Chinese 3-D Spring Paper-cut

The completed 3-D paper-cut of the Chinese character for Spring to be made with these step-by-step instructions. You will need colored paper, scissors and paper glue.

An attractive but simple 3-D paper-cut is for the character for Spring 春 chūn so this is very suitable for Chinese New Year (Spring festival) . Save this image so you can print it out on paper.

1. Print out the design on paper - preferably lucky red paper. It needs to be thin paper so it can be printed on using an ordinary printer and so it can be easily cut through once folded.

2. First fold vertically along the middle.

3. Then fold horizontally along the center.

4. Finally fold diagonally to form a triangle.

5. Use scissors to cut along the bottom edge to leave a symmetric triangle.

6. Now start cut away all the wavy lined parts using sharp scissors.

7. The outer areas have been cut away.

8. The inner parts are the final scissor cut.

9. All the cuts have been made and so the paper-cut can be opened out.

10. Now put glue on the printed surface; this is to make the paper edges stick together to form a stable 3-D structure. You want the printed surface on the inside so any traces of the printed outline are not visible so you need to turn the paper-cut inside-out.

11. Now stick the middle sections together to form the 3-D sculpture of spring.

12. Here are two completed sculptures - several together make an attractive table display.