Felt Fortune Cookies

So I was back on kaboose.com today looking at some of their cute Chinese New Year crafts and found felt fortune cookies! Think about it... you can have them around, feel the spirit of the coming holiday without ruining your resolution! Gotta love it!

Lucky Money Envelopes

Chinese New Year is almost like Christmas for Asian kids. We Vietnamese call it "Tet." I remember during that time of year there was food and festivity and most importantly (to us kids) there was the lucky money envelopes, or as we call it in Vietnamese "li see." We had to earn it though, by folding our arms, giving a little speech wishing our family friends and relatives a healthy and prosperous year, and generally looking cute. Then we would collect the "li see" envelopes and see what crisp new denominations of bills were inside. Of course, even that tradition became Americanized when one year a relative filled our "li see" envelope with a crisp gift certificate to McDonald's!

You can make your own lucky money envelopes by going to this site where you can print templates, cut them out, and fold them.

Craft Quickie Thursday - Paper Lanterns

Traci's post about paper plum blossoms brought back memories. My beloved grandma used to make these. I wish I had saved some, or at least had pictures of some she had made.

Anyways...it's CRAFT QUICKIE THURSDAY which means something easy! Something quick! Something "Chinese New Year" related! PAPER LANTERNS!


Photo from About.com

The best part about this one is everyone should have the supplies on hand:

• 1 Piece of Paper (You can use bond paper, construction paper, or even cardstock. For best results, use a piece approximately 8.5" x 11")
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Markers or Crayons (Optional)
• Stapler or Tape

You can find the easy, excellent step-by-step instructions with photos over at about.com.

Chinese New Year - Plum Blossoms

I love these simple Plum Blossom decorations.


Photo from kaboose.com

You will need:
-Brown chenille stems
-Pink tissue paper
-White craft glue
-Styrofoam ball, cut if half
-Scissors
-Paint brush
-Brown Paint

How to make it:
-Cut chenille stems into unequal lengths, some long some medium.
-Twist two unlike lengths together and bend and twist ends to make them look like branches.
-Cut pink tissue paper into ½” squares.
-Lay branches onto work surface and line with a layer of white glue. Do not put glue on the stem. -Place the handle end of a thin paintbrush into the center of a tissue paper square. Twist the tissue paper around the handle.
-While tissue paper is still on the end of the paintbrush handle, dot it onto the glue on the branch. Tissue paper should stick to the glue and slide right off the handle. Leave a space between tissue paper flowers and repeat process. Let dry.
-Turn branches over and repeat on other side.
-Paint the Styrofoam ball with brown paint and let dry.
-Insert branches into Styrofoam ball.

These make great table decorations for any Chinese New Year celebration, then keep them and reuse them in the spring.

Happy Inauguration Day!

I'm taking a quick departure from Chinese New Year crafts to wish you a Happy Inauguration Day! Can you believe it's finally here?

How excited are you? Excited enough to make an Obama symbol/logo paper plate?


Photo from Kaboose.com

For this and other Inauguration Day crafts at Kaboose.com, click here.

Chinese New Year - Welcome Door Hanger

To start off Chinese New Year week, we've got this cute Welcome Door Hanger. I found it on kaboose.com.



Here's what you need:
-Red door hanger (available at a craft store, or make your own from red foam or paper)
-Gold glitter glue
-Orange foam circles in various sizes
-White craft glue
-Pattern

Here's how to make it:
-Print out the pattern of Chinese letters. This spells out "Welcome."
-Use the pattern and a pencil or pen to draw the Chinese letters onto the door hanger.
-Using gold glitter glue, carefully trace the Chinese letters. Decorate the rest of the door hanger as you like. The sample shows a border around the hanger and decoration on the corners.
-Allow the glitter glue to dry for at least three hours.
-When glitter glue is dry, glue the orange circles onto the lower half of the door hanger. The larger circles are oranges and they represent wealth. The smaller circles are tangerines, which are symbolic of good luck.

Chinese New Year Week

Monday, January 26th marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year. 2009 will be the year of the Ox. We will spend the next week highlighting crafts that celebrate this holiday. Most will be kid-friendly so hopefully you can share these with your family.