I was going to aim this craft to all of the teachers and moms out there but after I made it I have to say it was a ton of fun and I urge everyone to try it! I am teaching a craft program at the local library next week and I thought it would be fun to do Chinese New Year. I planned on the kids decorating “lucky money” envelopes, coloring dragon masks {for the preschoolers} and for the big kids we could make dragon puppets:
Wow, it was so fun to make the samples. The lucky money envelopes are freebies. I used the SVG in the kit to cut my envelopes from red paper but there is a printable version too if you do not have a die-cut machine. Also There is a full color printable with a Chinese dragon (2012 is the year of the dragon) on the back if you just want to print them and not have to decorate. BTW {shameless plug} Everything at Lindsay’s stamp Stuff is 40% off now through Sunday so after you snag that freebie be sure to have a look around at all of the new products I have added this month!
When I went looking for inspiration on making a dragon puppet I did an internet search and came across a cute template on the Martha Stewart website, well, there was no need to reinvent the wheel there!
Did you know you can cut PDF files with SCAL?
Oh yeah! I saved the PDF dragon template and imported into scal2 (click file-import-then pick the pdf file you want) and with a little tweaking (there is a rogue node on the dragon’s head, just drag it over to the node next to it and click union to make it one shape) I had a great file to cut! Note: I enlarged it and moved it around on my mat to make best use of space. I’d love to share the SVG but I don’t know if that would be cool with Martha. 😀 You can check out her template and instructions here.
I love how the body is jointed so it wiggles and moves when you hold the sticks. I made a few changes in my puppet: I added crepe paper party streamers, they fly wonderfully when you are using the puppet and the pleated crepe paper adds more bulk without weight. I used skinny sticks because I had no chopsticks and I added glitter, sequins would be nice too I think;)
Here is a look at the Lucky Money Envelopes Freebie:
In the preview you see the color version of the money envelope, for my project with the kids I am cutting them from red paper and they can stamp Chinese characters with gold pigment ink. The stamps I used are from About Art Accents. I heat embossed mine, I think I will let the kids try that too as long as I have an adult to man the heat gun 🙂
And be sure to snag lots of goodies at Lindsay’s stamp Stuff for 40% off! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Very original jeepers your ideas are so genuine, and creepers they range from all over the place, speak of all over the world
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Love this dragon, what fun the kids will have! (And all the teachers who snag this too, lol)
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Very cool ideas. I’m doing paper fortune cookies for my son’s kindergarten class. The “fortunes” have a dragon image, a sight word, and the matching Chinese character(s). Appreciate the freebie. I suddenly feel like a game of mahjong! 😉 .
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