[MYOT - Make Your Own Toys!] is my series focusing on making toys for small kids with daily life materials, a.k.a trash, that every parent can do it without any skills. Love is needed though. It costs nothing but your time and you can do it with your kids, making it a special time for you. Besides, it's green earth compatible and you might even blog your experience here and earn! Use #myot tag so we can all share your fun!
This time I am gonna share a toy that I made more than half an year ago! Now seems a good time to share this because I have just recently been educated by fellow Hong Kong Steemians that they actually celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival by lanterns!! So I don't have to wait a whole year to share this! Woohoo~~~ Good timing and good learning too!!
So, It was the lantern festival back in the beginning of the Chinese lunar new year. My son's kindergarten asked us the parents to prepare a lantern for him so they would take them out and have fun carrying lanterns in the park. So we thought ok we need a lantern so we went to buy one from the market. This Patrick-from-Spongebob cute little lantern was the one we bought.
You think it's cute!? No!!! This is not a lantern at all!! This is just a fancy electrical moving object with a popular animation character (and maybe even without image authorization). I can live with the fact that lanterns no longer use candles, but use leds to light, but there is no way that a lantern is electrified so it can move by some buttons!! If so, why call it a lantern? everything comes with it would mean nothing at all...
[MYOT 自製玩具系列] 是我早期的系列之一。這次要分享的是：自已手作燈籠！哈哈，剛好最近香港朋友們的中秋過節文章，讓我學習了中秋提燈籠這件好玩的事，於是我想起我有個今年元宵節手作的，給兒子玩的燈籠，一直還沒分享。心想可能是要等一年了，沒想到現在剛好學習到這項新知，所以，時機正好，就不用等啦！感謝香港捧油啊！
話說今年初春節末的元宵節，兒子幼兒園通知家長說要準備燈籠，校外教學用，要帶小朋友們上街到公園去提燈籠玩耍。自然地，現代父母嘛，買一個得了。於是，去市場看過一輪才發現，燈籠早已不燈籠了！完全不知所以的東西，那還叫燈籠嗎？好不容易妥協買了一個。就是開頭這個來自海綿寶寶動畫的，圓圓胖胖的粉紅派大星，很可愛吧！
但我實在無法接受它。我無法接受，這是燈籠，只因為有裝個Led燈在裡頭，似乎還不只一顆燈，色彩會變化的。我超級痛恨這類沒有品味的，以為燈能夠變顏色就是加值的愚蠢想法！更不能接受的是，它還能動！按個鈕什麼的，派大星先生就會發光前進！把這不是燈籠的燈籠變成電動車也是加值？愚蠢至極！
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So I decided to make one myself - partly because I was too angry and need something for diversion. Luckily we just had a box of fantastic cheese tarts from a Japanese store in Taipei. It was sooooooooo delicious and the point is ... we had an empty box that looked so pretty and suitable for making a lantern out of it!
所以，我生氣了。所以，我得轉移注意力。所以，我決定自己做。古代人不都自己糊的嗎？我還能Google呢，怕啥呢？幸運的是，剛好手邊就有一個超級好吃的乳酪塔盒子，外觀也很美，黃色挺適合的。這家乳酪塔是日本北海道名店來台北開的，是排隊美食。我不是太喜歡吃甜食的人都覺得很好吃喔！給你看看盒子，也看看這美味糕點！啊，哈哈，樓歪了...
Box and Tart
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So, after contemplating it over in my brain, I prepared the tools needed and lucky again that I managed to find something that could make it work and make it look good - a small flashlight (yeah! the light source!!), a spared red diamond-shaped auspicious paper with a FU (福，happiness) character on it and a red decorative lantern-shaped ornament that can go with my lantern... All good. So blessed! :)
所以，我迅速在腦中想好怎麼做這燈籠，邊看手邊有什麼材料可以利用。又再次幸運的，剛好有一張春節的福到紅紙，稍微剪裁就可以成為燈籠的主要畫面，還找到一隻小手電筒，就是我的光源啦！甚至剛好有個小燈籠吊飾，可以放在這個燈籠下方，通常燈籠都有點流蘇類的裝飾啊！太好了，神助我也！
Things You Need
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I did not photoshoot the whole process but you can see from below that I cut some holes of different shapes and even wrote some English letters beside them. Remember this was for kindergarten kids so always on the learning mode! :) We have square, octagon, stars... yeah, learning while playing!!
On top of the lantern, I cut a small hole so the flashlight can be used to carry the main body while providing the light! and on the bottom is the ornament hinged to it.
我沒有好好將整個製作過程拍下，但你看圖就知道大概怎麼做的。我在盒子上打了許多各種形狀的洞，燈籠嘛，總是得讓光透出來，然後因為是幼兒的燈籠，所以用各種形狀，加上一點英文在旁邊，可以邊玩邊學習啊，Star... Oh, this is Square... 哈哈！好玩吧？盒子頂端打了一個小洞，讓手電筒的吊繩可以穿過，剛好成為提燈籠的地方；底部是那個小吊飾，也是要打個洞裝上去。
Carving and Attaching
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Now, let's turn on the flashlight! seems ready to roll!! See how I need to cut a door on the side so my son's little hand can reach the flashlight inside the box to turn on/off the light! It's just big enough for him, my hand is too big for it. Perfect kid's lantern again!
好了好了，試試看打開手電筒的光吧！哇！看起來是不是很棒啊！你看到了嗎？我得在側面開個小門，讓孩子的小手可以伸進去開關光源，剛剛好他的手可以，我的就有點太大了，真是太適合小朋友了！
Oh, now let's meet the lantern and sit it upright. Looking good huh?
把燈籠好好放好，看清楚成品吧！哇！真的是我做的嗎？有模有樣的呢！
Take a Good Look at it
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It's no use if a lantern doesn't look good in the dark. So there is a final test to it. fingers crossed.
燈籠要成為真正的燈籠，就必須接受黑暗的考驗。來吧，關燈見真章吧 ....
Drum rolls... Turn off the light!!
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Oh, man. It is even prettier in the dark!! It is a genuine lantern! :~~~~
感人的一刻，燈火亮起，燈籠的古老意象，頓時來到今朝。我感動得快哭了都~~~~
The Happy Face of My Son
My son holding with my handmade lantern with his kindergarten classmates! See how other parents all settled for those they can found from the market. I don't blame them at all. This is just the modern way of life, but sadly losing our traditions day by day. If I weren't too angry about it and happened to come up with a MYOT idea, my son would be holding a similar lantern with his friends... I feel proud to have made it and gave my son a good memory...
兒子跟同學們開心在學校的活動中合影，帶著我們自製的燈籠，其他人都是買的。我很開心，兒子也很開心，一切都值得了。感謝Steemit啟發我做玩具的潛力，開啟了MYOT系列...
What!? You cannot see any one in the frame? oh, I see... they are too shy.. should appear within the next 24 hours... lol
[the truth is ... I cannot find the photo tonight. But I am pretty sure I keep a copy in my office computer.]
什麼？看不到？噢，他們可能是太害羞了吧.... :) .... 等24小時內會出現的，放心。[好啦，我找不到相片但確定辦公室電腦有所以明天補上笑臉圖啦]
Thank you for reading my #MYOT series! I encourage all of you to do the same and have fun with your kids! Last time we used a tissue box and this time a cookie box. See how important they are? Keep them! :)
✂ [MYOT - Make Your Own Toys!] Tissue Box House ✂ [MYOT 自製玩具系列] 面紙盒變房子！✂