The Lantern Festival is one of Chinas traditional festivals. It falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year. Since ancient times, it has been dominated by the warm and festive custom of watching lanterns. The tutorial below will show you how to make fun Lantern Festival lanterns that you can hang individually or place in a garland!~
Material Tools:
- Red A4 cardboard; one for each lantern. If you want a larger lantern, please use A3 size.
- Gold Thread or String; Use size 8 gold crochet thread and 1mm gold satin nylon thread to create the fringe.
- Pencil.
- Gold Paint Pen.
- A piece of thick cardboard (e.g. from a cardboard box)
- A4 white printing paper; Make a template.
- Superglue
- PVA glue.
- Strong double-sided tape; Ideally, it should be no wider than 5mm, although you can cut it into smaller pieces.
- Fishing Line ; This is used to hang the lantern.
- Scissors
- Ruler
- X-ACTO Knife.
- Sewing needle.
- Cutting mat (optional); Scrap cardboard can be used instead.
- Awl
- Clothespins ; Used to hold glued parts together while drying.
1. First make the equally spaced "petals".
-First, take a piece of A4 white paper and cut it into a square, then fold it diagonally into a triangle.
2. Fold this triangle in half.
3. Flatten.
4. Then expand one step.
5. Take a ruler and mark one edge from one side of the 90-degree angle7.62cmpoint.
6. Also mark the point on the long edge of the crease (that you just made). Use a ruler to connect the two marks.
7. Fold the paper along this line.
8. Then fold the right corner to the left.
9. This will give you a shape like the picture above.
10.Draw a line in the center of the folded shape you made.
11. Then draw the petal shape as shown in the picture and try to make it as symmetrical as possible.
12. As shown in the picture after cutting.
13. Open it and a petal shape is completed.
14. Now, place the template on the red cardboard. Place it in the center and at least around 1cm from all edges.
15. Then trace around the template with a pencil. At the end of each petal, add a circle as shown. The width of the circle should be around 1 cm.
16. Cut out this shape - including the circle.
17. Then add gold lines to the edges of the shape. I used a gold paint pen to do this.
18. You can use various types of thread to make the tassel, but I chose to use some 1mm satin thread and some crochet thread, both in gold.
19. Cut about10-12 inches long2 lines and place them to one side. Then cut off a piece of scrap cardboard7.5cm wide. Wrap the string around this piece of cardboard as shown in the picture until you think it is enough to make the tassel.
20. Then take a 25cm long rope and tie it tightly, and the remaining two ends should be of equal length.
21. Remove the thread from the cardboard.
22. Then place it in the center of another 25cm long line and tie a double knot.
23. Cut off the bottom of the fringe and trim the ends to make them neat.
24. Place the cardboard upside down on a cutting mat or a piece of scrap cardboard. Use an awl to add a hole in the center andin the middle of each small circle.
25. Use your fingers to bend the petals of the card upward into a smooth curve.
26. Pass the wire connecting the tassel up through the hole in the center. Tie a knot at the end so that the fringe hangs underneath.
27. Cut a piece of fishing line and tie the center of the line directly above the tassel line, just below the knot you just tied. This line needs to be approximately 70cm long.
28. Add super glue to the tassel knot and let dry.
29. Thread the two loose ends of the fishing line through asewing needle. Then thread the needle and thread through each hole at the end of each petal, frominside toout.
30. After twisting the 2 petals together, add a little PVA glue between the 2 small circles and keep them together for a few minutes. Then put on the next petal and repeat until all the small circle shapes are glued together.
31. Tightening the fishing line will cause the petals to "bunch up". Keep the circles glued together until the glue dries.
32.Then put a drop ofSuper Glue on the top hole for extra security. Leave to dry.
33. Every step from now on is optional, but I personally prefer lanterns with gold accents.
So, some gold circle decoration. You'll first need to cut a strip from the remaining red card stock. This strip should be approximately 1.5cm wide.
34. Then calculate how long you need to make the ring to fit on top of the lantern, and add 0.5cm.
Cut your strip into 2 pieces to the length you just calculated (you will need 2 for each lantern).
35. In my case, I needed a length of about 5.5 cm. Then cut out 3 more small "labels".
36. I then used my Gold Paint Pen on each front end to make it gold.
37. One of the 2 pieces you make should be placed on the top of the lantern, and the other should be on the base of the lantern.
You can add many equal lengths of rope/thread as decoration and thenglue this edge in place and let dry.
38. Roll up to form a ring and secure it with tape.
39. Glue it to the top of the lantern (thread the fishing line through the loop first).
40.Then it’s time to do the same thing with the Bottom. Wrap this cardboard around the lanterntassel top underneath and hold the hoop in place.
41. Glue the ring to the bottom of the lantern.
42. This beautiful and cute Lantern Festival lantern is ready~
