This Waving Chinese Lucky Cat Craft is adorably cute! There is a Waving Cat Printable Template so they are super easy to make too.
This is a fabulous Chinese New Year craft for kids or for when you are learning about and celebrating Chinese or Japanese culture. (A bit of internet researching told me that beckoning lucky cats originated in Japan and are now popular in many parts of the world!)
The printable template has a B/W version you can either colour in or trace around and there are three ready coloured versions too, giving you a yellow, red and green cat.
(This craft has been updated June 2020)
We first came across waving lucky cats when my children were very small and we saw them in our local Chinese restaurant. The kids loved seeing the mechanised ones that actually waved their paw up and down. Inspired to create something similar at home we made this cute maneki-neko craft that has an arm that you can move to make it wave! So fun!
You can make your lucky cat craft in any colour you like and put the waving hand on either side or even make two waving hands! The different colours and hand waving positions all have different meanings which you can read about here.
Waving Chinese Lucky Cat Craft Tutorial
Waving Chinese Lucky Cat Craft Supplies:
- Printable Chinese Lucky Cat Craft Template
- Coloured Cardstock
- Marker Pen
- Scissors
- Glue
How To Make A Cute Chinese Lucky Cat
1 – Print the Chinese lucky cat craft template.
2 – Trace around the pieces onto coloured cardstock and cut out.
3 – Glue the inner ear pieces onto the outer ear pieces.
4 – Glue the ears to the back of the head.
5 – Glue the cheeks onto the face and draw the cat’s eyes, nose, mouth and whiskers with your black Sharpie pen.
6 – Glue the lucky cat’s head onto the body and decorate the neck with the collar and bell.
7 – Draw claw dividers onto the front of your lucky cat’s front paws.
8 – Draw paw pads onto the back paws and the underside of the waving front paw.
9 – Glue the back paws onto the cat’s body at the bottom.
10 – Glue the stationary arm onto the cat’s body at the top only. Gently curl the paw around a pen to lift it off the body and give it a more 3D appearance.
11 – Glue the waving arm onto the back of the cat’s body at the shoulder.
12 – Fold the arm horizontally upwards into a waving position and curl the paw gently around the pen to bend it forwards.
13 – Glue on the lucky fish.
Now you can hold the cat’s paw and wave it up and down. Your Waving Chinese Lucky Cat craft is ready to bring you good fortune and happiness!
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Looking for more Chinese New Year Crafts? Take a peek at our Dragon Sock Puppet and Dragon Hobby Horse. They are adorable! You might also like this fantastic Chinese Dragon Paper Puppet from Red Ted Art.
Click Here To Get Your Waving Chinese lucky Cat Craft Template
(Please note this craft has been updated June 2020 and now includes black/white and x3 colour printables. There is now a small charge.)
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