DIY Chinese Wedding Lanterns

DIY Chinese Wedding Lanterns: are a traditional part of the décor for Chinese weddings, Chinese themed weddings, Christmas weddings, and other various holiday festivities. Traditionally to bring good luck and fortune they are made in red with gold lettering/symbols on them. They are an inexpensive decoration and well worth giving a try.

DIY Chinese Wedding Lanterns: Materials and Equipment Required

- double sided crepe paper (the colours of your choice)
- a ruler
- a pencil
- a pair of sharp scissors
- a glue stick
- some clothes pegs, bulldog clips or other similar objects to hold paper whilst drying
- optional: craft paper punches available in all shapes and sizes, or a revolving hole punch

DIY Chinese Wedding Lanterns: How To Make A Lantern In Seven Easy Steps

This lantern is made from one colour. See below for a multi coloured lantern.

- Draw a rectangle. For a small single coloured lantern try the following sizes/shapes – 11 cm x 10 cm, 13 cm x 12.5 cm, and 15 cm x 14 ¼ cm.
- Fold in half lengthways, then fold down 1 cm in from both of the top edges.
- With your pencil very lightly mark another fold 3 cm down from the first fold. (Or to avoid a pencil mark, crease the paper.) Cut through the paper up to the line. The cuts may be wide or close, depending upon the effect you want.
- With the wider cut pieces add some more tiny cuts, or use a craft punch, or hold punch, to add some additional decoration.
- Cut the top fold into triangles or hole/craft punch to give a decorative fringing.
- Open the lantern and glue the short sides together. Hold in place with two clothes pegs either end, or bulldog clips, until dry.
- Cut a strip of crepe paper and affix both ends equal distance apart inside the rim of the lantern to make a loop from which to hang the lantern. Alternatively you may wish to purchase some ribbon or coloured string to form the loop.

DIY Chinese Wedding Lanterns: How To Make A Multi Coloured Lantern

The simplest way is to have a different colour on the inside and on the outside. This is easily achieved by cutting out the same sized rectangles in two different colours. Place one rectangle on top of the other and then follow the directions exactly as above.

Alternatively you may wish to add some trims. This is more easily achieved with a larger sized lantern, e.g. 23 cm x 21 cm, 25 cm x 23 cm, or 27 cm x 24.5 cm.

- Cut the crepe paper to your required size. Fold in half lengthways and fold down the two top strips 1 cm each as you did for the lantern above. Draw your pencil line 5 cm down from the first fold, or crease the paper to avoid a pencil mark.
- Get your contrasting paper. (This works exactly the same for one, two or three colours.) Cut one or more contrasting strips the same length as the lantern, but only 10 cm deep. Fold them in half. Glue each contrasting strip just underneath the folded top edge on either side. (Depending upon the number of strips they will need to be staggered accordingly.)
- As with the first lantern cut clits up to the pencil line the whole length of the paper and decorate by cutting in additional shapes with the scissors or using the paper punches.
- Now cut a fringe, scallop or hole punch the contrasting strips , one at a time. Cutting holes/shapes will reveal the alternate colour(s) underneath.
- Finally, as above, unfold the lantern and glue the edges together. In order for the decorative fringing to stand out, just snip it with the scissors where glued. Add a loop to hang up the lantern as you did previously.

DIY Chinese Wedding Lanterns: Gold Lettering/Symbols

There are certain symbols/Chinese letters regarded as very lucky/auspicious. Do your research into the symbols pertaining to the year you were born. Photocopy the ones applicable to you, and perhaps a lucky dragon and phoenix as well. Colour the shapes in gold. Cut them out and artistically place on the lanterns. You may want to add a little gold glitter to make them stand out.