Happy New Year to everyone! I have made this Chinese New Year Pineapple Craft. It is almost the time of the year for Chinese to celebrate our Chinese New Year! This coming lunar year is the Fire Monkey. If you are in Asia or UK Chinatown, you would have probably seen lot of colourful, vibrant decorations.
Over the past year, I have blogged the step-by-step for creating various Chinese crafts e.g. Ang Pow Lantern, Fan, Firecracker etc. I have also written posts on Chinese New Year culture like how we celebrate the festivities in Singapore and UK. Do check them out if you are interested to find out more about Chinese culture.
Today, I am making a Chinese New Year Pineapple craft decoration. Many Chinese believe that the direct translation of Pineapple (in Hokkien dialect) means bring wealth. Hence many Chinese homes and businesses would hang/place lots of Pineapple crafts around their house hoping that it will bring their family/business lots of good fortune!
Pineapple decoration comes in many forms. You can even make it yourself, just like me. If you are interested to learn more, do Google around – there are so many ways to make it. You can use ang pow/red packets or coloured card/paper to make this. I would have used ang pow but I didn’t have enough small rectangular ang pow so I used of paper/card instead.
To make this, you will require:
- A4 yellow paper/card x 3 pieces, cut into eight (roughly 10.5cm by 7.5cm)
- 6” x 6” green Origami square paper x 5 pieces, cut into four or 7.5cm by 7.5cm cm Origami square papers x 15 pieces
- Stapler and glue
- Scissors or pen knife
- 1 metre red string & 1 Chinese ribbon, secured with paper or tie a big knot (this to stop the ribbon from moving)
- 60 Paper clips
- Pencil/Pen
Step-by-step instructions:
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Slightly pinch the middle of both long ends and middle for easy marking. Fold all four corners as shown (diamond shape).
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I recommend starting from bottom to top. Just remember to create the shape, you will need to staple four papers vertically (top/bottom), then join 4 papers horizontally, follow by 8 papers vertically (middle of the body), 4 papers horizontally (add the red string) and seal it with 4 papers vertically (top/bottom).
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Next is to make leaves for the pineapple, fold the green square as shown.
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Then apply glue at the tip and stick it inside another folded green paper as shown. I secured it with 12 paper clips. You could use a heavy book or bull dog clips to secure it until dry. Now add the leaves on the top of the pineapple and secure it with glue or a stapler.
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Lastly use a pencil/pen to curl all the corners. Use the rest of paper clips (48) to clips both corners together. Leave it for 24 hours before removing it.
This craft will take 1 to 2 hours to make it and it is suitable for making it with older children. Hope you like it. Or you prefer, why not make pineapple ang pow lantern instead.
