DIY Red Envelope Lantern

Hey guys! Chinese (Lunar) New Year is right around the corner, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to show you guys how to make some cool decorations. This week I'm going to show you how to make this cool looking lantern out of red envelopes!

Materials:
~Red Envelopes or Red Cardstock (24 red envelops per lantern)
~Red string (e.g. Embroidery thread or yarn)
~Yellow or gold beads(with large holes) or string
~Clear tape

I live in San Francisco and we have a large Chinese population, so red envelopes are relatively cheap and you can find them all over Chinatown (e.g. some places sell them as cheap as $1.50 for a pack of 20!). I think some Asian grocery stores carry them as well, but if all else fail, check online! :D As you can see, I got my red envelopes from the bank, so maybe you could ask around.

ALTERNATIVE: You can also create the lantern by repeating the same steps below with card stock if you cannot get a hold of red envelopes. The size of the red envelopes I used were: 4.75inches by 3.25inches. I would suggest you decorate the card stock ahead of time before you start taping to make things easier for yourself. 

We're going to start by making the inner structure of the lantern first because it’s what helps the lantern keep its shape. Tape two red envelopes together along their shorter sides. Then grab another red envelope and align it up with one of the taped red envelopes and tape it to the center. Flip that red envelope over like a page in a book and tape along the center again to reinforce it. Keep doing this until you have six envelopes taped together.

TIP: If you’re afraid that the inner structure is not sturdy enough, you can cut little pieces of paper and stuff them inside the envelopes before taping them all together.

The next step is to stand up the inner structure and tape a red envelope in between each of the flaps. Keep taping around the structure until you end up with a hexagonal shape as pictured below.

This will become the top half of our lantern.

Repeat the above steps again except this time instead of taping the envelopes together horizontally, tape them together vertically.

Attach the two main pieces of the lantern together.

Now we're going to make the tassels!  Grab your red string of choice and cut six 8.5inch pieces per tassel. Take one of the six strings out from the bunch and use that one string to tie a knot in the middle of the bunch of five strings. Then fold the bunch of strings in half from the mid-point where you tied off the strings as pictured below.

Finally, if you are using beads grab one bead and string it through the strings you used to tie off the bunch of strings. At this point, you maybe have to use a little bit of strength to get the folded bunch of strings to pass through the hole of the bead. Then cut the tassel strings to even them out if they're uneven. Alternatively, you could also wrap yellow string around the tassel instead of using beads.

Finally, grab your tassel(s) and some tape and start taping them wherever you like. If you have a hole puncher, you could also punch some holes in the areas where you would like there to be tassels and attach them that way. Also, don't forget to attach a string at the top of the lantern so that you can hang it up. I would suggest that you use a hole puncher to make holes for strings at the top because that is much sturdier than just taping. I however, could not find a hole puncher, so I just taped the string on. This lantern is pretty light, so you shouldn't have any problems with using tape.

This lantern was something I learned how to make when I was a kid and I thought it would be nice to share this with you guys. It's a pretty simple project, inexpensive, and a good way to get rid of your red envelopes (i.e. if you have a large stash of them like I do haha).

If your family celebrates Chinese (Lunar) New Year, do you guys usually decorate the house in any way? Leave your comments below and please let me know how things go if you decide to try this project out.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Until, next time~