Chinese Dragon Craft, easy and stunning!

Make this gorgeous Chinese Dragon Craft to add a touch of good fortune and wealth to your home! Chinese Dragons are symbols of wealth, wisdom, power and nobility, they are a must to welcome the New Year and at all Chinese celebrations. Chinese Dragons are the ultimate "good luck" symbol!

Here we show you how to make this red and gold Chinese dragon, you can use it as decoration and it also makes a cute puppet.

Although all the steps are quite simple, it does take a little time since there is a lot of cutting and glueing together but the results are definitely worth it!

You can stick with the traditional red and gold theme as well as experiment with different colors, patterns and types of paper for more lively variations. Origami paper in oriental motifs also works nicely.

We have included templates you can use to trace all the different parts you will need to build the dragon.

So let's get started!

Materials needed:

Red paper for the body and head
Paper in a variety of colors, textures, patterns, gold, red, origami, etc.
Pencil and Black Marker
Scissors
Scissors with fun shape
Glue
Tape
Hole puncher
Paper/envelope fasteners
Bamboo Chopsticks
Template

Step 1:

Click on the links to print the templates with the Chinese dragon drawings and use to cut and trace to make
Head
Body
Tail
Other: Eye, Nostril, Teeth

Step 2:

Trace and cut in red paper:
- Head 2 pieces
- Body 4 pieces
- Tail 2 pieces
In gold or white paper:
- Teeth
- Eye
In black paper (optional, you can simply draw it with a black marker)
- Nostril

Step 3 - Making the Body and Tail:

Cut stripes of color paper about one inch wide using the fun shape scissors.
Use a variety of colors, textures, patterns, for a striking look

Step 4:

Glue the stripes to the body and tail, mixing colors and patterns, make sure it covers the body and don't worry about any excess, it will be trimmed on the next step.
Before you start glueing, pay special attention to which side of the body or tail to glue, you will need one front and one back piece rather than two of the same.

Step 5:

Cut any excess paper
Repeat with remaining body and tail pieces

Step 6:

Cut small triangles of red paper and glue a few pieces to the top of the body from the inside
Do the same with the tail

Step 7:

Tape one chopstick to the back of one of the tail pieces
Glue together both front and back pieces for the tail and body

Step 8 - Putting the Dragon head together:

Cut the eye or just draw it with a black marker
Cut the nostril or just draw it with a black marker
Cut the teeth and glue to one side only from the inside

Step 9:

Now let's decorate the head and make it a bit more colorful
Cut small "flame-like" pieces, same shape as the eye but smaller, in all the different papers
Glue to the head to create the "mane" of the dragon

Step 10:

Tape the other chopstick to the inside of the head
Glue the front and back of the head together, chopstick is in between.

Step 11 - Putting the Dragon Together:

You should now have all four pieces ready
Punch holes on the segments to put them together
- The back of the head
- Both ends of both body parts
- The front of the tail