Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Actually, it’s tomorrow but it is never too early to show off some Chinese New Year themed crafts!

2014 is the year of the horse:

I got the pattern from here. Sorry, not an original creation. : P

A search on google was very sparse in terms of good crafts. Most of the results were geared towards kids and were either a simple Chinese lantern or some form of a dragon craft painted red. Therefore, I decided to look back at traditional Chinese handicrafts.  Unfortunately, I did not have the materials for most of them (I say this as if having bamboo sticks, silk screens, or embroidered cloth would make up for my lack of skill). The one that I could do though was the paper cutting. There are some beautifully elaborate patterns out there but since I was also watching TV at the time I was making these, I decided to not risk my fingers with something too challenging.

All these patterns are variations on templates I found on the internet. 

They are all very simple but I think they are still cute. 

Next year, I plan on making many, many more to hang around my house.

Dimensions: varies

Materials:  Red gift wrapping paper, red thread, tape

Tools: scissors, pencil

Time to Make: 2 hours

Cutting out these designs really brought home to me that an artist is sometimes only as good as her tools. My scissors were not the double sharpened, needle tipped scissors that Chinese artists traditionally used and I found that limited how finely I could cut my lines without ripping them. Clearly, I need to do more shopping if I want to take this art further. ; D