Hello all, I am Teacher Shi from Kunming, where I live and host Lingoinn students. Today I’m going to guide you through the steps to create your own paper cutting in the form of a butterfly, an important Chinese symbol of longevity and love.
Paper Cutting 剪紙 jjiǎnzhǐ is an ancient Chinese art form originating in the 6th century AD that uses simple cutting and folding paper techniques to create intricate decorations. Traditional 剪紙 jiǎnzhǐ is used to decorate windows and doors, gaining its name of chuāng huā 窗花, meaning window flower. So follow along with me as we create our window flowers together!
Preparation: You will need a rectangular shape of paperboard, a pair of scissors and a pencil
Step 1: Fold the paperboard in half
Step 2: Use the pencil to draw the outline of half-butterfly
Step 3: Use the scissors to cut along the outline for a rough shape of the butterfly
Step 4: Further cut out the details
Step 5: Unfold the paperboard and a beautiful butterfly is in front of you
5 simple steps and you are now a paper cutting artist – well done! The butterfly can be hung on your window or door as a symbolic reminder or you can stick it anywhere as a decoration.
To learn more about me and the activities you can do with me in Kunming, check out my profile here.
Thank you for joining in with me!
