Some of our favourite things to make!
COKE CAN CANDLES
We like these so much we couldn't bear to light them. We made them at a sleepover last year (with
a bit of help from a friend :::::::waving::::::: to Brian!)
You need:
One empty aluminium drink can
plain white wax
blocks of coloured wax
wicking (cut to length)
satay or pop stick
blu-tac or plasticene
First cut the top off the can and smooth the rough edges. Now punch a hole in the centre at the bottom,
poke the wick through the hole and seal the hole with the blu-tac (on the outside!). Balance the satay stick across the top of the can
and tie the other end of the wick to it. Pull it up tight and make sure it is in the centre of the can or your candle will burn crooked.
Now put the plain wax on to melt while you chop up the coloured wax blocks into small chunks. It doesn't matter what shape
the chunks are as long as they will fit into the can. Choose the pattern you want to make - graduated layers (one colour, light to dark),
rainbow layers, your team colours (eg red, yellow & blue), rainbow chunks (mixed colours), citrus layers, whatever you like. You can
also add essential oils or dried flower petals or herbs. Pack the coloured wax into the can, filling the can right to the top and press down firmly. Carefully pour the
melted plain wax into the can until it is full and leave it to set. We went and had dinner while we were waiting.
After a couple of hours, check the candles. If they are set, remove the satay sticks and gently roll the cans around on the table to loosen the candle. Remove the blu-tac and gently slide the candle out. Woila! The bottom of the can has now become a nice, neat rolled edge on the top of the candle. Trim the wick and smooth the bottom of the candle (was the top of the can) with a hot knife. We put our candles into an old electric frypan and pushed them around on the hot surface until they were smooth and sat flat on the table.
TIE-DYING
We had a great time making different patterns with our pieces of material!
You need:
Pieces of cotton fabric (use white cotton or calico for best results)
2 different colours of fabric dye (we used pink and blue)
some different sized pebbles or glass marbles
strong cotton string
Rubber gloves
Apron or old shirt to protect clothes
There are lots of books available which will show you the different kinds of patterns you can make by tying the material in different ways. Once you have decided on the pattern (we used the marbles to make circles and also did fan folds), place your marble or pebble in the area where you want a ring to appear. Pull the material tight around it and tie it with the cotton string, wrapping the ends of the string around the material several times. The tighter you tie the string, the better the pattern will be.
Now mix up the dye according to the instructions on the packet. When you are satisfied with the number of marbles that you have tied into the material, gather it up and drop it carefully into the bucket of dye. Put on your rubber gloves and push it around in the dye for a few seconds until it is a colour you like, then remove it and gently squeeze out the excess dye. Undo the string and remove the marbles. Marvel at your fabulous pattern! Peg the material up to dry (somewhere where the dye dripping off won't affect anything).
You can also dip your material in different colours to get different effects. We dipped one end in pink and the other in blue on some of ours.
Beadie Critters
We made some beautiful beadie dragonflies using black seed beads and gold bugle beads the other week (with some help from one of our Mum's ::::::waving:::::: to Kay!) It is too complicated to try to explain how it is done, so here are some websites with info on what to do. We liked ours so much that we are going to do some more different critters later on in the year.
Beadie Critter patterns
Australian mail order bead supplies
Click on our worm to go to our Thinking Day page
