With Chinese New Year just around the corner, 19^th February. What better chance than now to start making Chinese New Year Arts & Crafts as a family?! Here?s 4 quick ideas to get you started?

Paper Lantern

This is very simple for kids to do and will take pride of place wherever it?s displayed!

You need:

A round paper lantern

Pink Paint

Black marker pen

Method

Mix the paint with an equal part of water. Dot on the paint, to make your blossom. Paint several different trees around the lantern. When you are happy you have enough blossom leave the paint to dry. When the paint is dry use the black pen to draw on the branches of the trees. Alternatively you could draw or paint Chinese calligraphy characters onto your lantern to decorate it.

Dragon Bookmark

This dragon bookmark craft for kids makes a spectacular gift for Chinese New Year or for anyone born in the Chinese Year of the Dragon. You could use any colours ? just as long as it?s bright!

You need:

Craft foam

Wiggle eye

Ribbon

Fabric glue

Decorative bits (sequins etc)

Method

Cut a length of ribbon slightly longer than the height of your book. If you like decorate your ribbon. We glued on some sequin cord and thin contrasting ribbon. Cut a triangle of craft foam for the tail and a head from craft foam and glue them to either end of the ribbon. Stick on the wiggle eye. Decorate the dragon anyway you like

Origami Fan

Use patterned paper or ask the children to decorate a plain piece before they fold it. You will need scissors and a short length of wool (yarn), cotton or cord.

Instructions here

Mini Chinese Lantern Chain

This is very quick to make and looks spectacular!

You need:

A4 sheets of pink, orange and red paper

Glue

String

Method:

Fold a sheet of paper in half along the length. Cut a strip about 1 inch (2cm) wide from the edge. You will end up with two strips. Put them on one side for your handles. Cut along the fold. Taking one half of the paper, fold in half along the width. Cut snips along the fold to about 1 inch from the paper edge. When you have snipped all the way along the paper edge, unfold the paper and bend it into a cylinder. Glue or staple to secure. Glue or staple on a handle from one of the strips of paper (use a different colour). Make the second bit of paper into another lantern. Repeat with more sheets of paper until you have lots of lanterns! Thread some string through the handles and hang. You may need to put a small piece of sticky tape to secure each lantern in place, depending on how tight your string is.