Chinese New Year Crafts

The Chinese New Year is perhaps one of the most important of the traditional holidays for the people of China. It marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring, ushering with it new hopes and blessings. Any celebration requires good decorations so here we have for you some fun craft ideas that you can do with friends and family, that will add the spirit of festivity to your celebration.

Crayon Candles:

Lights play a very important role in the Chinese New year celebrations so here is a quick craft project to make your own candles out of crayons. All that you need are crayons, candle wicks, 2 Pint milk cartons and ice. Cut off the milk carton so that you have a box with an open end. Next melt the crayon over medium heat, preferably in a plastic bag in a pot of boiling water.

Place the candle wick and ice in the milk box and pour the melted wax into it. Make sure the ice has melted away completely and the wax has hardened enough. Now peel away the milk carton.

What you have now is a beautiful candle. The use different types of colours will make the effect even more wonderful and light up your celebrations.

Fireworks Craft:

Since the fire crackers were first invented by the Chinese, this fun little art piece is a nice way to pay homage to the culture and add a zing to your decorations. The materials that will be needed for the project are black or dark blue construction paper, glue, glitter preferably in bright colours like red, blue etc. In this simple project you need to squeeze the glue generously on a piece of paper, making lines with it, trying to make it a star burst pattern with thick lines. Sprinkle on the glitter on the paper and wait for the glue to dry. Once the glue is dry, dust the excess glitter off the paper. For a more popping 3-D effect you can use a yarn dipped in glue and then sprinkle glitter on the paper.

Dancing Dragon Toy:

One of the spectacular sights of a Chinese Festival is the huge Dragon that adorns the streets. Two people normally wear the Dragon costume and perform a dance. To bring the same spirit of festive cheer to your own celebration here is a Dancing Dragon toy.

You will need coloured paper, a pair of scissors, crayons or markers, two wooden skewers, glue or tapes and an optional glitter or feathers. Draw the head and the tail of the dragon that you want to make and cut them out. Now colour and decorate them as you wish. Now fold a piece of paper in to two halves in a long way making two rectangles, now cut along the line. Now fold the paper in a manner that it looks somewhat like an accordion, after which you now have to glue the two pieces together in order to form the dragon’s body. Now glue one end to the Dragon’s head and the other to its tail, taping one skewer each to them along the way. Your dancing dragon toy is now ready.

Fortune Filled Paper Cookies:

All those who are fond of eating Chinese must be well aware of the fortune cookie, which contain within them a prediction. Now you can add the same flavour to your celebration and make your own fortune cookies, only this time they are made of paper.

Things that you will need for these cookies are Paper, Paper cupcake baking liners, Markers, Craft glue. All that you need to do is write a fun fortune on a piece of paper place it inside the cupcake liners and then seal the edges of the liner with a craft glue so that it remains fixed in place.

Now that you have so many craft ideas to get you started, indulge in them and make your celebrations a huge success.

Method to make Chinese paper lantern:

Ingredients:

• One piece of paper (8.5″ x 11″ approximately), ideally red for Chinese New Year
• Pencil
• Tape
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Crayons

Method: Paper cutting is the most important thing here. You have to make separate cuttings for the lantern and its handle. After cutting the papers, you have to glue the strips with each other. Make sure to mark the folding areas. You can color the paper with colors or simply can take a colored paper. You can put the lantern on the table or also can present this to your family and friends. Always remember that these lanterns are solely for decorative purpose. You will need 15 minutes to make this craft.

Method to make Chinese noodle fireworks:

Ingredients:

• Macaroni noodles
• 2 Ziploc Baggie or Bowls
• Rubbing alcohol
• Food coloring
• Heavy Black
• Dark Blue Paper
• Glue

Method: First of all, you need to leave the macaroni noodles for coloring, following by a drying session. Take a bowl and put the colors. Put the noodles in the bowl. Put some alcohol in it, followed by some food color. Once you will get the desired color, leave the noodles for drying. Take a paper and make the firework designs by the colorful noodles, and do nor forget to glue them with a good adhesive. You can make different designs to show your creativity. These firework designs make wonderful craft for new Year decorations. You can use different colored noodles for this.

Method to make Chinese New Year fan:

Ingredients:

• 3 sheets red construction paper
• Decorative foam stamps
• Paint brush
• Gold acrylic paint
• Glue
• 2 gold chenille stems
• 2 gold jumbo craft sticks
• 1 red chenille stem

Method: First, you need to decorate the red papers with the painted foam stamps. Use a good glue to attach separate sheets. Fold the papers and join them together. Wrap with the chenille stems and finish it with red and gold color.

These are the best Chinese New Year crafts. Apart from these, you can have innovative Chinese craft ideas on the internet. There are many websites, which can offer you creative ideas on Chinese New Year crafts.