If you can’t find it, make it yourself. This is one of my mottos in life. Many times, I have found it hard to buy accessories online to decorate my ang bao lanterns or my ang bao crafts. As these low value ang bao accessories are not worth listing individually online, many are sold in night markets, especially in Singapore Chinatown or Asian craft shops. If you live in a country as we do in the UK, we can’t even find them in any local Chinese supermarkets.
Hence today, I want to show you a few methods of using ang bao to make your very own accessories, which you can use to decorate your ang bao lantern.
First, this is a mini fan using cut ang bao. Use a pen knife to cut open the ang bao. Fold them into small pleats and use double-sided tape to tape the ends.
To make a circle, stick two or three mini fans to create a full circle. Simply stick both of the mini fans’ ends together using double-sided tape. Now you can stick it on your lantern or use it as a wall display.
Making a cute bow-shaped ang bao. Find the midpoint of the ang pow by folding the ang pow in half and pressing the fold all the way down. The design is facing in. Next, open the ang pow out again. Mark the middle of the midpoint with your thumb. Then pinch the two corners of the fold inwards to the middle of the ang pow. Hold/squeeze the ang pow in between your palm and fingers. Staple in the middle with a small overlap of the corners. You should have a cute bow-shaped ang pow.
What about a firecracker to add on the side of your lantern? Roll the ang bao using the thick marker pen. Staple the top together with a strong red string and then staple the bottom joins together.
Or you can make one without the red string and thread them into a roll of firecrackers.
Instead of writing Spring in Chinese, you can cut out the word via the ang bao. Cut out the front of an ang bao and fold it in half. Use a black pencil or pen to outline half of the word. Follow the template below and cut off the excess. Now you have the Spring 春 word! You can stick it on the wall, on fruit, on the surface of a container etc.
Fold the ang bao into big pleats. Stick it to the side of your lantern using clear strong glue. It will look like it’s popping out of the lantern.
To make a Chinese paper knot tassel, cut open the ang bao. Leave 0.5 – 1 cm from the top and use a pen knife with the help of a ruler to cut strips. Tape a strip of double-sided tape on the inside of the top of the ang bao and stick a piece of red string on it. Now roll it carefully.
Or you can stick it around the lantern.
I hope you all like my Chinese New Year ang pow accessories crafts and pop over to Chinese New Year crafts for inspiration.