Free Chinese Lanterns SVG ❤️ Chinese New Year Craft Idea

Looking for Chinese New Year craft ideas to make with a Cricut? How about these beautiful papercraft lanterns!

Two intricate lanterns are hanging from a tree branch decorated with gorgeous pink blossom flowers.

Chinese lanterns Cricut project

This design has lots of bold, bright colours and it looks wonderful when made, especially with the pops of bright yellow in the lanterns and the contrast of the soft pink of the blossom flowers.

See how to stick all the layers together (and the order they go in!) in this tutorial.

Video tutorial for Chinese Lanterns SVG

Watch the video below to see how to make this craft project for Chinese New Year. Keep scrolling for a written tutorial.

Layered Chinese lanterns shadow box materials

Here is a list of the materials that I used to make this project.

Please note that some of the links included in this article are affiliate links, which means that if you click through and make a purchase I may receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). You can read my full disclosure at the bottom of the page.

Paper lanterns

Layered Chinese lanterns SVG assembly instructions

Here’s how to make your very own Chinese lanterns using a Cricut machine!

Step 1) Download the free file & unzip the downloaded folder

Download the Free Cutting File

Reset password

Don't have an account? Register for free

TERMS OF USE:
You may sell finished, handmade physical craft items that you have made using this product but must not sell or share the digital files. Read full terms of use

Before you upload the SVG to Design Space, you need to unzip the download folder that it comes in.

Step 2) Upload the SVG file into Design Space

Open up Cricut Design Space and upload the file called svg-chinese-lanterns-craftwithsarah.svg

Make sure you upload the file which starts svg- in the filename!!

This is how it should look after you have uploaded the file:

After uploading, the design will show in your “Recently Uploaded Images”. Click on it and then press “Add to Canvas” to put it onto your Project.

Click the design on your canvas and use the width/height boxes near the top of the screen to make it the size that you want to cut it.

I made mine 7.5 inches wide. I don’t recommend going much smaller than about 5 inches wide as some of the pieces are quite thin in places, so if you make the design much smaller it may be difficult to cut.

If you would like to just cut the lanterns and tree branch without the background, look down the layers panel and hide the bottom three layers by hovering your mouse of them and clicking the eye icon.

When you’re happy how the design SVG is looking in Design Space, click “Make It” and follow the instructions on-screen to cut out all the layers.

Change the paper size using the dropdowns on the left.

You can click-and-drag shapes around to use up less of your cardstock.

Step 3) Stick the layered lanterns together

Use 3D foam pads and glue to stick the layers together.

Use this guide to see the order to stick the layers together in. A high quality printable version of this assembly guide is included in the folder when you download this SVG.

My favourite glue to use on papercraft projects is Collall All Purpose Glue.

It’s SO good because it doesn’t “warp” or bend the cardstock like some glues do. You can use as much of it as you want and the card stays perfect – and it dries perfectly clear too!

To make it even easier to apply glue to layered card projects, I highly recommend getting some of these needle tip applicator bottles to put the glue into.

The nozzles are REALLY tiny which makes them perfect for putting glue in the pieces of cardstock that make up this design.

The foam square I’m using are from “Dot & Dab”, but any similar product will work. If your foam squares are bit then you may need to cut them smaller with scissors.

When adding the foam pads to the relevant layers, make sure you add some in the middle of the pieces of card so it give stability to the middles. If you don’t add any foam pads in the middles then it can “sag” under the weight of the other layers which doesn’t look as good.

Chinese lanterns papercraft project

Here is how the Chinese lanterns papercraft project will look once all of the layers are stuck together.

It’s now all ready to be framed!

Love layered SVGs? Check out my other free layered SVG files

Happy crafting,
Sarah x