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January 27, 2009

Recycle your glass jars and make CNY lanterns!

The end of the Chinese New Year is marked with a Lantern Festival. Traditionally, children carried simple paper lanterns to the temple at night. Over the years this has evolved into parades with thousands of lanterns lighting up the night sky.



Emma and I enjoyed creating our own version of red lanterns out of tissue paper and recycled glass jars. They turned out so pretty I don't think we'll limit ourselves to just CNY to use them.



Supplies needed for this craft include:

Empty glass jars (with the labels soaked off)
red tissue paper
scissors
glue
brushes
(glitter, ribbon..etc) for embellishments



Step 1. Gather up some empty glass jars (here's a good excuse to clean out the refrigerator) and let them soak in hot water to remove their labels.



Step 2. Make a simple solution of white glue and water, using equal parts of each. I poured our solution on a paper plate.



Step 3. Cut up a bowl full of one-inch squares of red tissue paper (the size isn't that important). You could even tear up your tissue pieces for a more custom look. Set aside your tissue paper.



Step 4. Using a brush, paint the sides of the jar with the glue solution.

Step 5. Paste one layer of red tissue onto the jar.





Step 6. We then covered the tissue with another coat of glue and set the jars aside to dry. I put our jars over a heat vent to dry faster, but you could even put them in front of a fan to speed up the process. It took a little over 2 hours for them to dry completely.



Step 7. Decorate your jar with glitter, stickers, gold wire, ribbon or whatever you can find. We had several different types of red envelopes for the CNY and I cut out some of the decorations on the envelops to put on the jars.





Step 8. Put a tealight candle in your jar, and you're ready for your very own Lantern Festival parade! Happy Crafting!!

12 comments:

Buffi Young said...

That's an awesome thing for you guys to do together!! Looks like a lot of fun! They turned out great!!! I have loved ALL of your Chinese crafts!! Well...I guess the celebration we're going to be doing is our CNY celebration with our FCC friends on Friday! Oh well...at least we're doing that...right?!?! You have celebrated all month long. I love it!!! Hope you have a great week!
Blessings,
Buffi

Jill said...

Those are too cute!!!
You are one cool crafty mama!!

Tammy said...

Very cute, Kim! You have done a great job with CNY crafts this year!

Truly Blessed said...

These are just too cute! I think we'll be trying this craft soon...

Gwen Oatsvall said...

you are amazing ... i probably won't do this since I stink at crafts, but i just adore looking at yours ... hee hee ...

love ya and thanks for the numbers ... i put them in my phone ...

Unknown said...

Cool craft MOM i LOVED it!

These would totally make Awesome gifts.


LYLMM(LOVE you LIKE my MOM!)

Steffie B. said...

this is a good one.....your craftiness amazes me.....I think I'll call you Martha....lol

Anita said...

Kim...I LOVE these crafts and actually think I might be able to do them with Kaylin. I'm NOT the craft person and the way you've shared the How-Tos makes it look possible for even me. :)

Cindy said...

what a great idea, I might even have to try that one day.....

Chasing Dreams Photography said...

what a wonderful craft!!! Love it!!

KJ@letsgoflyakite said...

Thanks for the inspiration. We made this!!
http://letsgoflyakiteuptothehighestheight.blogspot.com/2011/01/crafting-with-my-kids-chinese-new-year.html

Tami said...

Just stopping by to let you know that I've featured your craft on Family Fun Crafts! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/chinese-lanterns/

If you have other kid friendly crafts, I'd love it if you would submit them. :) If you would like to display a
featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above.