O' Crafty Day #10 - Basic Ang Pow Lantern

Another very fast and simple Ang Pow decoration project! Here we go! (It's definitely simpler than the goldfish. I recommend making this with your kids! But be careful with the stapler and scissors!)

The Materials


- Double-sided tape (Optional)
- 12 Ang Pows per lantern
- Stapler
- Scissors (Optional)
- Red string
- Beads/Bells (Optional)
- Tassel with string handle (if beads/bells are to be added as stopper, the longer, the handle the better)


Instructions:

Step 1) Take an Ang Pow and fold it in half (right sides facing), length-wise. Unfold. Then fold it in half, breadth-wise. Unfold.


Step 2) Fold the corners in using the folds you've made in step 1 as guides. (Refer to photo for a clearer look)


Step 3) Folding frenzy time! You need to repeat steps 1 and 2 for 11 more Ang pows! We need a total of 12. Kids can help with the folding! =D


Step 4,5 & 6) Take 4 of the folded Ang Pows, and place them as above. We need to staple every 2 adjacent flaps together at the fold:

Do try to staple as close to the fold as you can, and you'll get this after stapling the flaps together:

The 1st layer is done. Moving on to attaching the 2nd layer.


Step 7 & 8) For every 2 Ang pows in the 1st layer, we'll attach 1 Ang pow horizontally like above. You'll get the following:

2nd layer is done! It looks like a small hat! LOL!!!


Step 9) The bottom layer is done separately. The bottom layer is done similarly to the top layer, and you'll get this:

Do not attach this to the upper layers yet.


Thread the handle of the tassel through the bottom layer as in the photo. How it looks like on the other side:

The next few steps are optional if you do not want to add a bead/bell here. It's been a habit of mine to add either a bead or a bell to act as a stopper so that the thread will not slip through the hole while attaching the upper layer to the bottom layer...

If you want to add a stopper, it's best to choose a tassel with a long handle, as we'll be snipping this string handle to thread a bead or bell and tying knots to secure the bead/bell. If the handle is too short, it would be a big challenge to tie the knots. Skip to the next section "Threading the handle" if you do not intend to add any stopper bead/bell.

Adding a stopper bead/bell (Optional)

Step 11C) Snip the handle in half as shown in the photo.


Step 11D) Thread a bead or bell through one of the strings.


Step 11E) Tie a knot to secure the bead/bell.


Step 11F) Tie the 2 strings together at the ends with a square knot (or any knots that'll prevent them from coming undone) to form a loop. Well, basically, you're reconstructing the handle... LoL..!


Threading the handle

Step 12 & 13) Cut a piece of red string, about 70 cm long. Thread this string through the loop of the tassel handle.

Make sure that the point that meets the handle is about mid-point of the red string.


Step 14) Tie the ends of this red string together securely. You've just formed a loop with this red string.


Step 15) We'll now need to thread this loop through the upper half of the lantern. The dotted white line shows where I'm holding my red-string loop.


Step 16) Try to open up the opening at the top of this upper half lantern slightly bigger, so that it makes the next step easier.


Step 17) Thread the red-string loop through this opening.


Step 18) We now need to attach the bottom of the lantern to the upper part of the lantern. H1 and H2 shows 2 horizontal Ang Pows of the upper part of the lantern, and B1 shows an Ang Pow from the bottom layer. We need to attach the left flap of B1 to the right flap of H1, and the right flap of B1 to the left flap of H2. Staple at the folds.


Step 19) Do step 18 for the rest of the perimeter, and you'll get the above. This is already a complete lantern but you can further change the look of it. Continue to step 20 to get a different look.


Step 20) For every Ang pow on the lantern, glue/tape the flaps together on each short side as shown above. You could do this on the very top and bottom layer to achieve this look:


Or do it to all layers to have a rounded ball look. =D There are many other customizations which you can do to this basic pattern. For eg, adding more ang pows to each layer (This will give a more rounded look). Have fun!

O' Crafty Day #9 - Ang Pow GoldFish

Counting down... 2 days more and it'll be Chinese New Year. Have not bought any CNY decorations... Time is tight... What to do??????????????????????????????

Lol.. If you have some Ang Pow packets (Hongbao/Chinese red packet) and a couple of hours to spare, you're in luck! For this O' Crafty Day post, I'll be teaching how to make the cute Ang Pow goldfish which I made last year as one of my house CNY deco..

The Materials:


- 6 Ang Pows per goldfish
- A pair of scissors
- Glue/Double-sided tape
- Red ribbon

Instructions:

(A) The goldfish tail

Step 1) Take 1 Ang Pow and fold it in half, length-wise, with the wrong sides facing each other (where the flap is). Unfold.


Step 2) Fold 2 corners in, such that they meet at the centre line created by the fold in step 1 (refer to photo) . Glue them in place.


Step 3) Now, fold the Ang Pow back in half as above. The folded corners in Step 2 should now be inside this half-fold.


Step 4) Fold up one side of the half-folds to make a quarter-fold like above.


Step 5) Do the same to the other half-fold and you'll get this!


Step 6) Make a total of 3 of this shape. You'll use these to make the tail of the goldfish.



Step 7 & 8) Take 2 of the shapes, and glue/tape the straight ends for each shape (refer to photos 7 and 8).


Step 9) For the 3rd shape, glue/tape only the side folds (Remember not to glue the middle fold!) of the straight end. Refer to photo for a clearer look.


Step 10) Place the 3 shapes as above.


Step 11) Glue the 3 pieces together at the ends only like above. (Do not glue the whole length of it, or you'll not be able to do step 12! Just glue the straight ends together..)


Step 12) Open up the folds of one of the shapes. You'll get this puffy effect. Nice eh? =P


Step 13) Do the same for the other 2 pieces. You've now a complete tail.


(B) The goldfish body

Step 1) Trim one side of an Ang Pow to make it shorter.

Step 2) Repeat step 1 to two other Ang Pows. (We need a total of 3)


Remember to keep the scraps! We still need them!


Step 3) Fold one of the trimmed Ang Pows in half, wrong sides facing each other. Unfold.


Step 4) Fold 2 corners in towards the centre fold, leaving a small space in between (refer to photo). Unfold.


Step 5) Fold the other 2 corners in. Take a close look at the photo above. For this corner fold, one end has to touch the centre fold while you should leave a small space between the other end of this corner fold and the end of the corner folds we made in step 4.


Step 6) A clearer diagram for step 5. The red arrows are the spaces you should leave, while the dotted lines are where you should fold. The spaces are important!


Step 7) We now need to glue/tape these 3 pieces of ang pows together using the folds you've made as guides. Place 2 Angpows side by side with the shorter corner folds at the top and longer corner folds at the bottom (as shown above). We're going to stick one small flap of the left Ang Pow to the adjacent small flap of the right Ang Pow together. (See the white double sided tape I've pasted onto the flaps)

(You'll realise my folds are not correct here.. LOL.. I should have left spaces between the top shorter corner fold and the bottom longer corner fold. It's ok, I rectified the problem later on)


Step 8) Repeat step 7 to glue/tape the 3rd Ang pow to the 2nd (right-side) Ang pow in step 7. Refer to photo for a clearer look.


Step 9 & 10) Remember the scraps? We need to cut out 3 long and thin triangles to fit them like so:

So sorry, I've forgotten to snap a photo for this step! Imagine that you've finished step 8. You need to paste 2 triangles to the spaces between the folds for the middle Ang Pow, and 1 triangle to the space between the folds on the right side for the 3rd Ang Pow. (refer to photo for a clearer look.. The drawn triangles in black are the triangles you've cut out from the scraps)


Step 11) Part 1 of the magical moment. We're going to glue/tape the small flaps of the 1st and last Ang Pow together, and you'll get something like mine in the photo... We can already see the head forming, ain't it? =D


Step 12) Part 2 of the magical moment. Turn your work and look at the bottom. There are 6 flaps. We need to glue the adjacent flaps together. Refer to the photo to know which flap should be glued to which flap (indicated by the joint arrows). Glueing the last 2 flaps together would be kinda fiddly and tricky. Take your time!


Step 13) If you managed to do step 12 successfully, congratulations! Your goldfish body is almost done! But wait..... The fish body is kinda... deflated... Lol...


Step 14) Easy peasy to "inflate" the fish body. Take something long and thin and sturdy (like a thin pen, or bamboo skewer) and poke it through the mouth. Push the sides out. There you go, your fish had become healthy-looking!


Step 15 & 16) Here comes the tail! We need to "slot" the tail to the tapered end of the fish body like above. Glue/tape them together.

How it looks like from the top.


Step 17) Tie a ribbon around the joint between the tail and the body to hide the glued/taped area.


And wahh-lahh! You've made yourself an Ang Pow goldfish! Remember to glue on eyes for the goldfish-ies! (Sorry for this slightly lengthy tutorial.. I was hoping to make it as comprehensible as possible by having photos for each step.)