Free Chinese paper cutting templates
Free Chinese paper cutting templates in the manner of the folk craft: two fish in a ring, a leaping carp, round and square window flowers, a pig, a rooster, a dog, a rabbit, a peony, a lotus, a butterfly, a lantern, plum blossom, clouds and a sun. Each is one sheet that holds together, drawn by code and ready to print or cut as SVG, PNG or DXF.
16 designs. Free for personal and commercial use, no sign-up. What you can do with them.
Or choose one below for its PNG, DXF and cutting sizes.
-
Chinese paper cutting of two fish in a ring Solid · one piece -
Chinese paper cut carp leaping from the waves Solid · one piece -
Round Chinese paper cutting window flower Solid · one piece -
Easy Chinese paper cutting flower Solid · one piece -
Square Chinese paper cutting with corner flowers Solid · one piece -
Chinese paper cut pig with a flower Solid · one piece -
Chinese paper cut rooster Solid · one piece -
Chinese paper cut dog with a curled tail Solid · one piece -
Chinese paper cut rabbit Solid · one piece -
Chinese paper cutting peony Solid · one piece -
Chinese paper cut lotus flower Solid · one piece -
Chinese paper cut butterfly Solid · one piece -
Chinese New Year paper cutting of a lantern Solid · one piece -
Chinese New Year paper cutting of plum blossom Solid · one piece -
Chinese paper cutting clouds Solid · one piece -
Chinese paper cutting sun Solid · one piece
What these designs are, and what they are not
Paper cutting, jianzhi in Chinese, is a folk craft practised across China: a picture is cut from one thin sheet, most often red, with scissors or a knife. The finished cuts are pasted on windows, doors and walls, above all for the Lunar New Year and for weddings, and the ones made for windows are known as window flowers. UNESCO added Chinese paper-cut to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2009.
The designs here are drawn by code in the manner of that craft. They are not copies of any artist’s work or of a regional school, and they carry no written characters, because a character with a wrong stroke is worse than none. What they borrow is the grammar: the figure is the paper that is left, everything stays joined in one sheet, and the detail is cut with the two marks the craft is known for, the crescent and the sawtooth. The notes say what is drawn and leave the meanings of the motifs to people who know the tradition.
Paper, size and cutting
Every file is 100 mm on its longer side, and each design page lists the narrowest strip of paper at that size. Across the set it runs from 1.5 mm on the round window flower to 4.9 mm on the easy flower. For a cutting machine, thin paper of 80 to 120 gsm on a light-grip mat with a sharp fine blade works best, at 150 mm or more so that the sawtooth points come out clean: the teeth are only about 2.5 mm apart at 100 mm. Lift the sheet slowly and from several sides, since a paper cut is all bridges.
To cut by hand, print the PNG on the back of red paper, mirrored if the direction matters to you, and work from the centre outwards with a craft knife, small shapes first and the outline last. These also cut well in vinyl for a window, which is where a window flower belongs.
How to open the files
- Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
- Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
- LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
- Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
- Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.
Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.
Questions
Which Chinese paper cutting design is best for a beginner?
The easy flower. It has seventeen cut-outs, all large, and no strip of paper narrower than 4.9 mm at 100 mm, so it survives scissors, a first try with a knife or a child’s hands. The lantern and the clouds are the next step up.
Can I fold the paper and cut these the traditional way?
The easy flower, yes: it repeats in every eighth of the circle, so fold a square in half three times into a wedge, draw one eighth of the design on it and cut through all eight layers. The butterfly, the peony, the lotus and the lantern are the same on both sides, so they can be cut from a sheet folded once. The animals are not symmetrical and are cut flat.
How do I put a paper cut on a window?
Lay it face down, touch a glue stick to a few of the broad areas on the back, and press it to clean, dry glass from the inside. For something that peels off cleanly after the holiday, cut the design from red window cling or removable vinyl instead of paper.
Turkey SVG 
Easter egg SVG 
Firework SVG 
Mardi Gras mask SVG 
Valentine card SVG 
Mother’s Day card SVG