Summer Fans

Cooling (and fun) Circular hand fan ☀️

So it’s been a scorcher hasn’t it! And there as been a big need for some air movement in this house. We don’t have an electric fan so today set to work making some handfans all you need is:

• A3 sketchbook paper suitable for watercolour

• Crayons

• Watercolour Paint

• Brushes and a sponge

• Wool yarn, and or elastic band

• Hot Glue Gun

• Wooden lolly sticks

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Method:

• Cut your paper, you will need to cut the A3 sheet in half lengthways (two halves for a large fan, one half makes a small toddler size fan)

•Crayon a picture on your paper

• When done wet the paper with water, soak off any excess and paint using wet on wet technique, leave to dry.

• when dry pleat your paper 1.5cm pleats, join the two halves with hot glue of superglue to make a longer piece of pleated paper for a large fan, if making a small fan then you can pleat the half of A3 then cut in half again (along its length) then join these two pieces in the middle.

• Gather your pleated paper together and secure with an elastic band or wool yarn (or both) you can glue the end of the pleats together if you wish for added security.

• Gently ease your fan around into a circle where your two sides join in the centre at the bottom make a small mark just under where the base of the fan sits against them.

To make the handles place hot glue either side of your lolly sticks, insert them between the paper folds at either end of the fan ensuring that the lily stick sits just under the line you marked (this ensures the base of the fan which is bulky does not get In the way and allows the lolly sticks to come together to hold)

• If you like tie a piece of yarn around one lolly stick a#so when brought together you can tie them to keep the fan open.

I’ve added some extra protection against midges and other insects by adding a few drops of @doterraeurope Terra shield to the paper to dry! It’s actually worked quite well! Of course you could add any essential oil of your choice for an uplifting scent as you cool yourself in the hot summer sun.

Enjoy making!

Kite Paper Seashells

Kite paper Spiral shells. 🐚

Our summer window is taking a trip to the seaside and I have began to make lots of seaside transparency’s one which I absolutely love are these origami spirals which when trimmed look like shells.

You will need

A large long triangle of Kite paper the triangle should have one right angle and two straight edges.

A card guide, an acute triangle equal on both sides (see image)

Glue stick

Method.

Place your guide triangle against the edge of your large kite paper triangle, the wide end should be at the long straight edge of the kite paper triangle. Make sure the point of your guide matches perfectly to the edge of the edge of your kite paper triangle.

Fold your kite paper triangle over your guide toward you. Remove the guide, bring on top of the folded paper and flip over so the narrow end is the opposite way, line this with the creased edge you just created then fold the paper back over the triangle.

Repeat these steps until the end of the spiral making sure you always line the narrow end with the edge of the paper, your creases and folds become narrower, then simply trim the smallest end of the spiral you can’t fold when you get to the centre.

Place a dab of glue under the spiral to secure and stick to a window, to make it look like a shell trim the spiral slightly to give it a smoother outline (see first image the origami on the right has not been trimmed)

Tag me in any posts if you have a go and let’s share some summertime window magic

Summer Beeswax Luminary

Summer Beeswax Luminary 🐚

So as you may have guessed I have recently bought some sea themed silicone moulds and we are having so much fun with them. A luminary we made at Christmas (hence the gold glitter inside) has had a bit of a rough 7 months and I thought could do with some TLC. I was so inspired by a post I saw by the lovely Franzi @my_seasonal_treasury last week and her seaside luminary I thought these moulds came in handy for a little upcycle.

To make a luminary..

Melt beeswax in a Bain Marie. Fill a balloon with cold water so it’s about the size of a small bowl and dip in hot beeswax (to make a bowl shape) and then water, keep dipping until the required thickness is achieved (around 30-40 times) if you want glitter on the inside like mine simply coat your balloon in glitter first and then dip. Leave to set them pop the balloon. To make it stand rub it over a warmed pan to flatten the base a little.

If you are making wax objects to stick on your luminary then you will need to take them from the mould whilst they are still soft to allow them to bond to the wax, a couple I had wouldn’t stay (the large pieces) so I used a little Stockmar decorating wax and it worked a treat! Why not fill your moulds with petals like I did to make the little decorations so interesting.

I hope nobody is too fed up of my seaside spam yet! 😂😂 I think I’m done till august when we delve into my upcoming Waldorf Magic guide.

The thing I love about this is it reminds me so much of the jars I used to make at my nannas, every summer we would spend at the beach collecting shells and sticking them on glass jars! This will be carefully treasured now and brought out every summer!