How to make DIY red envelopes for Lunar New Year

1 February 2022

It's Lunar New Year and we're ready to celebrate with these DIY red envelopes.

Though January 31 marked Lunar New Year’s Eve in 2022, people around the world will celebrate for a couple of weeks. This year, this seasonal tradition — which spans Asian communities around the world, including Chinese, Korean, Singaporean, Malaysian, Mongolian, Taiwanese, Tibetan, and Vietnamese cultures — culminates with the Lantern Festival on February 15, 2022.

One of a dozen animals gets linked to each year, with the calendar rotating according to a 12-year cycle. These animals include the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Last year was the Year of the Ox. This year marks the Year of the Tiger.

A fun tradition — apart from the wide array of delicacies and feasts enjoyed during this time — is the gifting of red envelopes.

During Lunar New Year, red envelopes containing money are given to friends and family. These traditionally are given to children or younger relatives as a symbol of good wishes and luck. Red envelopes, also known as hóngbāo, bài nián, or lai see, are colored this way to closer associate with luck, happiness, and energy. Combined with gold, which is considered the color of fortune and prosperity, these envelopes are actually what is considered lucky — not necessarily the money within them.

This Year of the Tiger, we wanted to try making our own envelopes. Lucky for us, Cricut Design Space had plenty of ideas for envelopes and other decór! We’ve outlined the steps below so you can make your own DIY red envelopes to give away.

The envelope image in Design Space is #M44DDB and the image we used for the foiling is #M95E8D58.

That’s it! In just those few, easy steps, you have your own DIY red envelopes to give away for Lunar New Year.

Looking for more Lunar New Year ideas? Check out the Lunar New Year images and ready-to-make projects we’ve added to Design Space.