January 18, 2012

Lantern Crafts for Chinese New Year

With CNY preparations in full swing this week, today's post is going to focus on a bunch of different crafting ideas for creating Chinese lanterns. Last year, my adoptive blogging friend Cindy featured these fantastic Chinese New Year Lanterns out of red envelopes.

You can find detailed instructions here on her blog.

You can find red envelopes at Party City and Pier 1 right now. If you want to keep it simple, I've posted instructions for creating construction paper lanterns here on my blog. Josie has even been able to help me with this craft the last three years.

Instructions for making paper lanterns out of Styrofoam cups found here on Family Corner.

Another favorite lantern that we've made the last few years, is this glass lantern made of recycled glass jars, red tissue paper, stickers and other embellishments.

This craft was featured on my blog here and each year we've added another one to our growing collection.



A favorite blog that I've mentioned before (Let's go fly a Kite) posted this beautiful idea for creating lanterns out of thumb prints. Simply fabulous!!

She even sent us a Chinese newspaper (along with a colorful dragon and special Chinese envelopes) so that we could make our own artwork.

As you can imagine, Josie was eager to test out all her various paint colors on this project.

Based on advice from Let's go fly a Kite I used a sharpie marker to draw the lantern string/fringe.

I had so much fun with this craft, I even decorated a set of plain red greeting cards (found in the Target $1 bin) to make special CNY stationary.


Happy Crafting!
Happy soon-to-be Chinese New Year!

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23 comments:

  1. vivianJanuary 18, 2012 at 6:54 AM

    great ideas! but I LOVE the thumb print art! I used to have the cutest little picture that one of my kids made of stick figure people with thumb and fingerprint heads that was each person in our family. I dont know what ever happen to it. but it was so cute! and we used to make those paper lanterns in school oh so many years ago!
    have a great day!
    xoxo
    vivian

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  2. BucksCountyFolkArtJanuary 18, 2012 at 7:14 AM

    Very, very cute and imaginative. I especially like the thumbprint art and use of chinese papers. : )

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  3. KJ@letsgoflyakiteJanuary 18, 2012 at 7:27 AM

    What a great post showing how the simple lantern can be interpreted through craft and the limit is only your imagination. I brought out our jar lanterns from last year, which were inspired by your post, the girls love them so much - makes dinner time so special to eat with a lantern. Josie's rainbow thumbprint lanterns are adorable, a rainbow brightens every day and the greeting cards are just perfect.

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  4. Michelle @ Dream Home DIYJanuary 18, 2012 at 8:45 AM

    Super cute :) I love the thumb print art work...it would look pretty fabulous framed too!

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  5. LeeJanuary 18, 2012 at 8:50 AM

    You and yours have so much fun crafting! Terrific ideas.
    Did you know that your mother is a bad influence on me? She is encouraging me to head back to The Blue Door and buy...LOL
    Saw many owls whle shopping Monday and thought of you! Have a great day!

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  6. My Vintage MendingJanuary 18, 2012 at 8:57 AM

    Those fingerprint cards are beautiful. I adore the idea and the addition of the news print is so perfect. This just looks like so much fun. I am enjoying each and every idea..thanks for sharing your joy with us...smiles...Renee

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  7. Saint Louis Family RobinsonJanuary 18, 2012 at 9:09 AM

    Thank you for this post! I've pinned a few of these items on Pinterest.
    Xin nian kuai le!

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  8. Cheryl G.January 18, 2012 at 9:51 AM

    Darling crafts.
    Love the red envelope lanterns!
    Those thumbprints are darling and Josie is so cute in her excitement to get crafting!

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  9. JodiJanuary 18, 2012 at 10:06 AM

    love that idea!!! great idea! and i loved your dragon cake - fun! fun!

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  10. KarinJanuary 18, 2012 at 10:56 AM

    LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!! Especially love the red stationary since I can never find any CNY cards to send to my Chinese friends. Hmmmm....might have to try that one. :)

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  11. JanetJanuary 18, 2012 at 11:37 AM

    So many cute and fun projects to make for CNY, Kim! I want to try making at least one!
    Blessings,
    Janet

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  12. DonnaJanuary 18, 2012 at 1:36 PM

    The thumb prints are such a great idea! Your cards turned out great, sounds like you all had a blast! And I love the glass lantern project, how creative!

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  13. Pam KesslerJanuary 18, 2012 at 1:42 PM

    Great ideas for the lanterns. I love the thumbprint ones.

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  14. birdie blueJanuary 18, 2012 at 3:12 PM

    the thumbprint lantern cards are adorable, kim. love all of your special crafts to celebrate the chinese new year.

    your girls always look like they're having so much fun.

    xo
    molly

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  15. NellieJanuary 18, 2012 at 7:15 PM

    What good ideas! Just right for creating a festive atmosphere for CNY.

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  16. Jodee LeaderJanuary 18, 2012 at 7:49 PM

    So many cute ideas!

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  17. ~Lavender Dreamer~January 19, 2012 at 11:19 AM

    The lanterns are so beautiful! I'm going to click on the link for other ideas...and then look for some time to craft! Enjoy your day! Hugs! ♥♥♥

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  18. CindyJanuary 19, 2012 at 8:17 PM

    You are just so organized! Thanks for featuring me; I am honored.

    Tori and I are going to try out the thumbprint art this weekend and make some ornaments for our tree. Thanks for the reminder on that great one!

    Have a happy Friday!!!
    Cindy

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  19. BetsyJanuary 19, 2012 at 11:21 PM

    What a fun and meaningful project! Thanks for sharing these ideas.

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  20. Sierra @ H is for HomeschoolingJanuary 20, 2012 at 1:49 PM

    I love Let's Go Fly a Kite too! I love what you did with adding more color. We are doing our Chinese New Year learning next week and celebrating it on Monday as well (my husband is Taiwanese). I am a new follower and love your blog :)

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  21. MiaBJanuary 21, 2012 at 4:06 PM

    All of these ideas are FABULOUS!!! I love your styrofoam cup lantern... so creative. Would like to invite you to share this with us over at Sharing Saturday - http://www.mamamiasheart2heart.com/2012/01/sharing-saturday-3.html

    Have a great weekend,
    Miab

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  22. Debbie-Dabble Blog and A Debbie-Dabble ChristmasJanuary 22, 2012 at 8:53 AM

    Kim,
    I just love all of your Chinese New Year decor and crafts!!

    So colorful and festive!!
    Your children are so lucky to have a Mom who is teaching them the joy of crafting!!

    Hugs,
    Debbie

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  23. a Tonggu MommaJanuary 23, 2012 at 12:08 AM

    This is always one of my favorite CNY posts. Thanks for taking the time each year to help us poor Craft-Challenged souls. Love the thumb-print one especially.

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Thank you for following our adventures. I always enjoy reading your comments. Happy crafting! Happy thrifting! PS. Ignore that "robot" verification. You can ignore/skip that step since I can't seem to remove it from blogger.