you