Chinese New Year Craft: Easy Faux Firecrackers

"Have you been to the new T&T Chinese Superstore, yet?", I kept getting asked.

You've got to understand, for the past 10 years, I've been making do with my local grocers. I may take a few trips a year to Chinatown, in the downtown part of Ottawa, but those trips are rare. So, the idea of a superstore selling mostly Chinese groceries about 15 minutes drive away from my part of town is very appealing. However, 5 months later, I still had not gone. This is because I abhor crowded shopping areas, and I've been warned that it's a very busy store.

I finally made it to the store because I wanted to buy Chinese New Year decorations. Yes, that's right. Decorations, not food, made to go to the store. The store itself was huge, aisles were big and food were displayed neatly. I was ecstatic.
However, to my big disappointment, I found only very cheap, gaudy looking new year decorations. It's just like Christmas decorations, you know. Sometimes, you find gorgeous ones. Other times, they are just plain yuck.

To ease my pain, I spent $40 on (processed) food:

Oh, sesame cookies, savory buns, pocky sticks, dried mango, fish balls, lots of noodles..... yum!!!

Ahhh.... forgive the rambling. If you've stuck with me this far, thank you.
That regaling of my adventure was just to let you know that I was finally convinced that I needed to make my own decorations.

Ready for the easy, lazy girl's version of firecrackers?


Everyone has seen Rae's Easy Heart Garland, right? If you haven't, go see. I'll wait for you.

Same idea. Just cut rectangular pieces of red felt or fleece (I used fleeced recycled from my daughter's old sweater). Machine sew the pieces together in one straight line, lining up the pieces on an angle as you go!

I braided leftover pieces of khaki strips to create the illusion of a fuse:



I have a few of these hanging around the house.

There you go, a fast and satisfying Chinese New Year project.


By the way, this year's Chinese New Year falls on Valentine's Day. It's very hard for me to decided what to put up. The only thing good I can say about it, is that at least they have the red theme in common.