I take no credit for this. The pop-up card project is being offered as one of the options in our museum art activity room. The fishy-result was drawn by colleague Marnie, who has kindly let me use her creation in this blog.
1) Start by folding a full-sheet of card stock in half. Cut a slit in the centre, through the folded edge, but only part way (as you see above)
2) Fold up the corners of the cut edge as pictured. Score the new folded edges with a ruler. UNFOLD – flat again (not pictured)
3) Open the sheet to its full flatness (like an open book) and use you fingers from behind to press the folded triangles out towards you. You have now made a pop-up mouth!
4) Fold the sheet back to its original half, but leave the “mouth” popped forward. Cut a small slit in the upper folded edge.
5) Fold the corners out — in the same manner as Step 2. It will be tricky if the paper is thick. Use a ruler to score the edges.
6) Unfold the sheet and use your fingers to pop these new folds out and forward to create eyes. If you find it difficult, try poking and then pulling the end of a pencil through the “eye” towards you. The folds will likely follow.
7) Paste your mouth to another piece of card stock or construction paper, being careful to line up the folds in your fish to the folds in the additional paper. Draw a fishy body — create a fishy environment, like a lake… or a Christmas Eve dinner table!
Posted in Carpmas Day 3 | Comments Off on CarpCraft: Pop-Up Card
This project is inspired by all of the Food Channel dessert-sculpting competitions I watched prior to Halloween. Crisp-Rice Treats seemed to be the fall-back medium whenever a chef couldn’t structurally use pulled sugar, fondant or molding chocolate. Crisp-rice treats are to food art what papier-mâché is to prop-building!
Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. Keeping the burner on lowish-heat melt in 4 cups of miniature marshmallows. When they are completely melted fold in 6 cups of crisp rice cereal. Stir until the cereal is covered.
Turn the cereal mixture onto a working surface. Wait sixty-seconds (as the material is quite hot and I don’t want you to burn yourself — but don’t wait TOO long. It needs to still be warm).
Butter your hands so they don’t stick to the material.
Time once again to put Carpmas to bed (and protect it from the spammers).
Before we go – I would like to share photos of the Carpmas gift I got (remember folks, gifts are not necessary) from my Junior High pal Sheryl who now lives in Norway.
A classic Seuss story – with a fish named Otto and a hero named Mr Carp:
Posted in Post-mortem | Comments Off on Carpmas to Bed
I had to cook for a crowd (of four – double my usual Carpmas audience) so I decided on an old staple of the North American diet: The Tuna Noodle Casserole.
I used All-Dressed potato chips instead of bread crumbs for the topping.
The tune for this year’s Carpmas Carol is Howard Blake’s “Walking in the Air“. If you are not familiar with the music then please watch the linked YouTube clip below.
I like Poetry Day to be collaborative so I encouraged contributions (collected under a Facebook status post) – asking for words that rhymed with “carp”.
My composition, using all the words – but in an un-even rhyming pattern (ironic – because I’m weird like that) is pictured below.
And a contribution from the lovely Michelle:
Posted in Carpmas Day 7 | Comments Off on CarpPoetry
Carp story submitted by my nephew Noah, who has experienced some koi-goldfish tragedy recently.
He claims this is a work of fiction, although I know he is drawing upon very painful moments in his own life to bring truth to his writing. He uses themes that are universal – joy, sadness, life, death, hunger and satiation. The toilet, as a symbol of journey, is ingenious.
