You can quickly make this Chinese New Year fan to use for all your themed events and for delightfully different décor. It’s easy to make with paper and some slim craft sticks. Then, add the finishing touch to your Chinese New Year Fan with a beautiful Bowdabra tassel.
Materials:
- 8 slim wooden craft sticks
- Drill with small bit
- Heavy corrugated cardboard folded for extra thickness (For drilling holes in the stick)
- Scrapbook paper (Cardstock is too thick for this project)
- Tacky craft glue
- Ruler
- Scissors
- Mini Bowdabra Bow maker tool
- Gold Bowdabra bow wire
- Scraps of ribbon, yarn, trim, misc. bead strings
Chinese New Year Fan tutorial
- First, measure and cut two identical pieces of scrapbook paper 12” x 3”. You will be gluing them back to back.
- Using only one piece of paper begin to fan fold all the way down. Make sure they are even folds. Set the paper aside.
- Now working on a prepared corrugated cardboard thickness place each craft stick and drill a hole on one end. For the second and each subsequent stick use the first one as a model by making a mark on each stick for drilling. This way all your sticks holes will line up evenly when you stack them together.
Glue on the craft sticks
- Next, working on the wrong side of one piece of paper, and smoothing flatter a little bit, begin gluing the sticks on. Glue the undrilled side flush with the top of the paper. Skip sections so that they will fold with the creases you’ve already made in the paper.
- When you’ve glued all the sticks on glue the other piece of paper on the fan so that the right side (printed or colored side) is on both sides of the fan. Let the glue dry.
- Now follow your creases and fan fold so that the fan folds properly.
- Next, put a dab of tacky glue on the end of a piece of gold Bowdabra bow wire and let dry. This will allow it to go through the holes in the craft sticks without fraying. Thread it through all the sticks and then tie a knot loosely. Fold and glue any extra paper on each end.
Make the tassel
- To make the tassel cut an 18-inch length of Bowdabra bow wire, fold in half and place in the Mini Bowdabra.
- Begin adding lengths of miscellaneous ribbons, threads, cords or other scraps into the Mini Bowdabra. Then scrunch down with the Bowdabra wand.
- For the final step pull the two loose wires through the loop and pull tight while the tassel is still in the Bowdabra. Then, remove the tassel from the Mini Bowdabra, turn to the back and tie a knot. Cut another piece of Bow wire and wrap around the tassel about ½” down from the top. Continue to wrap the wire and then tie a knot and cut off any excess wire. Trim your tassel as desired and tie to the bottom of the fan.
