It's no secret that fortune cookies may be a more accurate way to determine your future than the newspaper horoscopes... at least you can eat as many as you want until you find the fortune that most suits your hopes and aspirations!Before I had children who think a jam sandwich is gourmet, I used to host some rather nice dinner parties. If the menu was remotely Asian I would often set a single fortune cookie tied with a piece of red ribbon or yarn, on each entree plate. Perhaps they're better served at the end as a desert, but I found them the perfect ice-breaker; everyone had something to fiddle with if they were nervous, they'd read their fortune, laugh or sigh and then agree or disagree with who had the brightest future while I finished plating the first course in the kitchen.
While pinning on pinterest I realised that fortune cookie craft is alive and well. Good. It's a fab idea. So I decided to give it a go. I did a search for a video and followed along. I'm often writing about activities to do with toddlers. This is not one of them. I found the tutorials challenging, and I like to think of myself as smart, albeit sleep deprived.
I started photographing the steps but it's almost impossible to show you the way to fold the fortune cookies shut. The basic system is; trace a circle onto paper (I used an old CD as the guide as it's the perfect size). Cut the circle out and fold it gently in half so you get a bit of a line where the middle is. Now fold it the other way, sticking a bit of double sided tape in as you do. Got that? Hmmm... as I said; a picture tells a thousand words, and moving pictures are even better for something like this.
Once I had figured it out however, I got faster at it, and decided to experiment with different materials. I used plain colours while I experimented, to save on more expensive paper and because the folds etc are more obvious when you photograph them. Of course you can use whatever textured or patterned papers you like, but I do recommend practicing on recycled paper first.
So then, the 4 materials I used were; paper (in orange), card (yellow), felt (dark red) and foam (bright red). If I had to pick my preferences, I'd say;
- The paper was my favourite; it was easy to work with and the result was fine. It was also the only one that stayed in shape for more than 24 hours.
- The foam was also great; lovely and tactile, and even resembled the edible material.
- Felt was lovely too, but if you decide to go this route, look for the felt video, as there is an additional step with a ribbon covered piece of wire to hold it closed, and as such, it's more fiddly and time consuming. I tried without the wire and it worked, but it needed more tape... perhaps a glue gun would work.
- The cardboard was tricky to work with and needed a lot of tape to hold it in place, it came close to being classified a craft-fail.
While the rest of the world celebrates Chinese New Year, I've got other holidays to craft for, so I'll be moving right along; there's Australia Day, then V-Day, and Easter not far behind... at least I'm assuming Easter's only days away since my local supermarket has been FILLED with tempting goodies for some time now.
