Today, I am showing you another craft to hide any unsightly items around the house this coming Chinese New Year. It can be used as a pot cover or a bowl. It is entirely your choice.
This cover is made from six ang baos (in a hexagonal shape). Read more on why we Chinese always use items in groups of six or eight during Chinese New Year in my earlier post. You could make an eight-sided (octagonal) ang bao cover for bigger plants, but I didn’t have enough ang baos for this craft.
The rating of difficulty is 1 out of 5, which should take roughly 30 minutes to complete. The pot cover/bowl measures approximately 15 cm by 15 cm by 12 cm. This cover/bowl is great as a decorative item, but just be careful whilst watering or using wet items.
You can decorate your pot cover/bowl as grand as you want. I will soon share different styles of making decorative items using ang baos. I would recommend inserting thin/strong cardboard into the six ang baos before starting the craft as it will help with the structure. Please see below for the details.
To make this pot cover/bowl, you will require these materials:
- 6 long rectangle ang baos / red envelopes (approx. 9 cm by 17 cm)
- Cardboards (using cereal boxes)
- Red paper
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Clear tape
- Optional: fake flower petals/Chinese Knot Tassel/Used ang baos for decoration/Strong clear glue
These are the step-by-step instructions:
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To build the structure of the pot cover/bowl, you will need 6 ang baos. As my ang bao measures 17 cm long, I folded it across at 12 cm. Please do your own adjustment depending on the length of your ang baos. Repeat with the rest of the 5 ang baos.
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Cut six rectangles from a cereal box measuring 8 cm by 11 cm. Insert them inside the 6 folded ang baos.
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Tape the inside of the six ang bao vertically and horizontally using the clear packaging tape to form a hexagon shape.
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Turn the hexagon shape over and slot the bottom lids as shown.
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Place the hexagon shape ang bao on the cardboard. Trace the outside of the hexagon shape ang bao with a pencil and cut it out. This will be the base for your pot cover/bowl.
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To cover the hexagon cardboard cut-out, cut out a hexagon shape on a red piece of paper. Stick the red paper on top of the cardboard using double-sided tape.
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Place the red paper cardboard onto the base of the pot cover/bowl. If you want to make it more stable, you can tape the bottom lids with some clear tape on the base. I didn’t tape it and it didn’t cause any problems.
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Now decorate your pot cover/bowl as you wish.
What do you think about this ang bao pot cover? Or do you prefer to use it as a bowl to contain your favourite snacks? Comment below and let me know. Don’t forget to check out the rest of my Chinese New Year crafts!
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