Thursday, May 27, 2010

Father's Day Project: Chinese take-out with fortune cookies!



I won't be offering you a chow mein recipe (nevertheless I'll highly recommend this one from Jamie Oliver ;) but I'll show you how to make a fun and personalized gift for Father's Day which happens on June 2oth this year. So let's get started:

You will need:

For the container:
- a take out box (purchased mine from Michael's for less than $2)
- two identical 12x12 sheets of patterned papers
- ribbon, tag and whatever else you want to use to embellish it
For the cookies:
- 4" circles cut out of patterned papers (the amount depends on how many fortune cookies you want)
- a strong type of double sided tape
- cardstock to print the fortunes on

1/Gently take apart your take-out box by removing its handle. Trace and cut out four sides out of your 12X12 papers as shown below:


2/After you've glued your papers on the outside, make sure to recreate the holes and slits that you have covered up so that you can reassemble your box:


3/ Create a tag with your sentiment and/or embellish the box itself.

4/ For the fortunes, I asked my kids to tell me things they love about their Dad. I printed their sentences (such as "I love it when you take me fishing", "You're awesome Dad!" and such) onto the cardstock paper and cut them into strips:


5/You can find several tutorials for these paper cookies online but I will share the method I used here. Take one of your 4" circle and while gently folding it in half, pinch it only in the middle:

6/ Place a piece of double sided tape perpendicular to your fold as shown here:

7/ Then fold your circle in the opposite direction from your first fold and place your fortune inside the circle: (stay with me here!:)

8/ While holding the cookie as shown above, gently push on the crease you've created in #5 and glue together the pieces that meet (where you have placed your tape):

The paper will fold onto itself and become a little fortune cookie!

Place your fortune cookies into your container and I guarantee you smiles (from dads AND kids) on Father's Day!

6 comments:

*Paula* said...

What a fun project Nathalie - looks wondeful!

Unknown said...

This is an incredible idea Nathalie. You never cease to amaze me with your creations!

Susan said...

What a neat idea!!

Tammy said...

This is an awesome idea Nathalie, one that the kids and I will definitely do for this Father's Day!

Carrie said...

Fun fun idea!

MONICA said...

I love this...went and got a take out box and some cool paper from Micahel's this morning. Cannot wait to finish this and have it ready for father's day. Thank you so much for the awesome tutorial.
x0x0x