Ingredients

For the Fruit Mix

• 450 grams currants
• 175 grams sultanas
• 175 grams raisins
• 50 grams chopped glacé cherries
• 50 grams chopped mixed candied peel
• Brandy

For the Cake

• 225 grams unsalted butter
• 225 grams soft brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon black treacle
• 1 tablespoon marmalade
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 big eggs
• 225 grams plain flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mixed spice
• 50 grams chooped almonds

Things You’ll Need:

• Bowl
• Cake tin
• Tea cloth
• Baking parchment
• Brown paper
• Beater
• Spatula
• Skewer

Preparations

For the Fruit Mix

1. Put the fruit mix in a large bowl.
2. Add 3-4 tablespoons of brandy. If you don’t like to use brandy, you can substitute this with orange juice.
3. Place the tea cloth over the bowl. Let the fruit mix soak in brandy or juice over night or for 12 hours.

For the Flour Mix

After 12 hours, prepare the butter and flour mix.

1. Sift the flour and add a dash of salt.
2. Put half a teaspoon of spice and half a teaspoon of cinnamon.

For the Butter

1. Cream the unsalted butter and soft brown sugar together.
2. Add in 2 tablespoons of black treacle, a tablespoon of marmalade and a quarter of a teaspoon of vanilla.
3. Continue mixing until it becomes fluffy.

Steps

1. After preparing the butter mixture, lightly beat the eggs in a separate bowl.
2. Add the beaten eggs to the butter mixture a teaspoonful at a time. Doing this will prevent the mixture from incorporating air and avoid having a finished product that is a bit heavier than what you really want to achieve.
3. Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture.
4. Fold well to blend the 2 mixtures together.
5. Add the soaked fruits in.
6. Add the chopped almonds.
7. Mix well.

Baking

1. Grease the sides of the inner part of the tin.
2. Cover the insides with a baking parchment.
3. Wrap the tin in brown paper. This would protect the cake during baking.



4. Preheat the oven. Some people preheat their ovens to 150° Celsius (300° Fahrenheit) or gas mark 2 while others preheat their ovens to 140° Celsius (275° Fahrenheit) or gas mark 1. You can use either temperature. If you’re a beginner, try preheating your oven to gas mark 1.
5. Carefully transfer the mixture into the tin. Remember not to fill the tin so much.
6. Place the cake tin on the lowest shelf of your oven.
7. Bake the cake for about 3 to 4 hours.
8. After 3 hours, check if your cake is ready by sticking a skewer into the cake. If it comes out clean, you can already remove the cake from the oven. If not, bake it for another hour.
9. Check the cake every 20 minutes until it’s done.
10. Let the cake cool inside the tin for a quarter of an hour.
11. After 15 minutes, remove the cake from the tin and place it on a wire rack.
12. Let the cake cool completely.
13. Once the cake has cooled completely, use a skewer to make some holes in the cake.
14. Pour 3-4 tablespoons of brandy or orange liquer. Make sure to cover the entire surface of the cake.
15. Use a foil to wrap the cake.
16. Place the cake in an airtight container.

Frosting

You can decorate your cake in any way you want. One way of decorating your fruit cake is by covering it with frosting. This will not only make your cake look nicer but will also add more flavor to your cake.

Things You’ll Need

• A cup of powdered Sugar
• 1 to 3 tablespoons of Milk.
• Bowl
• Spoon for mixing

Steps

1. Put the powdered sugar in a bowl
2. Add the milk and stir.
3. If the mixture is too thin add more sugar. If it’s too thick, add more milk.
4. Put the mixture in the refrigerator for about an hour.
5. You can add vanilla for flavor if you want to.
6. When the cake is totally cool, spread the frosting on the cake.
7. You can make swirls or leave the surface smooth if you want to add more cake decorations.

Frosting Tips

• Lightly brush off crumbs on the cake before spreading your frosting.
• You can make colored frosting by dipping a toothpick in a coloring and swirling it in the white mixture.
• Make sure that the consistency of the frosting is not affected when you add food coloring.

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Materials and Tools You’ll Need

• Exterior plywood sheet
• untreated board
• Pressure treated board
• A quarter of paint or wood stain
• A box of 1-5/8″ galvanized nails
• 1 bundle of rook shingles
• A tube of roof cement
• Tape Measure
• Drill and screw driver bit
• Miter saw
• Paint brush
• Pencil
• Hammer
• Caulking gun

Steps

1. Base the size of your dog house on the measurements of your dog, like how tall and how wide your dog is. If your pet is still small, you might want to consider making an allowance so your dog has enough room when it grows.



2. Make the base of your doghouse using the pressure treated board.
3. Drill a couple of holes on the sides of the base. This will take care of the moisture from the ground. Put screens over the holes to prevent small animals, like rodents from going in the holes.
4. Make the floor using a half an inch thick of untreated plywood board. Use a solid wood to make the frame. Screw an untreated plywood board on the solid wood. Your floor should be about 6/8 inch thick.
5. Make the wall frames using studs. Have 2″ x 3″ studs for the sides and 2″x2″ studs for the front and back of the doghouse. Put these together with screws.
6. Assemble the side walls.Put the untreated plywood boards to the studs. Remember that your boards should be as long as your floor. Use 2″ screws to secure the boards.
7. Get another board that has the same length as the floor. Divide this board into 2. These pieces will be your front and back wall.
8. Mark the area of the board to show the angled peak of the doghouse. Cut through the line that you made.
9. Make the roof by measuring the length from the front to the back wall.
10. Get a ridge board and using your measurement, cut the board into 2.
11. Measure the angles for your rafters. Cut the rafters using a miter saw.
12. Secure the ridge board to the beams using screws.
13. Get the board for your front and back wall. Draw the doorway on your front board and cut.
14. Attach the boards to the studs and to the house.
15. Secure the roof.
16. Paint or stain your doghouse.
17. Wait until it dries completely before letting your dog in.
18. You can also put door flaps on the doorway.

Tips

• When planning on the size of your doghouse, make sure that your dog has enough room to walk and stretch his body when he’s inside the doghouse.
• Remember that the doghouse will keep your dog comfortable on cold months and on warm months. If you build the correct doghouse size, your dog will stay warm during cold months as he’d be able to generate enough heat to warm his house. On warm months, a spacey doghouse will let enough air in so your dog won’t get hot.
• Ventilation is very important. You can make small holes on top of the walls so air can also come in from above.
• Having a base is very important to prevent the doghouse from rotting quickly because of the damp ground.
• Be careful of the materials you use. Treated boards contain chemicals that may be harmful to your pet. Pressure treated boards shouldn’t be used on areas that your dog may come in contact with, like the walls and floor. Only use pressure treated boards for your base. If you think that your dog may chew or scratch on the base, you can cover this with scrap untreated plywood sheets.
• You can add cushion pads to make it more comfortable for your dog.
• To extend the life of your doghouse, make sure that you clean it regularly.

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What is Crab Boil?

Crab boil, also known as a seafood boil, is a collection of ingredients boiled together in a savory, seasoned broth. As the ingredients cook, the flavors blend and meld together to form a fantastic dish that can serve dozens of diners. While the main ingredient is crab, other ingredients that go well with seafood are also included in the dish. There are regional differences in the way crab boil is prepared, but the principle of boiling ingredients remains the same.

A large pot enough to fit in many whole ingredients is often used to cook crab boil, while a colander is used to hold the solid ingredients and steep them in the broth. Some kitchen supply stores sell pots and kettles exclusively made for making crab boil.

Ingredients

There’s no single way to make crab boil. Crab boil is best prepared by eyeballing the amount of ingredients you put in it, with your own preferences and tastes adjusted:

• Water
• Whole crab (make sure to use large crabs to maximize the amount of crab meat)
• Salt
• Cracked black peppercorns
• Powdered crab boil mix (you can use your own combination
• Hot sauce
• Tomato paste
• New potatoes (or red-skinned potatoes)
• Corn
• Bratwurst
• Lemons
• Onions
• Garlic heads
• Scallions
• Crab legs and claws (Learn how to cook crab legs)
• Whole shrimp
• Firm white fish fillets
• Clams or mussels

Steps

To make crab boil, follow these steps:

1. Place the salt, peppercorns, crab boil mix, hot sauce, tomato paste, scallions, onions, and garlic in the kettle and fill it with water.
2. Bring the stock to a rolling boil until all of the powdered ingredients have dissolved.
3. Place the solid ingredients inside the colander, or the kettle basket. Generally it is a good idea to put all the crabs and potatoes in the bottom of the kettle because they take longer to cook, and so that they can absorb all the seasonings from the broth. Softer ingredients like fish fillet, shrimp, and bratwurst can go on top of the basket.
4. Allow the crab boil to cook on a rolling boil for about 10 minutes. If you want to preserve the texture, you may want to stagger the you cook the ingredients. For a 10-minute cooking time, boil the potatoes first, wait three minutes, followed by the rest of the ingredients except the shrimp and crab legs, and cook the shrimp and crab legs at the last minute.
5. Lift up the basket from the pot and allow the ingredients to drain. Save the stock and serve the crab boil.

The same recipe for crab boil can be used for other seafoods like lobster and crayfish. With these steps, you can make a terrific crab boil that you can serve to your family, friends, and guests. If you enjoy learning this recipe, you’ll surely be interested in reading how to cook a lobster.

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What are Wontons?

Wontons are part of a group of recipes that originated from China called dim sum (For more information on China, read Glimpse into Great China). Wontons are a type of dumpling usually filled with a mixture of meat and seafood with a savory flavor, wrapped in a square-shaped wrapper. Wontons are usually served with soup, noodles, and vegetables as part of wonton noodle soup. Wontons can also be deep-fried as a snack, or steamed as part of a platter of dim sum or siu mei. The dumplings can sometimes be steamed or boiled, and fried in oil and a small amount of richly-flavored broth to create potstickers.

Like many dishes associated with Chinese cooking, there are many variations on wontons. The most common variation to the wonton recipe is a filling made from pork, shrimp, onions, and carrots wrapped in a wonton wrapper. Other ingredients may be added to the filling to suit the preferences of a cook or a diner.

Ingredients

Here are some ingredients you may use to fill a wonton wrapper:

• Minced pork
• Baby shrimps, or uncooked prawns coarsely chopped.
• Grated ginger root
• Minced onion
• Thinly-sliced garlic cloves
• Minced carrots and bok choy
• Chinese five-spice powder (optional)
• Salt and pepper

Steps

To prepare wontons, follow these steps:

1. Mix the filling ingredients together in a clean plastic bowl.
2. Take a small amount of the filling and place it on the center of the wonton wrapper. It would help to shape the filling into a ball to give a uniform, even shape to the dumpling.
3. Moisten the edges of the wonton wrapper with water, or a beaten egg.
4. Fold the wonton into a triangle, and fold the two bottom edges together so that they meet and overlap each other.
5. From here, you can cook the wontons. A favored way to cook wontons is to boil and simmer them with chicken noodle or beef noodle soup, but you can also try to fry them to add texture to the wonton wrappers.

Wontons can be served for and with any meal of the day, and prepared in such a way to suit your personal tastes. With these steps, you can create a delectable dish of wontons for you and your dinner guests to enjoy. After learning creating wontons, time for you to know how to cook dumplings.

Watch The Video

How to Make Wontons

Making Wontons

Things You’ll Need:

• Wreath frame
• Fresh boughs
• Clippers
• Candle holders
• 3 violet candles
• 1 rose candle
• 1 white candle
• Florist wire

Steps:

1. Have a wreath frame. There are different styles of a wreath frame. You can get one from crafts or hobby shops. There are those that come with candle holders and those with beautiful designs. If you don’t want to buy a wreath frame, you can make one using hard wire.
2. Gather a variety of fresh boughs and cut them in different lengths. You can use yew, fir, laurel, pine, holly or spruce. With a florist wire, make small bunches of boughs .
3. Weave the boughs into the wreath frame. Do this until the wreath frame is fully covered. Don’t worry about placing the boughs in an even order. A variety of style can make your wreath looks nicer.
4. Once your done with the wreath,check for any spaces that you have to fill with more greens. You may want to pull the bottom layer up a little bit to cover the top layer for a cleaner look.
5. If your wreath frame doesn’t have candle holders, position your candle holders evenly around the inner circle of your wreath. Also have one candle holder in the middle area of your wreath.
6. Put the violet and rose candles in the holders. The white candle is placed in the middle of the wreath.
7. Put some decorations. Some people decorate their wreaths with ribbons or other Christmas ornaments. You can style yours in whatever way you like or you may just choose to keep the wreath simple.
8. Place the wreath on a flat surface. You can also buy or make a stand for your Advent wreath.

Symbolisms

• The circular shape of the wreath symbolizes the unending love of God.
• The green color of the boughs means new hope.
• The purple candles represent hope love and peace while the rose candle represents joy.
• The white candle symbolizes Jesus as the light of the world.

Facts:

• Bless your wreath on the first sunday of advent or after you make your wreath. Tradition says that that father of the house is the one in charge of blessing the wreath, but you can invite a priest and have him bless yours.
• On the first week of advent, light one violet candle. This week symbolizes hope.
• On the second week, light 2 violet candles. These candles signifies hope and love
• Light the rose candle and the 2 violet candles on the 3rd week. The Sunday of this week is called Gaudette Sunday.
• On the 4th week, light the 3 violet candles and the rose candle. The 3rd violet candle symbolizes peace.
• The white candle is lit on Christmas day together with all 4 candles.

Tips:

• Most families light their advent candles before dinner time and put it out after dinner, but you can do this anytime of the day.
• Keep the bough moist. Candles and a drying bough may put your home at risk of fire.
• When a candle is lit, make sure that there’s at least one person in the room who can check the candle once in a while.
• Replace candles when you have to. A small candle may make the boughs catch fire more easily. Be sure your candles are tall enough.

If you enjoy reading this article, you’ll surely be interested in learning the 15 Non-Christmas-y ways to reuse Christmas Decorations and as a bonus read how to make a holiday wreath.

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Things You’ll Need:

• A clear plastic juice bottle with cap.
• Pump attachment
• Fireplace matches
• Pump
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• Water

Steps:

1. Make a hole on the cap big enough for the pump attachment to go through.
2. Secure the pump attachment by putting hot glue around it on the bottom of the cap. Make sure that it is air tight.
3. While waiting for the glue to dry up, pour water inside the bottle and swirl it around so all areas of the bottle gets wet.



4. Discard the water from the bottle.
5. The next thing to do is to seed the clouds. Light the fireplace match. Let it burn for a few seconds.
6. Blow out the fire.
7. Drop the matchstick inside the bottle.
8. Cover the bottle with the cap.
9. Attach your pump with the pump attachment.
10. Fill the bottle with air. Avoid using a mechanical pump because it can blow out the bottle.
11. Pumping air will increase the air pressure and temperature inside the bottle. As the temperature increases, water is absorbed in the air and evaporates.
12. You’ll notice that the plastic bottle will bulge a little as it get filled up with air.
13. Detach the pump. Quickly uncover the bottle. This will release the pressure from the bottle very fast. Tilt your bottle to the side.



14. You’ll notice cloud coming out of your plastic bottle.

Tips:

• If you don’t have an air pump, you can just squeeze the bottle to increase the pressure. Be careful when doing this. You don’t want to squeeze it too hard.
• If making a cloud without an air pump, you can skip the first 2 steps of the procedure. Make sure that the cap is air tight.
• As this activity requires lighting a matchstick, make sure that you’re under adult supervision when doing the project to avoid accidents.
• Another way of making clouds is by placing a metal tray filled with ice over the opening of a jar when the smoke clears up. You’ll see clouds forming just below the metal tray.

Facts:

• Clouds form when condensation happens and water vapor turns to liquid.
• Another process that forms clouds is convection. Convection is a process where heat rises to the atmosphere. When warm air rises, it starts to cool. Clouds form when this vapor is cooled to a certain temperature.

When doing this activity, take note of the processes in cloud formation that happens inside the bottle. This would help you understand what happens on the different phases. You can try doing this activity using a bigger bottle to form more clouds. If you enjoy reading this article, you’ll surely be interested in learning how to make a science project.

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Choux Pastry

Choux pastry is the most essential part of a profiterole. You may not be able to make it right the first time around, but you will after a few tweaks and practices.

Ingredients

• 185 ml water
• 75 g unsalted butter
• 100 g plain flour
• 3 large eggs
• Pinch of salt

Procedure

1. In a sauce pan, mix water, butter and salt. Put on low to medium heat and heat until the butter melts. Bring to a simmer, and once you’ve reached that simmer, remove from the heat.
2. Slowly add in the flour to the mixture using a wooden spatula. Once you’ve put all the flour in, beat the dough vigorously (Tips on how to knead dough). What will start out as a crumbly texture will eventually form into a smooth ball.
3. Put the pan back on to low heat and continue to vigorously beat it for around 30 seconds, enough to dry out the dough. Take the dough off the heat and put it in another separate bowl. Leave to cool until slightly tepid.
4. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
5. Put the dough in a mixer and use a whisk attachment to beat in one egg at a time. Mix until just combined. Do not overmix. Put aside a tablespoon of egg white for glazing later.
6. Put the pastry dough in a piping bag.
7. On a baking sheet, put a sheet of baking parchment on top. Pipe a glob of dough about 2.5 cm across and 1.5 cm high on the parchment paper. Space two inches between each dough blob.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Take out and insert a toothpick in the side to let out steam. Brush egg white on the top and pop back in the oven for another three minutes for a shiny finish.
9. Let cool. Once cooled, use a bread knife to make “caps” by slicing into the upper 1/3 of the pastry, but not removing it entirely. Leave a bit to keep the cap on. Put aside.

The hard part’s over! Let’s move on to what makes profiteroles even more special: The cream filling and the chocolate shell.

Creme Chantilly Filling

Ingredients

• 200 ml double cream, chilled
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Procedure

Creme chantilly filling is very flexible. To make your chantilly filling even more special, add some crushed berries like raspberries, strawberries or blueberries for a more colorful profiterole.

1. Clear some room in your refrigerator to enable to fit a food mixer.
2. Using a whisk attachment, whisk your cream until soft peaks form.
3. Once the soft peaks form, add the sugar and vanilla. Whisk until stiff peaks form.
4. Transfer the filling to another bowl, and chill some more until ready to use.

Chocolate Sauce

Chocolate sauce is always an additional delight to a profiterole, but you can easily enjoy your pastry without it. You can also use a shortcut in the form of Hershey Chocolate Shell, which instantly hardens to a chocolate shell once applied to food.

Ingredients

• 1 x 10 g dark chocolate, 70% chocolate
• 25 g unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar
• 100 ml water

Procedure

1. Break the chocolate bar into smaller pieces and combine with the unsalted butter.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler, in very gentle and low heat. Once melted, slowly mix in the sugar.
3. Add the water in a thin stream and mix until combined.
4. Keep the chocolate sauce heated until the profiteroles have been assembled.

Assembling the Profiteroles

This is the last step in achieving your profiteroles. This is a generally fun activity with your friends and family.

1. Put the cream chantilly filling in a piping bag. Slightly open the caps of the profiteroles and pipe in the filling. Fill enough just until when you feel a slight resistance. Put the caps back on.
2. Do this for all the profiteroles until they all have fillings.
3. Use a spoon to coat the profiteroles with chocoalte sauce.

Arrange the profiteroles nicely on a plate. With some powdered sugar and some berries, you could make something look really professionally made. Enjoy! After making this recipe, you’ll surely be delighted to learn how to make chocolate fondue.

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Tools

• Old, but intact, shirt
• 8 inches of old denim
• Ruler
• Needle and thread
• Scissors
• Sewing machine
• Uncooked rice, not instant
• Funnel
• Microwave

Procedure

Ask for help if you’re not used to sewing. This project could be a good starter project for a newbie.

1. Measure out your eight inches wide of denim from the cuff of an old pair of pants. The loop should be eight inches wide. If you don’t have any old pants, buy some denim. Iron the denim out
2. Now, take your old shirt and inspect for any rips or tears. If there are none, measure out a piece of shirt that’s twice as long as the piece of denim that you have. It should also be eight inches wide.
3. If you like, you can add some decoration on the outside part of your heating pad. You can use a thread or needle for this. However, if, again you feel like you are not skilled enough, you can skip this part too.
4. Start sewing the seams of your heating pad. Start by folding the shirt fabric in half, sewing around the outside edges. Leave a three-inch portion open for all the rice to be poured in through later on. Use a double stitch for your seams to make them hold on faster.
5. Now take your denim fabric and turn it inside-out. Align the edges of the shirt and the denim to one side of the pad. Use a double stitch when stitching to make it more durable.
6. The other side of the denim fabric should be left open like a pocket, and this is where the rice will go.
7. Turn the attached denim fabric and shirt right-side out, putting the seams back in the inside part.
8. Insert the funnel into the three-inch opening you’ve left. Start putting rice in until you’ve filled the heating pad halfway.
9. Use a double stitch to seal the three-inch opening.
10. Insert the shirt pouch into the denim pant leg to complete the heating pad. Flatten the pouch with your palms.
11. Insert the pouch into the pant leg and sew the opening closed, using, again, a double stitch for durability.



12. You’ve now made your own heating pad with recycled materials and biodegradable rice. If you need to heat up your heating pad, simply pop in the pouch into the microwave oven (For more information on microwaves, read Microwaves: One Hot Appliance) and heat for two minutes. The rice will retain the heat longer.
13. If you want a more pleasant experience with your heating pad, you can mix the rice with lavender blooms, rosemary, rose petals, cloves or marjoram. The aromatherapy these herbs provide will make it the use of your heating pad a more therapeutic experience.

If there’s anything this exercise has taught us, is that there are a myriad of ways we can use for things that we think are no longer useful.

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There are many different ways to make an Advent calendar. The countdown can begin as early as Thanksgiving or just five days before Christmas. If you want, it can be made of paper or cloth. Everything depends on your creativity. If you want to know how to make an advent calendar, here’s a guide to help you out.

Materials:

• Paper
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Two pieces of chipboard
• Adhesive foam sheets
• Two grommets and setter
• Decorative paper
• Craft knife
• String, ribbon or wire, at least 15 inches
• Decorations for the calendar (buttons, beads, drawings, cut out numbers)

Procedure:

1. Start with a plan. You need to make a sketch on a plain piece of paper of your proposed design. This will enable you to sort out where each décor goes and where certain aspects of the advent calendar are placed. Remember, this is only a guide, so if you feel the need to change certain parts, feel free to do so.



2. Get the chipboard to attach the hanger to it. This will prevent you from working around the piece at the end. Punch two holes 1/2 inch away from the edge and four inches apart. Put an eyelet or grommet in each, then tie one end of the wire, ribbon or string to both holes.
3. Divide the number of spaces you need among the available space, then cut the doors in the other chipboard piece, as well as the adhesive foam sheet. This will enable you to use it as a pattern later on. Use a craft knife for this task. Mark the back and front of the board, especially if you have a non-linear format.
4. Trace the spaces from the chipboard on the decorative paper’s back, cutting three sides open, to create the doors. Depending on you, the doors can be from left to right, lifted up or pulled down.
5. Arrange the calendar’s base. Put the uncut chipboard sheet on the bottom, the foam sheet in the middle, and the cut chipboard on the top. If you’re using three-dimensional items behind the doors, place them in their spots, making sure the calendar is deep enough. If not, you can cut an extra foam piece to put between the chipboard pieces. When you’ve got everything fitting in well, glue all the layers together.
6. Decorate the calendar’s top. If you want to put beads, buttons or small doodled drawings on the doors, stick them before you fix the doors on the top of the calendar. Add the numbers above, on or next to the doors, so they can be opened in order.
7. Attach the top to the base, then fill in the spaces behind the doors. When the glue dries, you can now hang the calendar on the wall.

An advent calandar is a wonderful project to help put your home in the holiday mood. If you want, you can do this with your kids. Get the art materials out, create a lovely calendar, and let the Christmas countdown begin! After creating your very own advent calendar, why don’t you try making a step higher by constructing your own calendar, read how to make your own calendar.

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Make a 3-D Advent Calendar

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Materials:

• 8.5″ x 11″ standard or construction paper
• 9″ x 12″ construction paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Coloring materials (colored markers, crayons, pastel color or paint)
• Paintbrushes
• Old magazines (More tips on how to get rid of old magazines)

Procedure:

1. Determine what story you’re going to use for your pop-up book Is it your own concept or is it an adaptation of an existing fairytale (such as Snow white, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella)? This will let you know how much pop up characters you’ll have to make and how many pages the book will be. Write a short summary of the story as well. (For ideas see Top Ten famous children’s bedtime stories)
2. Make the book cover using a 9″ x 12″ construction paper. Fold it in half, then use the coloring materials to draw directly on it. You can also cut out pictures from a magazine then paste them on the front and back cover. If you want, turn to the back cover’s inside flap and write a short “about the author” section. Draw or paste a photo of the child.
3. On an 8.5″ x 11″ paper, draw the background for your book. You can use coloring materials and art items, such as glitter, to decorate it. Add the text if you want.
4. Make the tabs on the background page. Go to the undecorated side, and measure up to the 3 1/2″ to 4 1/2″ mark. From the fold, make a one inch line at each mark, using a pencil. Cut each line with scissors.



5. Open the folded paper, then press the created tab gently, so the fold is nor on the inside. Afterwards, close the paper. When you open it, there’s now a tab in the page’s center that pops up.
6. On another paper, make shapes, pictures or illustrations of the characters or story components you want to pop up. Cut them out, then fix to the tab using glue. Let the glue dry.
7. Glue the pop up page in the cover, but leave the back cover unglued if you have an author page.
8. If you want to have more book chapters, create more single pages, then attach them together one by one in proper sequence. The first page’s front half must be glued to the inside main cover, while the second page’s front half to the second half of the first page, and so on.

Pop up books are definitely a wonderful gift for an child. Turn ordinary art materials into a wonderful masterpiece with these easy steps. Everyone will surely enjoy the lovely books you make.

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