CNY Upcycling to Try Today: Arts & Crafts

It’s time to decorate for Chinese New Year! We can’t believe how gorgeous this simple hanging ornament is – or that it used to be a strawberry box and some toilet rolls!

Thanks to Little City Tales for the arts & craft today. Follow the steps below to see how they did it! You’ll also see the cutest tiger paper cut from Kyl.scrabook’s Chinese Zodiac learning kit. 

Materials: 

x 4 toilet rolls
x 1 string
x 1 plastic fruit box
x paint (red, gold, orange, white)
x clear glue (1/3 bottle)
x black acrylic paint (1 tsp)

STEPS:

Fruit Box Tiger:

1. Wash and cut out the flat piece of plastic from your fruit box. Then find an image of a tiger online and print to approximately the same size as your plastic sheet.
2. Mix 1/3 bottle of clear glue with 1 tsp or so black acrylic paint. White glue should work too.
3. Secure your printout behind the plastic with some tape.
4. Using your glue bottle nozzle, squeeze black glue onto the plastic to form the tiger stripes. Then let dry.
5. Once the glue has dried paint your tiger! (In orange/white or go wild).

Tissue Roll Greeting

1. Trace out your greeting onto tissue rolls. One character per roll (try to choose simpler characters). Remember to have areas where the characters touch the sides and we left a slight edge on the bottom too so they don’t fall apart.
2. Cut out your characters. Pressing your rolls flat makes it easier.
3. Kids cut the outsides and I helped on the insides with a stanley knife.
4. Paint your rolls in red and flicker on some gold splatters once dry!
5. Glue gun a string through and thread through your tiger by punching a hole in the plastic!