Crafty Tuesday – 9 February 2010 (Fastelavnsris – Carnival decoration)

The kids are excited about their Carnival parties this week. I’ll write more about how carnival is celebrated in Denmark tomorrow. But as today is Crafty Tuesday, let’s set those timers for 15 minutes and make a carnival essential! A Fastelavnsris…

You’ll need:

  • a few bare branches (should be easy to find at this time of year…)
  • sellotape, thread, ribbon or wire
  • coloured carton or paper
  • bits n’ bobs
  • some small sweets (wrapped, if possible)

Take a small handful of branches and secure them at one end. You can tie a piece of ribbon around, if you want to pretty up the ‘handle’. Use wire, sellotape or thread to stick on the sweets.

Cut out a few shapes from coloured card and stick on. Traditional shapes are cats, barrels and masks. Let the kids go mad with glue sticks and sequins… The branches should be looking quite colourful now. Add a few coloured feathers if you have them. And streamers. Or whatever takes your fancy…

When you’re all done the fastelavnsris can either be hung up in a hallway or stuck in a vase until it’s ready to be ‘used’. I’ll write more about the tradition tomorrow…

Have a terrific Tuesday! 🙂