In two more weeks, it’ll be the end of the Year of the Tiger, and we will be celebrating the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit on 22 January 2023! I would like to take this opportunity to blog more on Chinese New Year crafts and hope you all like it.
If you Google origami rabbit, you will find a lot of video tutorials to teach you how to make a rabbit. There are quite a few methods but the outcome is the same – an origami rabbit, from the art of paper folding!
This ang pow rabbit that I made will come with long ears. It is very simple. All you need is just an ang pow/ang bao/red packet/red envelope. To make this craft, it is best to use a large rectangular ang pow. A small ang pow will be too small and fiddly. Use a pen knife to cut open the ang pow, then fold the ang pow into a triangle shape. Now cut away any excess paper around the triangle. Now you have a square ang pow paper to make your rabbit! If you don’t have an ang pow, any square coloured paper will do too.
This ang pow rabbit measures approximately 8 cm by 7 cm, not including the red string on top or Chinese knot tassel at the bottom. The rating of difficulty is 1 out of 5, which should take roughly 10 minutes to complete.
To make this, you will require:
- 1 long rectangle ang pow (approx. 9.5 cm by 17 cm)
- Scissors
- Stapler & staples / sticky tape
- Pen knife
- 50 – 60 cm red string
- 1 Chinese knot tassel
- Googly eyes / black pen to draw
Step-by-step instructions:
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Fold the ang pow in half.
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Open out the ang pow and fold the bottom section up to meet the middle crease.
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Do the same for the top section to meet the middle crease.
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Fold all corners as shown.
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Open out all the corner folds.
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Tuck the middle fold inside to create a flap.
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Do the same for the rest of the corners.
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Turn the paper over and turn back the right flap and flatten it down.
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Turn back the left flap and flatten down.
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Turn the paper over. Fold the top corner and bottom corner as shown.
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Fold the folded corner. These are the rabbit’s ears.
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Fold along the middle crease.
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Pull the ears up into position.
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Fold the paper and make an inside reverse fold to create the feet.
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Tuck a corner to create a nose.
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Puff out the long ears to give them their shape.
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Put the red string on the rabbit’s body.
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Staple/tape the Chinese knot tassel on the inside of the feet.
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Stick googly eyes or use a black pen to draw on the eyes.
This ang pow rabbit decoration is great to use for decorating your plants or around the door handles. Wishing everything goes well with all my readers (万事如意) and may your year be filled with an abundance of smiles and laughter (笑口常开)! Don’t forget to check out the rest of my Chinese New Year crafts!
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