This is a companion piece to an article that appeared in the Dec. 18 print edition of the Argus. For more ideas and other winter break activities, pick up a copy of the newspaper.
The holidays is a time for family bonding, rejoice by creating fun crafts, traditional foods, or presents, here is a more indepth article on how to create some of these traditional crafts, dishes and gifts ideas teachers and students have done.
CRAFTS:
Drawing teacher Hoan Tran’s Name Walnut:
To make the name walnut you will need:
- ribbon
- walnut
- glitterglue
- puff paint
- hot glue
Procedure:
- First, write the first name on the walnut. To do so, use glitter glue or the puff paint.
- Next, cut the ribbon about 14 cm. Fold the string in half to8 cm and glue the string to the walnut on top, where it is more round.
- Finally, tie both ends together.
Drawing teacher Hoan Tran also crafted a fortune cookie ornament. To create one, follow the same steps for the walnut, but just replace the walnut with a fortune cookie.
RECIPES:
Here are the website links that our staff and students used to create these traditional pastries/foods:
English teacher, Crystal Hanson’s Krumkake: Hanson enjoys making these cone-shaped cookies.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/norwegian-krumkake/
Sophomore Lluvi Delgado’s Dulce Tamales: The tamales can be stuffed with meat or vegetables, sweet or not sweet. Here is the website link Delgado uses to create her Dulce (sweet) tamales.
http://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/2014/01/sweet-tamales-how-to-make-mexican.html
Social Studies teacher Mark Adamski’s Vegan tart: Adamski is a vegan, so for the holiday feast he makes this vegan tart that is filled with chickpeas and other vegetables.
http://plantpoweredkitchen.com/recipe-page/?recipe_id=6033817
Sophomore Jena Patel’s Gulab Jamun: Deep fried dough, covered with syrup.
http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/gulab-jamun-recipe-with-khoya/
GIFTS:
Sophomore Zack Pitt’s Homemade Card: This is really cheap to make, does not take up a lot of time and is unique, because when you are creating it you engrave the message with your own thoughts and feelings.
Materials needed:
- construction paper
- pen
- color pencils
- markers
- scissors (optional)
- First, choose the type of paper you would like. It could be plain or colorful.
- Then, fold it in half “hotdog” style, horizontally. One could leave it as is or could cut it out in a unique shape or form, such as a heart, snowflake or simply cutting the edges and sides.
- Once there is a base, you can write you message inside the card.
- An alternate would be just drawing a picture, like a visual story.
- Finally, customize it with color markers, paint puff paint ecct.
Tran’s gift basket: This is usually made for her donations, she puts in food, socks, small toys and other things.
Materials needed:
- basket
- ribbon
- candy
- colored tissue paper
- small toys
- plastic bag
- First, find a container or basket to put all the materials in. It can be big or small, wide or big.
- Put in the big gifts in the middle and surround it with all of the small gifts.
- Around the gifts insert the colored tissue paper of any color in a triangular form outward, so the the pointy part in faced down inside basket.
- Now, wrap that all in a plastic bag and finish it off with a big ribbon to hold it all together.
Sculpture teacher Andrea Paris’ unique plate: Creative and unique gift.
Materials needed:
- plain plate
- acrylic paint
- brushes
Procedure:
- First, start with a clean plate.
- Then, start creating your masterpiece by creating a picture of anything. You could also engrave a message, such as, “happy holidays” or “congrats.”
- Lastly, let it dry out for about a day or two.
There are many crafty, unique ideas to create with your family this holiday.