Lunar New Year Fine Motor Skill Decorations - Helmar Creative Team

As a family we like to explore various cultural, awareness and themed days.  One of the things I love about doing this is making decorations with my boys, it is a fun way to bring in some fine motor skill activities and sensory activities to our week.
In February one of the days we like to explore is Lunar New Year, unfortunately there is no Lunar New Year activities where we live so we usually decorate in a small way, learn about the Lunar Calendar and we have dinner either at our local Chinese restaurant or we get take away from them. 
This year we decided to make a tissue paper Cherry Blossom Tree.
You will need
Branch/es that suit the look you want.
Pink tissue paper or serviettes Helmar Super-Tac Glue Helmar Premium Craft Glue
If gluing 2 branches together like I did some scrap cardboard to reinforce the joint.

Start by preparing your tree, if you need to glue 2 branches together do so now.  I used HelmarPremium Craft Glue as it is what I had on hand but I think Helmar Super Strenght PVA WoodGlue would be better.  I used scraps of cardboard to reinforce the join, it blends in fine and you can only tell if you look up close.   I found a V in the big branch to sort of jam the other branch in and glued it there and then glued my reinforcement pieces over it.

As I was using some pink serviettes left over from E’s Fortnite party we were able to cut 4 circles at a time by leaving the serviette folded in quarter.  Using a small bowel and marker I traced a circle on each serviette, then E set about cutting them out, giving his fingers some exercise 😉

 

Initially we were careful with our scrunching and shaping, starting by scrunching each layer and then unravelling, then layers a couple of layers together, pinching in the middled and scrunching into a flower shape. 
You could just scrunch up the flowers into a ball but I thought this might give E better fine motor exercises.

When gluing the flowers to the branches I put the glue sort of inside the flower and then sort of found a nob on the branch to put the flower over getting a good hold.  Others I just glued straight on.  As you glue the flowers sort of use the glue to get the scrunches to hold together.

For smaller flowers use scraps of your serviette and just scrunch them up into a ball and glue on.

Next we made our paper lanterns.
You will need 

A4 red paper
Helmar Craft and Hobby PVA

Very simple.  We just cut some A4 red paper in half, the boys cut slits in  all the pieces and then glued them together with Helmar Craft and Hobby PVA, adding a handle with paper scraps.  Once dry we simply threaded them onto our Christmas lights and hung them on the window where our tree is living.

Finally we made some paper firecrackers.
You will need 

A4 red paper
3mm red ribbon
Gold tape
Helmar Premium Craft Glue
Helmar Craft and Hobby PVA

We cut the red A4 paper into 2.5 x 3 inch pieces, then cut 3 inch pieces of gold washi (2 per firecracker), then cut 7inch long pieces of red ribbon (1 per each pair of firecrackers) and 1 10inch piece of red ribbon.








 









The washi wasn’t sticking well as it was old so we glued it on with HelmarCraft and Hobby PVA.
Then E rolled each piece around something round to get it to curve.

Time for assembly.
Using Helmar Premium Craft Glue adhere 1 end of the ribbon inside the red paper, then add some glue to one side of the roll and glue the ends together to form a roll.
Glue the other end of the ribbon to the inside of another piece and form the roll.  
 
Once all your pairs are done you can start tying them together.
I started by tying a knot in the ribbon of my first pair, then I snipped one side of the ribbon near the know.  I tied this end around the ribbon of the next pair.  I repeated this until the end.


All done, now to hand it near my tree and lantern