Chinese New Year Lotus Ang Pow Lantern

This is a Chinese New Year lotus ang pow lantern. Have you made yours yet? If you have not, why not check out my Chinese New Year craft section for more inspiration? Today we are making this lotus ang pow lantern to decorate your home. This lantern is quite big (approximately 23 – 26 cm by 26 cm) and heavy as I have used 30 ang pows to make it.

In this post, part of the lantern step-by-step is split into another post, which is called the Chinese New Year ang pow wreath. Please pop over to the post when you are making the roof, and pop back once you have done it.

The making of the body’s lantern is very similar to the Two Tier Ang Pow lantern, except we are adding an outer layer. Now let’s come and learn how to make this impressive lotus ang pow lantern.

For this lantern, it is best to use striking gold colour ang pows, if possible. Having said that, I’ve had a hard time trying to find ang pows with a very striking colour design. As this is an evergreen blog post, I am not going to use rabbit-themed ang pows on this occasion. If you prefer an even more unique lantern, you can use different coloured ang pows for the roof to give the lantern a two-tone colour.

In my previous post, I mentioned the importance of choosing the right type of ang pows for the lantern. I find it difficult to know when ordering online. You only get a feel for it once you receive it. As ang pows are not commonly found on the high street, online is the best place to source them. The material of these ang pows is quite flimsy. Hence I am adding plain card into the ang pows. I am only adding the cards into 12 ang pows for the structure and not the rest of the ang pows. If your ang pow’s material is quite thin and soft, insert the thick plain cards to help keep the shape of the ang pow.

Materials:

• 30 long rectangle ang pows / red envelope (approx. 9.5 cm by 17 cm)
• clear packaging tape 20mm
• stapler & staples
• scissors or pen knife & cutting board
• ruler & pencil
• 1 metre long red string
• 1 Chinese knot tassel

Optional:

• 12 plain cards (approx 8 cm by 12 cm) – 200 gsm

These are the step-by-step instructions:

1. First, let’s build the body of the lantern for which you will need 18 ang pows. Cut about 4 cm off the top of the 12 ang pows, which means the ang pow will measure approx. 9.5 cm by 13 cm. You can use either a pen knife or scissors. I just used scissors to cut the top of the ang pows as later the top will be covered by the roof. It is okay if the top of the ang pow is not very neat as it won’t be seen. Optional – if the ang pows are too soft, you can insert a plain card into each of the 12 cut ang pows for additional rigidity.

   
   

2. Take six uncut ang pows and open the bottom flap of the ang pows slowly. Be careful not to tear it.

   
   

3. Now staple the bottom flap of the uncut ang pows onto the cut ang pow as shown. Do the same for the other five ang pow bottom flaps to the five cut ang pows.

   
   
   

4. Take the six cut ang pows with the ang pow’s flaps and tape the inside in a portrait orientation using the clear packaging tape to form a hexagon shape. To fix it more securely, you can apply additional tape around the inner circumference, top and bottom, before joining them together.

   
   
   

5. Now staple all the top flaps of the uncut ang pows onto the top of the cut ang pows as shown. Set it aside.

   
   
   
   

6. Take six cut ang pows to build the spinal structure of the body of the lantern. Tape six ang pows in portrait orientation using the clear packaging tape via the side of the ang pow to form a book with pages. Also, flip over and tape on the other side of the ang pow for additional security. If you have insert the plain card into the ang pow, staple the openings of the ang pows to prevent the plain card from dropping out.

   
   

7. Insert the spinal structure into the hexagon shape ang pows. The structure should hold very well without having to tape with clear packaging tape. If you prefer, you can tape the side. Now you have completed the body of the lantern.

   

8. Pop over to the Chinese New Year Wreath post and come back once you finish the roof.

9. Now place the roof on top of the lantern. If the volume of the roof is too tall, you can turn the roof over and reduce the inner gap by stapling it down.

10. Take the red string and fold it in half. Tie a knot 1/3 of the way up. Place it through the top of the roof. The knot will act like a stopper to stop the roof from coming off the lantern.

    
    

11. From below, tie another knot so that the roof is sandwiched between the two knots.

12. Place the roof onto the body. Make sure both ends of the red string come through via different gaps, tie it and then staple it down on the ang pows.

    

13. Staple the Chinese knot tassel on the bottom of the body.

What do you think about this lantern? Comment below and let me know.

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