This article will talk about making Chinese lanterns with your own hands, which you can make yourself or involve children in the creativity. These lanterns are perfect for decorating a room, garden, decorating a Christmas tree or a corner of dreams. They can easily turn your evening into the most unusual fairy tale. Indeed, in them we very often read about the hall, which is decorated with thousands of multi-colored lights, about a mysterious person who helps to illuminate the path of the protagonist. So arm yourself with everything you need and start creating.

Option for children

In this article, we propose to view the most popular schemes for making Chinese lanterns. And here is the first of them - a children's flashlight.

In order to make such a trinket, you need to take colored paper, pencils, ruler, scissors, glue, glitter, satin ribbons and colored markers.

It is necessary to cut a strip from any edge of the leaf, in the future it will be a pen. Its width should be about two cm. We fold the remaining paper in half and draw a line on it, which is at a distance of four cm from the edge. It is up to this strip that we will cut the flashlight.

Then, along the entire remaining length of the paper, mark lines with a width of about one to one and a half cm. We begin to make cuts along the indicated lines with scissors. We do this from the place of the fold, and stop near the marked line.

We open the paper and see if there are traces left, then erase them with an eraser. Now we fasten the edges with glue or paper clips. On one side we attach a handle for a flashlight. Now you can decorate the flashlight with sparkles, tinsel, threads. You can also use plain paper instead of colored paper, white, in the future, you can decorate it as you wish.

For all traditions

The process of making the next Chinese lantern out of paper can be traced in a master class.

In order to perform these procedures, it is necessary to prepare red cardboard, glue, scissors, a template, a pencil, a red thread and a needle, silver or gold paint.

Find and print a template on the Internet, attach it to the cardboard and cut out the entire blank.

In no case should these parts be separated, they should be specifically similar, with a small accordion.

We glue the first and last parts together. The next step is to connect all the sides. Next, we take a thread with a needle and make a small hole at the top of our flashlight. In the same way, we collect and lower part flashlight. Make a small brush for the bottom of the decoration. Via silver paint draw a variety of patterns. They can be pre-made on stencils. We apply such a stencil to the flashlight and spray the paint. Let it dry and the flashlight is ready.

sky lattern

On the next step by step instructions you can consider making a heavenly flying lantern.

To make this type of Chinese lanterns, you will need tissue or rice paper, straws, copper wire, candle and glue.

Putting the pieces tissue paper on top of each other and cut out the rectangles. Then we glue the edges together tightly with glue. Then we make a small pad for the straws and fold them in a square shape. We twist the wire around the candle and attach it around the edges to straws. Light a candle and let it warm up a little.

Decor for products

Well, the next point that we want to make out is one of the ways to decorate sky lanterns.

For work, we need decorated paper, a glue gun, a hole punch and simple batteries.

On decorated paper, you need to punch about seventy holes with a hole punch.

Then we unfold the already finished base ball, or we take the one that we did in the last master class. We begin to glue it with these circles according to the husk principle.

Chinese paper lanterns came to our culture not so long ago, but rather quickly won our love - they can be different forms, sizes, colors, for almost every taste. Traditional Chinese lantern on New Year- in the form of a ball, red and gold colors.

Making Chinese paper lanterns is a snap - once you try it, you can decorate your home and surprise your friends by making them happy with this gift. Children can and should be involved in the creation process - it is interesting and informative.

So, let's try to make do-it-yourself Chinese lanterns, photos and detailed instructions help us with this!

To work you need:

1. Sheet of red paper
2. A pair of sheets of gold paper
3. Ruler and pencil
4. Scissors are ordinary and with a curly edge (if not, it's okay)
5. Scotch
6. Stapler

Now that we have all the necessary materials ready, let's start creating a Chinese paper lantern!

1. Using a pencil and a ruler, mark a sheet of red paper across, fold the edges by one and a half centimeters, then cut the paper along the marked lines with scissors, a little short of the fold.
   
   
2. Along the edge of the paper, across the cuts, glue the tape - this is necessary so that the edges do not break. Using curly scissors, cut out strips of gold-colored paper - they should be about twice as narrow as the strips into which we cut the red paper. Grease the gold strips with glue and carefully glue them onto the red sheet. It looks like this:
   
   
3. While the strips are drying, let's take a second sheet of gold paper. The length of this leaf should be slightly less than red. Coat the short edge with glue and twist into a tube - like this. You can use a paperclip to secure the edge until the glue dries.
   
   
4. We do the same with a red piece of paper - making sure the glue is dry and the gold stripes stick well. We connect the edges and get the following blank:
   
   
5. You need to be careful, since our workpiece is rather fragile, despite the adhesive tape with which we prudently glued the edges. Now the fun begins - it's time to connect the parts of our future flashlight. We carefully put the blank of red paper on the golden cylinder - very carefully so as not to accidentally break the strips. This is what the process looks like:
   
   
6. The top edge of the red blank should be about half a centimeter below the edge of the gold one. After that, we cut out two strips a couple of centimeters wide from gold paper and glue them to the joints of the blanks - the photo clearly shows how this happens:
   
   
7. Our Chinese paper lantern is almost ready! The final touches remain. With scissors we cut the visible part of the golden cylinder into a fringe - literally a couple of millimeters wide, so the flashlight will look much more interesting. And, of course, you need a loop - after all, the flashlight is suspended! We will cut the strip for the loop from the same gold paper with curly scissors, but we will attach it to the flashlight with a stapler - this will be more reliable.
   
   

As you can see, there is nothing difficult in making a Chinese paper lantern with your own hands - you just need a little time and colored paper. But the result exceeds all expectations - especially if you involve a child in the process.

It is very easy to find all the necessary materials and photos on how to make Chinese lanterns New Year, there are also a lot of videos on this topic.

Unleash your imagination, do not be afraid to experiment - play with flowers, invent with the children! We hope that our workshop on How to Make a Chinese Paper Lantern for the New Year was helpful to you!

Cast iron floor standing gas boilers

Remember, in one Disney cartoon, a girl asked her stepmother to take her to look at the lights, Chinese paper lanterns that were launched into the air every year? Even in the drawn version, this spectacle is breathtaking, but there is nothing to say about reality - it is very beautiful. And, probably, many will want to know how you can make a paper Chinese lantern with your own hands. It would seem that the easiest way to figure out how to make classic Chinese lanterns, and then repeat all the technological steps with your own hands. It turns out that things are not so simple. Only Chinese masters know how to make Chinese lanterns with their own hands and know how to make them in the traditional way. Because it uses rice paper impregnated with a special solution so as not to catch fire, bamboo hoop, combustible material and strong wire. And if there should be no problems with wire and combustible material, then a bamboo hoop, and rice paper with special impregnation is not particularly convenient to look for. Therefore, for those who want to make Chinese lanterns with their own hands, a replacement has been invented, both for rice paper and a bamboo hoop. Of course, ours will differ from the classic flashlight, but not much, we will leave the scheme of the Chinese flashlight the same. So, how to make a sky flying flashlight, whatever it takes.

How to make an air Chinese lantern with your own hands?

What you need to make a Chinese lantern:

• garbage bags, thin, colored, volume 120 l - 1 pack;
• wide scotch tape - 1 pc .;
• liquid for kindling a fire (medical alcohol) - 1 bottle;
• tracing paper - 1 roll;
• packing of cotton wool - 1 pc.
• thin wire;
• cardboard square 40 * 40 or 30 * 30 cm - 1 pc.

Stocked up with all necessary materials you can start assembling the flashlight. The scheme of a Chinese lantern is quite simple - an outer shell and a wick are fixed on a wire frame.

1. First, take a trash bag, open it and measure the diameter.
2. From tracing paper we make a continuation of the package and attach the tracing paper to the package with tape.
3. Cut strips 1.5-2.5 centimeters wide from a piece of cardboard.
4. We attach the strips from the outside to the tracing paper using the same adhesive tape.
5. We make a frame for a flashlight from wire. To do this, just twist a circle out of the wire. In the circle, it is necessary to attach 2 more pieces of wire crosswise, this will add rigidity to the structure, and the wick will be where to attach.
6. In the middle of the frame, on a wire, we fix a ball of cotton wool. We soak the cotton wool in advance with medical alcohol or liquid for kindling fires. It is better to prepare several wicks at once and check how they ignite, the size of the flame. This will help you find the perfect wick for your flashlight.
7. We put the bag with tracing paper on the frame and start the flashlight.

If such a flashlight seems small to you, then you can make it bigger, just glue several garbage bags and take more tracing paper, cardboard, etc.

Several rules for launching Chinese lanterns

Flashlights can only be launched in open areas, away from tall buildings, parking lots, dry meadows and forests. And most importantly, if the wind is strong, gusty, we postpone the launch of the flashlights for another time - otherwise, instead of romance, we will get an accident. We light the wick and, with the help of a friend (girlfriend), we spread the dome so that it does not come into contact with the flame. We carefully lower the flashlight to the ground, holding it by the frame. This is necessary so that the air inside the flashlight heats up faster. After about a minute, the flashlight should be raised to chest level as soon as sky lattern will begin to reach up, you need to release it. We do this slowly, slightly holding the rim. Well, then all that remains is to enjoy the beautiful flight of a Chinese air lantern in the night sky.

Today it is fashionable to launch handmade Chinese lanterns into the sky. The lights flying into the sky are a wonderful sight, which both children and adults like to admire. So where did this popular fun come from and what rules are important to follow in order to ensure the safety of others.

Story

For the first time, a paper Chinese lantern was mentioned in the chronicle description of Zhuge Liang's military campaigns. This legendary Chinese general mimicked divine intervention by instilling fear in his enemies. For this he used a paper bag and an oil lamp. A cloud of light striving upward convinced opponents that the higher forces were on the side of the general.

Similar devices were also used to transmit signals between military units located far from each other. Information about this dates back to the third century BC. Some experts claim that flying lanterns were also used to perform religious rituals.

The history of the mass distribution of luminous lanterns in Europe dates back to 2005. The occasion was a tragic event: the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. A commemorative event for this tragedy and its victims was the massive launch of luminous lanterns in Thailand. And thanks to the photo of this event, which became the winner of the World Press Photo, the Chinese ritual has become popular among Europeans.

Device

Chinese flying lantern consists of the following elements:

• bamboo frame;
• a burner made of fabric impregnated with fuel, fixed on a thin wire;
• a dome made of non-combustible rice paper.

The shape of the product can be any - most often spherical or cylindrical.

Operating principle

Chinese sky lanterns easily soar into the sky, following the same principles as Balloons... Remember the Montgolfier brothers? Their invention is shells filled with hot smoke and capable of flying for kilometers. The fact is that due to heating, the air becomes lighter due to a decrease in density. The difference between the density of air masses inside and outside the shell and becomes the driving force.

That is why, among the tips for launching flying flashlights, you can often find the following: "in order to start the flashlight, choose a clear frosty night."

Some characteristics

A traditional Chinese flashlight has the following features:

• approximate weight from 50 to 100 g;
• size in height from 70 to 170 cm;
• burning time about 20 minutes;
• the diameter of the lower ring is from 28 to 50 cm;
• the approximate possible lifting height is up to 500 m.

Is it possible to run Chinese lanterns in the city

Unregulated launching of flashlights often entails unpleasant consequences. Among them:

• fires, including forest fires;
• power plants out of order;
• death of livestock that accidentally ate a fallen wire frame;
• injury to animals.

Therefore, in some states, bans have appeared associated with this beautiful and exciting event. Corresponding regulations were adopted in Russia as well.

Law prohibiting the launch of Chinese lanterns in Russia

In 2014, amendments to the Fire Safety Regulations were approved. In accordance with the document, structures that rise to a height due to warming up the air inside with the help of an open fire are prohibited from being allowed in cities, other settlements, near forests. Lawyers warn: fines are prescribed for violators, for individuals these are amounts of up to 1.5 thousand rubles, for legal entities - an order of magnitude higher.

By law, when planning an event with a massive launch of Chinese lanterns, prior approval from the air traffic management authorities is required.

Operational safety

But even in places where flashlights are allowed, it is important to follow the rules that ensure the safety of those around you. The launch of Chinese lanterns is permitted in open areas where the fall site can be monitored. There should be no residential buildings nearby. Do not use flashlights in windy weather.

Responsible sky lantern launchers recommend: use a small amount of fuel, so you can control the place of the fall and can not only make sure that it is completely burned out, but also remove the debris after you.

Kinds

Chinese lanterns can vary in shape and purpose. Chinese lanterns are often used simply for decoration. Such hanging options often decorate Asian cafes and restaurants, oriental shops. Glowing hearts are often seen at wedding celebrations. And the simplest paper crafts will decorate the house for the New Year or another family holiday.

DIY Chinese lanterns made of paper

A Chinese lantern can be easily made at home. Teachers recommend: involve children in joint creativity, because they love to participate in creating a fairy tale so much.

Option for children

The simplest craft, reminiscent of a flashlight, was cut out by almost everyone in childhood. To make it, you only need one sheet of colored paper, and also scissors, glue, a ruler and a pencil as auxiliary materials.

The process consists of several short steps.

1. It is necessary to cut off a strip two centimeters wide from the sheet.
2. Fold the remaining piece in half.
3. Draw out the workpiece: at a distance of 4 cm from the edge, draw a horizontal line and draw many vertical lines from the fold to it, located at the same distance from each other.
4. Make vertical cuts and unfold the sheet.
5. Glue the edge and attach the handle on top from the strip cut at the beginning.

For all traditions

You will need a template for this hanging flashlight. You can find it on the Internet or draw it yourself. For a drawing, you need to take a sheet with an aspect ratio of one to two. The long side is placed horizontally and three horizontal lines are drawn: one in the center and two at a short distance (the same) from the edges. Then the sheet is divided by vertical lines into six sectors and another line is drawn in the center of each sector. Circles with a diameter of approximately 2 cm are drawn around the intersection points of the central vertical lines with the extreme horizontal lines.Then, the center of the upper circle is connected with rounded lines, the intersection points of the vertical lines bounding the segment with the central horizontal lines, the center of the lower circle.

As a result, the template should be six identical segments connected along the center line. On it, a blank is cut out of red cardboard. Important note: the workpiece must not be divided into segments!

Next, you need to connect the extreme segments with each other. Then combine the lower circles, sew them with red thread and decorate with a brush formed from threads. The same must be done with the upper circles, only instead of the brush, we leave the thread at the top for which the flashlight will be suspended.

sky lattern

To make a Chinese lantern, you need a frame. It can be made from foil-wrapped wooden fruit skewers. As the simplest fuel, you can use tablet candles or cotton wool dipped in alcohol. A candle or cotton wool is attached to the frame with a metal wire.

The casing can be made, as was traditionally done, from rice or tissue paper. But on the Internet, another piece of advice is often found: use a regular garbage bag for a flashlight.

Decor for products

Decorating makes sense lanterns meant for decoration, not for launch. One of the decor options can be done as follows. With a hole punch we make many, many (several dozen) holes on decorated paper. Glue the dropped circles on the already made lantern according to the husk principle. Important: it is necessary to distribute the circles evenly, making sure that the product is completely pasted over.

Today, everyone can make a Chinese paper lantern with their own hands. It doesn't matter: whether it will be a luminous object soaring into the sky or a decor to decorate the interior. The main thing is that ancient traditions are alive and do daily life full and beautiful.

Chinese or as they are also called - sky lanterns, despite all their simplicity and uncomplicatedness, conquered millions of hearts around the world. Burning paper domes look amazing in the night sky. Most often, they are launched by couples in love to celebrate the end of a romantic evening.

But due to the growing popularity of paper lanterns, mass launches of them are organized all over the world (for example, during city festivities). This - a win-win: spectacular and at the same time inexpensive. If you admire this unique invention, you probably wondered: How to make a Chinese lantern yourself? And isn't it too difficult? If you want to know the answers, just read this article to the end.

How to make a Chinese lantern: 3 steps

Do sky lattern with your own hands is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. All you need is rice paper, wire, a special "fire retardant" compound, foil and dry fuel (or any equivalent). Now let's define the sequence of actions.

Stage 1: Making a paper dome

The dome of a Chinese lantern is usually made from rice paper. It is paper that is the most important component of the device, so its choice must be approached with all seriousness. For for the flashlight to take off, the weight of the paper should not exceed 25g per 1 square meter. Today, only rice paper (or a plastic bag, but more on that later) meets such requirements. Decide on the shape of your flashlight. It can be a heart, a pyramid, or a square. Then cut four equal pieces of 110 x 100 cm out of paper and glue them, leaving untouched the place where the frame will be attached. The easiest and fastest way is to glue the parts in the form of "petals". Use a minimum of glue. Otherwise, the paper will simply sour and become unusable.

After all parts are glued, saturate fire retardant paper... This composition will protect it from getting wet and burning. After all, the flashlight should glow, not burn! For impregnation, it is better to use a regular cotton swab.

As an alternative rice paper, you can use a regular trash bag. Of course, such a dome will not look aesthetically pleasing at all. But if you really want to make a flashlight yourself, and you don't have the necessary material at hand, a cellophane version is also possible. In this case, you do not need to glue and cut anything.

Stage 2: Making the frame.

To make the frame, you need ordinary copper wire. It is desirable that it be thin - 0.5-1mm. Make a ring out of it, the diameter of which is equal to the diameter of the neck of the dome. Then attach two wires to it crosswise. The point at which the stripes intersect should be the center of the wireframe. It is here, in the center, that the burner will be located. The frame is ready!

Now you need to attach the paper dome to the wire ring. This can be done with glue or tape.

What if you don't have wire? Don't worry, there is an alternative to everything. For the frame, thin sticks made of light wood or bamboo are ideal. Some craftsmen know how to make the "base" of a flashlight even from young birch twigs!

3. Making a burner.

Without flaming element the flashlight will not be able to go up into the sky. The burner itself is usually made of foil. All you need to do is make a tiny cup and secure it at the intersection of the wire lines. And what, in fact, will burn?

There are many options here. The most common is half or a quarter of a dry fuel tablet. It is better not to take a kiss, otherwise you will not have time to blink an eye, as your creation will turn into ash. Another popular option is a cloth soaked in liquid wax, alcohol, or any arc of flammable liquid.

That's basically it! Now you can safely go outside and launch your own flashlight. Just remember to bring matches or a lighter.

How to properly start a homemade flashlight

Our own success in making a Chinese lantern can only be judged after its launch... Therefore, put dry fuel or a wax-soaked cloth in the burner and light it. If this is your first time launching the flashlight, ask a friend for help, namely, hold the dome of the flashlight so that it did not touch the fire... Of course, the chances of fire-impregnated paper impregnated with fire retardant are very small, but it is better to exclude this scenario altogether.

Wait for the air in the flashlight to warm up. Never try to force it to take off. Many people tend to toss a flashlight or in some other way raise it up. When the air inside gets hot enough, it will take off by itself. If your Chinese flashlight is smooth started moving up, you can consider your craft as quite successful.

If you wish, you can try decorating the paper lantern to your liking. For example, on the dome you can write declaration of love or a wish for a birthday. To do this, use markers contrasting with the paper (for example, a dark blue marker for pink paper) Only in this case your message will be noticeable. You can also try decorating the flashlight or sticking a picture on it. It all depends on your imagination and taste.

A common misconception is that rice paper can be replaced with plain paper. It is not true. Plain paper too heavy to be lifted up by the warm air. Therefore, if rice paper You didn't have it, but you basically don't want to use a garbage bag, you shouldn't try to make a sky lantern out of ordinary paper. Don't be discouraged if the flashlight launch fails. Not everyone can run even ready product... Just mentally praise yourself for your efforts and go to the accomplishment of new feats. In the end, you will definitely be able to fire up your homemade Chinese flashlight.