Handmade Decorative Lanterns from Used/Old Red Packets Ang Pow

Ang Pao envelopes a.k.a. the red packets, a must have's for Lunar New Year but also a thing that will become clutter over time. We can never get the right amount of a certain design, and we'll often be left with too many unused/odd ones. Although I've handmade some this year but there is still a stack too many from previous years and some of them have specific year or zodiac design on which can't be used for the following year.

Growing up, we used to lots of fun making little lanterns with old red packets as festive decoration, and I think it's time to relive that sentiment.

Instead of the usual squarish designs, this is one in a spheric form, using just 1 basic modular shape:

Cut red packets (ang pao packets) into equal circles (about 8cm diameter) and draw an equal triangle on the reverse side. Fold on the triangle outlines, then glue the shapes together to get these:

The 2 round shapes are for the top and the bottom, whilst the long strip goes in the middle and around:



Before final glueing step, poke the tassel through the middle hole of the bottom cap, and tie a loop through the top cap. I made my tassels and loops with some embroidery threads which had been sitting in my sewing box for ages, bet they are quite happy to see the light of day 😁

To make a bigger lantern, just enlarge the basic circle (if the paper is big enough);

Or:
Make a 6-module top and bottom caps to join with 2 x 12-module rows in the middle. But this will make a rather oval shape lantern instead of a round one.

To make an even smaller lantern, stick 8 round modules together (4 up 4 down) like this one I've made to tie at the top: