I'm a full-time mummy

I had previously posted a tutorial on making Chinese New Year (aka CNY) lantern as CNY is coming in a few weeks time! So, here goes my  second DIY Chinese New Year Lantern:

What you need is: 9 pieces of red packets (or what we Chinese called 'Ang Pows'), stapler, scissors, cellophane tape and a piece of string.

Take 1 red packet, ensure the front is facing you, fold in the 2 top corners until they meet. Repeat with the bottom & for the other 7.	Take 4 of the red packets, arrange them with the folded edges & staple the corners together. Repeat with the other 4 red packets.
WIth both the top & bottom of the lantern,  line up the folded edges & staple them together.	Don't worry if your lantern looks weird, they will eventually close up together.
I actually use the cellophane tape to close the gaps in between the edges of the red packets.	A close up shot of how you should stapled the folded edges...
I added an extra touch to the lantern. Take the 9th red packet & cut vertically leaving some space at the top.	Roll up the red packet & tape it with a string which will be used to hang the lantern as well.

The results? TADAAAAAAA!!!

Hope you enjoy my simple tutorial!

Chinese New Year (aka CNY) is coming in a few weeks time! Few days earlier, I was inspired with this photo I saw on my cousin in-law's house. She homemade this very pretty lantern and hung it in her house and I was like 'oh man... I want one of those too!' But reality check... I don't think I could try that out so fast (cos it requires 30 pieces of red packets to do it) and I really don't want to waste that many red packets in my 1st attempt, so I Googled around and found some ideas to experiment.

Here goes my DIY Chinese New Year Lantern Style #1:

What you need is: 8 pieces of red packets (or what we Chinese called 'Ang Pows'), stapler, scissors, cellophane tape and a piece of string.

Take 1 red packet, ensure the front is facing you, fold in the 2 top corners until they meet. Repeat with the bottom & for the other 7.	Take 4 of the red packets, arrange them with the folded edges & staple the corners together. Repeat with the other 4 red packets.
WIth both the top & bottom of the lantern,  line up the folded edges & staple them together.	Don't worry if your lantern looks weird, they will eventually close up together.
I actually use the cellophane tape to close the gaps in between the edges of the red packets.	If you want, you can put in a string through the hole so that you can hang the lantern!

The results? TADAAAAAAA!!!

Stay tuned as I will post another style of making this lantern soon! Hope you enjoy my simple tutorial!

This is my 4th post on sharing "My Two Cents Worth" throughout my blogging journey. In this post, I'm going to write about: Followers.

Why do we need followers?

* To make more bloggy friends, and through them, hopefully can find out more on other people / countries cultures and so on.

* Helps with your blog statistics when you are pitching for some product reviews (as some companies only go for blog with bigger following)

* Wider network / coverage to spread news about giveaways and/or product reviews.

* Blog audience... meaning, at least you know there are other people reading your blogs too!

How to get more followers?

* Regularly produce good written articles that can connect with your blog readers / visitors

* Join the many blog memes around the bloggy land (Check out my Tuesday meme post, these few memes helped me gained a lot of new followers!)

* Host a product giveaway

* Participate in a blog link swap (either through Facebook, Twitter and so on)

* Become guest post on another blog

* Leave comments (real not spam please) on other people's blogs and hopefully they will return the favor and in time form a bloggy friendship and become a follower

* Make sure your follower buttons are easily accesible and simple to subscribe

* Submit your blog URL to blog directories, Search Engines and so on

* Participate in other forums (some of my blog followers came from the Babycenter Forum which I regularly shared my experience and advice in the early days of becoming a SAHM)

So there you go... that's pretty much what I can squeeze out of my tired brain now on the topic of followers.

I've always treat my blog as if it is my child (ok, lower ranking than Ben of course!), and I think you should too! Nurture it, build it, have fun and make happy memories with it as how you would do with your child. It does bring joy to your heart! Feel free to leave me a comment if you would like to find out more on a certain topic. And do let me know your feedback and thoughts about this topic, will you? Until then, happy blogging!