O' Crafty Day #18 - Ang Pow Gems

Have been making ang pow gems to adorn my door and one of my FB subscribers has requested for this tutorial!

I just learnt that some superstitious folks will be very unhappy if you have these up as Chinese New Year decoration... Not very sure the reason why, but I guess those sharp points are the main culprits! However, if your family and friends are not superstitious, go ahead (like me!) and make tons of these for your CNY decoration this year! If not, you can always wait until after the CNY period and make these precious out of other sorts of fancy paper!

I had originally used the triangle score guide tool by We R Memory Keepers to make my life easier since I already have their Trim and Score board. However, that doesn't mean you can't make one without the tools.

Materials that you need:

Note: All measurements are in inches, which will be denoted by "

- Base Template + Pattern Sheet Download (Please print the pdf at 100%, no scaling.)
- Ang Pows (The longer ones) / Thick papers or cardstock at least 6" x 6"
- Scissors
- Scoring tool (Optional but good to have, a plastic ruler will do the trick too!)
- Pencil / Pen
- Ruler
- Adhesive (I'm using a tape runner since it's faster)
- Washi tape / Masking tape (Optional but good to have)

These gems are all made up of the same basic module - equilateral triangles. So our objective here is to score/draw the base equilateral triangles repeats before tracing out the pattern for the gem you want to make.

For this tutorial, we will be making gems from a repeat of 1" big triangles. Once you get the idea, feel free to make different-sized gems by varying the triangle size. (As this template is catered for Ang Pow packets, the largest size you can go for the triangle is 1.5")

Okay, let's starting digging some gems and head on over to my tutorial!


For peeps hailing from GuideCentral,

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Cut your Ang Pow packet  into a 6" x 6" square. Make sure to have the uncut long folded edge positioned at the center of the square.

The easiest way to do this with scissors is to draw a parallel line 3" away from one of the long edge and cut along that line. Then draw another parallel line 6" from the bottom of the Ang Pow, and cut along that line. It doesn't matter if your Ang Pow has a closure slit on it. Then, just cut along the bottom fold, and you'll have a 6" x 6" square with a center fold!

If you are using normal thick papers / cardstock, just trim them down to the right size.

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Just because we can! Cut out as many 6" x 6" squares as you need. :)

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Making sure the base template is the right side up (the numbers should not be upside down), place the ang pow square at the top left hand corner and align the center fold at the 3" mark. (refer to the photo above). If you are quite precise with your cutting, the corner of the ang pow square should fall nicely with the corner of the template.

At this point of time, if you have washi tape / masking tape on hand, I suggest taping the ang pow square down to the template with a couple small pieces of the tapes.

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Place your ruler along the vertical line at every inch, and score/draw a line. You should have 5 vertical lines.

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Align and orientate the ang pow square with the tilted square template as shown in the photo.

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Again, score at every 1" interval.

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You now have a nice repeat of diamonds. Orientate your piece of square such that you are looking at a series of fat diamonds (refer to photo). Place your ruler along the points of a column of diamonds (please refer to photo again), and score/draw.

Once you are done, you will be left with a piece of Ang Pow square filled with 1" big equilateral triangles!

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All you need to do now is to decide, from the pattern sheet, the gem you want to make and copy the pattern onto the Ang Pow square. Do make sure the orientation of the triangles on the Ang Pow square correspond to the orientation of the triangles in the pattern sheet first!

The example I have here will make an octahedron gem!

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Time to cut out your pattern~

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To make the next few steps easier, let's pre-fold all the scored/drawn lines.

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Apply adhesive on all the small tabs.

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The assembling part can get a bit confusing. But the rule of thumb here is to find out all the tabs that have an adjacent non-tab edge, and stick them together.

For example, in the case of my octahedron gem, there are 4 tabs that have an adjacent non-tab edge.

Once you have the first few tabs adhered, the gem should start taking shape and the rest should be pretty easy!

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And you're done! The bottom is a hexahedron made from a sheet of designer paper with a 1.5" triangle module. Have fun!

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In one of my earlier blog posts, a fellow crafter requested for a tutorial on folding techniques for shibori dyeing. That is currently in my pipeline, so do look out for that post!

Huat ah!

Which means 'Prosper!' in hokkien dialect. (literally, it means 'grow') This is a very common word/phrase that the Singaporean Chinese LOVE to use during Chinese New Year.

In case you're wondering, we're still within the Chinese New Year period for it lasts 15 days. Too bad that isn't translated to 15 days of holiday for us. Sigh.

Anyway, we have interesting ways to represent prosperity and one of them is a type of cake called the 'huat kueh', which means cake of growth or prosperity. This muffin-like cake rises and the top cracks open as it is steamed, thus the 'growth' process.

I made some just a while ago and it's really easy to make (the recipe can be found here! I've used the modified version instead. I would love the top of the kuehs to open up more though.. Perhaps a little baking powder would have helped!)

A late greeting..

Just a belated greeting to wish all Chinese a very Happy Lunar New Year! =)

Some notes on pineapple tarts 2011

Hahaha, yah. If you take a look at the pineapple tarts I made last year, and compare those to the batch this year, you'll notice the color difference for the filling..

Filling 2011 is more golden and less dry, which is more perfect than last year's version. The texture for filling 2011 is also finer and slightly more delicate. To get this consistency, I've used:

- 2 large pineapples, chopped finely with some small chunks with an electric chopper/blender, remove excess juice
- about 150g rock sugar
- 1 stick of cinnamon
- caster sugar to taste

Slowly cook the pineapples in one big pan over a small fire, stirring every so often. The pineapples will release more juices when the pineapples start to cook. Continue to stir until the juices start drying up.

When the filling looks about dry but still feels damp, throw in the rock sugar, and let it melt and caramelize slowly. This will give the filling that nice golden color. By this step, the pineapple tart filling should be just slightly damp and has a slight translucency.

Add in the caster sugar and give it a taste. If it's still very sour, add a bit more sugar. Stir a few more minutes and turn off the fire. Let the filling cool down before storing it in the refrigerator.

できました！ Pineapple tarts!

Made some rabbit-shaped pineapple tarts!

The pre-baked tarts.. They look very design-ish, don't they? Hahaha...

But the egg-wash on the post-baked version looks kinda funky...

Of course, I also made normal-looking ones to be given to family.

A whole lot of pineapple tarts! Not too sweet filling with melt-in-your-mouth but not-in-your hands crust! Yum!

Making pineapple tarts this weekend..

And I've just finished preparing the filling.

The process was looonngg... 3 hours worth of hard work and long wait to get...

...from this (of course the original state of the pineapple filling was the pineapple itself, but I was too busy cutting up and grating the 2 LARGE pineapples to take any photos):

To this:

And yes, I'm a little mad to do this when I should be sleeping. Hahahaaa..

O' Crafty Day #14 - Ang Pow Lotus Flower Lantern

It's the time to decorate our house with Chinese New Year decoration again! This year, I'm going for a more minimalist/artistic look for the lanterns. Frankly speaking, I'm not really into "traditional" chinese ang pow lanterns that are sold/taught at our local craftstores. Also, I wanted to try something different from the usual ball lantern. Hence, this lotus flower lantern that I've come up with. It has a simple shape with a slight Japanese flair to it.


The Materials:

1) 12 x Long Ang Pows (Long ang pows are preferred)
2) 12 x Trimmed Ang Pows ( Try to keep the proportion the same as the original angpow)
3) Entire skein of red embroidery thread
4) Stapler (Preferably smaller sized ones)
5) Bells/Beads (more than 10mm in diameter preferred)
6) Scissors
8)(LOL!! I've totally no idea why I skipped 7!) White glue/hot glue gun/super glue


We need to first create a module from each of the ang pows (including the trimmed ang pows) Below is a video of how I make a single module:

How to fold a single module

You now should have 24 modules, 12 big ones and 12 small ones. What we want to end up with are 2 big lotus flowers and 2 small lotus flowers. Each big lotus flower requires 6 big modules; and each small lotus flower needs 6 small modules. In the following 2 videos, I'll teach you how to join the modules to form one lotus flower (both big and small versions use the same method of joining).

How to join the modules (Part 1)

How to join the modules (Part 2)

If you are using white glue, you would need to wait for the glue to dry overnight before continuing to the next step.


In the next step, you would need to glue a small lotus flower onto a big lotus flower. I've forgotten to take a photo of this step, so pardon me for using this simple drawing to illustrate the step:

Basically u need to stack the small lotus flower on the big lotus flower.If you invert the small lotus flower, you can see an inner hexagon. Apply glue to the rim of the hexagon like so:

Stack and stick the small lotus flower to the big lotus flower. Do the same for the other set of lotus flowers. At the end of this step, you'll have two 2-layered lotus flowers.


Next we're going to make a tassel for the lantern. The following 2 videos will show you how to do so:

How to make a tassel (Part 1)



How to make a tassel (Part 2)


I realised I only wrap the thread once around my fingers.. It doesn't matter if it's once or twice, so long as the thread is secured.


Next, we'll be attaching bells/beads to the tassel.

(1) About 3cm away from the top of the tassel, tie a knot at the handle thread.
(2) Take one end of the handle thread and thread it through a bell/bead.
(3) Tie square knot to secure the bell/bead.
(4) Invert one of your 2-layer lotus flowers, and lay the handle thread in the middle of one of the ang pows. Make sure the top of the tassel is outside the flower, while the bell/bead is inside. Tie another bell near the top of the ang pow on the direct opposite side. (This bell can be inside or outside of the lantern)

Apply glue to the bottom bell and the ang pow that it's on:

Let the glue dry a bit before gluing the two 2-layered lotus flowers together. Find the inner hexagons in both lotus flowers and apply glue to the rim of the hexagons. Take the lotus flower WITHOUT the tassel and place it on top of the other lotus flower like so:

Press the top flower down and hold it for a while till the glue has started to bond the 2 flowers together. If you've used white glue, let it dry for a few hours or overnight.

Once the glue is fully dried, tie the ends of the handle thread together like so:

And voila! You have yourself a lotus flower lantern made entirely from Ang Pows.

Optional:
To allow the lantern to hang even more beautifully (aka, the flower side facing front), separate the handle thread and glue each strand to the nearest petal like so:

Ang Pow Lotus Flower Lantern (A Preview)

This is my own design (But there might be others who might have done something similar before). Will be churning out a tutorial with some help videos on this! Had trouble uploading my last video though. I guess I have to split the video... =\

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!