Today, I am showing you how to make this ang pow gourd for Chinese New Year. You might be wondering what is the connection of gourd to the Chinese New Year. Gourd in Chinese is called 葫芦(hú lu) and it also sounds like 福禄(fú lù) in Chinese, which means fortune and wealth. Also, this fruit contains a lot of seeds and they symbolise productivity and fertility. Hence gourd is an auspicious item!
Have you spotted them in the Asian shops yet? Sometimes you can find them in the middle of the Chinese knot tassels or as an ornament for tangerine or kumquat trees. They can be a necklace, key chain, coins or vase as a table display and in many other forms too. Now you can learn how to make one to hang in your house!
This ang pow gourd lantern display measures approximately 30 cm by 20 cm, not including the length of the red string on top or the stalk. The rating of difficulty is 3 out of 5, which should take roughly an hour to complete. Do check out my Chinese New Year Pinterest board for more inspiration.
To make this ang pow gourd, you will require:
- 18 long rectangle ang pows / red envelopes (approx. 9.5 cm by 17 cm)
- Stapler & staples
- Ruler
- Scissors
- 50 – 60 cm red string for hanging
- 50 – 60 cm red ribbon with a Chinese word (you can either write it or cut out from an ang pow)
- Clear glue
- BBQ stick/pen
This ang pow gourd is a join of a simple lantern craft and a mandarin orange craft. The trick here is to shape it like a gourd. Read on and I will show you how.
Step-by-step instructions to prepare the ang pows:
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Find the midpoint of the ang pow by folding the ang pow into half vertically but don’t press the fold all the way down. Instead, just press the two corners of the joint down. This is a marker for later use.
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Next, open the ang pow out again. Then fold the ang pow into half horizontally and again only press the two corners of the joint down. Repeat for the rest of the ang pows. These are markers for later use.
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Now to fold each side of the 17 ang pows – from the midpoint that we found on the ang pow make a fold from the top midpoint to the left midpoint, the left midpoint to the bottom midpoint, the bottom midpoint to the right midpoint and from the right midpoint to the top midpoint. The end result should be four diagonal folds (diamond shape). I use a ruler to help me to fold the corners neatly. Make sure that you fold the back of the ang pow onward to the front of the ang pow.
Step-by-step instructions for the top part of the gourd:
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To make the top part of the gourd (like a mini lantern craft), you will need 5 ang pows. Staple them along the folds on the top as shown. As I will be inserting the stalk into the top of the gourd, I didn’t staple them close to the top. The reason is if I staple it too close to the top, later, I won’t be able to insert the stalk into the top. Hence my first staple is 1.5 cm to 2 cm away from the top of the ang pow.
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Now we are going to staple the bottom part of the ang pow. Gently bend the ang pow in the middle such that the middle part is sticking outward. Make sure all ang pows are bent in the middle before stapling them together. Try to staple it close to the joint.
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Cut one ang pow half and roll the ang pow by using the BBQ stick, as tightly as possible. I put a staple on the end of the ang pow. Insert it into the top part of the lantern.
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Now we are going to bend the corners on the top of the lantern together and staple the two corners to create a curved top. Do not pull the corners too close together as it will make the corners look very flat and sharp. To create rounder corners, only staple a few mm of the corners together.
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Now we are going to bend the corners on the bottom of the lantern together and staple the two corners to create a curved top by not pulling them too close together.
Step-by-step instructions for the bottom part of the gourd:
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To make the bottom part of the gourd, you will need 12 ang pows. A set of 6 ang pows on the top and a set of 6 ang pows at the bottom.
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Take 6 ang pows and staple them along the folds on the top as shown.
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Take 6 ang pows and staple them along the folds on the bottom part of the six ang pows. Make sure the image is flush with the top.
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Join the bottom ang pows to the top ang pows by stapling them all. When stapling the ang pows, use your fingers to smooth the inside of the ang pows and push the ang pow outward. Before you seal the last ang pows, place your hand/fingers inside the display to check all the ang pows are folded and crease-free.
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Now you will have the bottom part of a gourd with sharp corners poking out. To make it smooth, take both corners of the same ang pow and staple it together. For the corners on the top and bottom part of the gourd, don’t bring those corners too close to each other. It will help to make the top and bottom part flat. As for the middle part of the corners, bring those corners as close as possible, it will make the gourd shape look rounder.
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Now join the top part of the gourd (with 5 ang pows) to the bottom part of the gourd (with 12 ang pows) by stapling corners together as shown.
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Wrap the ribbon around the middle part of the gourd by stapling it. Then stick/glue the Chinese words in the middle part of the ribbon to hide the staple.
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Staple the red string on the side of the gourd and it is ready to hang!
So what do you think of this ang pow gourd lantern? I hope you like it. Did you know that in ancient times in China, gourds were dried and it was used as a bottle to transport wine, water and medicines? They also can be made into utensils, cups, bottles, scoops, ladles, fishnet floats, birdhouses etc. Such a useful fruit!
I have also made a red gourd using red colour ang pows. Do you prefer the yellow one or the red one? Comment below and let me know.
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