This Newspaper Chinese lantern craft is a great way to use up materials that you have lying around the house (great for a bit of thrifty crafting!) but it’s also a good way for kids to learn a new painting technique. There are lots of Chinese New Year crafts and this is a fun way to get kids excited about the holiday.
Newspaper Chinese Lantern Craft Materials:
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Newspaper
Paint
Paintbrush
Water
Scissors
Plate
Pen
Let’s Make It:
To get the round shape of your Chinese lantern start by drawing around a plate on your newspaper. I found that newspaper that had more text rather than pictures looked better (no one particularly wants a picture of a politician looking up at them) so you might have to have a bit of a hunt for a good bit of newspaper. At the top and the bottom draw lines across for the top and the bottom and then cut your Chinese lantern out.
Your lantern would be great to paint using watercolours as this would easily show the print underneath however we didn’t have any in the house, we used some normall kids paints which aren’t too thick and are washable – a very important thing when you’re crafting with kids! Either way it wasn’t a problem, I was inspired by Nell’s post on wet on wet colour painting which is taught in Waldorf technique and while we might not have done ours exactly the same, adding water to the paper was something my daughter hadn’t tried before and she enjoyed experimenting with it. At four years old I did explain that Chinese lanterns are traditionally red to represent happiness and wealth, she was having far to much fun finding all our paints and mixing them to see what colours they made, certainly not a problem for me!
Once you’ve painted the main part of your lantern red, just paint the top and bottom black and then add some lines to show the separate parts of your lantern.
If your planning on making Chinese New Year craft with your kids make sure you bookmark this page or pin the image below so you don’t forget this craft. Want more ideas? We’ve got this tissue paper Chinese lantern craft or these painted fans or if you’d like something for the year of the dog how about these paper dog puppets from Red Ted Art?
Such a simple and easy idea with beautiful results! How lovely. 🙂
ah I love this, such a simple but brilliant kids craft, I think Wilf would love to give this a go! x
These are so simple but really effective! They have a lot of scope to get really creative with different shapes and colours too! Oh to be a child again and spend your afternoons making these!
Simple and clever – with the potential to keep them quiet for at least half an hour – I love it!
This is such a fun and cute craft. I love it.
Love this idea! They’re simple but fun too and a great way to keep the kids entertained x
This crafts for kids is so creative and so easy to make. I have not done them before, but I like that it is a simple afternoon activity.
What an adorable craft to do with your children. I might have to do this one with my little girl, too.
I’ve always wanted to have a go with chinese lanterns and this is a perfect idea for the Chinese New Year!