Lolly Fan

Ok, so I'm not going to spend this WHOLE post complaining about the God-awful-too-British-for-this-heat-I'm-moving-to-the-artic weather, but is does need mentioning.  IT'S SO HOT!!  How to deal with this?   Well firstly, there's ice lollies, which means secondly, there are lolly fans.

What do you do with all those lolly sticks that you keep finding poked into different bits of the furniture by errant children?  Make a little, Chinese style paper fan of course.  Oh, and educate the children in the art of not poking rubbish into places it shouldn't be,  upcycling and not buying stuff that you can make yourself.

The paper in this instance is those beautiful sheets that you get in the middle of Mollie Makes or Flow magazine, that you never know what to do with, but keep anyway because they're so pretty.  Or, at the request of the eldest beast, you could use the front cover of the Beano.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
2 lolly sticks
2 sheets of A4
Sticky tape
Glue stick

Step 1: Get 2 sheets of A4

Cut in half length ways.  You will need 3 strips.

Step 2:
From the bottom edge, fold up 1-2cm, then fold to the back the same width - just like making a paper fan when you were at school.

 Do this to all 3 pieces.

Glue all 3 pieces together, end to end.

Step 3:

Pinch into a fan shape...

 

...and tape around a cm at the end.

Step 4:
For both edges - cover the lolly stick in glue, leaving roughly 2cm at one end.

Stick to the edge of the fan, making sure you don't cover the bit that you taped.

Leave to dry for a few mins and then ta daaaaaa!

I did try this with a pair of knitting needles too, but you need at least 5 sheets of A4, cut down to a slightly awkward width of around 15cm, so there's a but more waste than I would have liked, and a stronger, fabric tape to hold the needles in place.  And while not as neat, it is rather lovely.