Are you a doodler?
I am.
Whenever I'm still for any period of time and have a piece of paper in front of me, the paper is filled with little geometric patterns, with cartoons, with lettering.
My lecture notes from college were often hard to read because they were so obscured by doodles. The same is now true of my notes taken at office meetings. The pages of our phone book have been embellished again and again during time I've spent waiting "on hold."
I like to colour too, and download printable colouring pages with which to occupy my hands during quiet days at work or evenings in front of the TV.
Do you enjoy colouring?
If you're a doodler or a colourer, this post is for you. It's not my usual sort of thing but, a couple of weeks ago, I was stuck in bed sick with the 'flu and this project grew out of my quiet time.
I came across a post on Pinterest for a printable fortune teller (we called them "cootie catchers" when I was a kid) and thought "Wouldn't it be fun to make one of my own!"
I marked off a square, divided it where the folds would be, and began to doodle. This is what I ended up with. I thought you might enjoy it too.
You can print one to colour yourself if you'd like to. There's a link to a printable PDF below the black and white image.
Once I'd finished drawing my fortune teller, I coloured it in. It looked like this when I was finished:
Here's what it looked like when I'd folded it:
If you'd like to fold yours too, here's how:
First, trim away the thick black edges all the way around, to make an eight inch square.
Fold the square in half.
(Please excuse all the extra creases in my photos. I had to pre-fold my fortune teller to work out the steps before sharing them with you.)
Fold the fold in the other direction so it makes a visible crease down the center of the paper.
Spread the paper flat, with the crease vertically down the center, then fold each side inward so that the edges of the paper rest against the center crease. Crease them sharply against the folds. When you take your hands off the paper, the folds will spring open, looking like this:
Flatten the paper out , turn it 90 degrees, then repeat the folds again, perpendicular to the first set. After the folds are done your paper should be creased into eight 2-inch squares. (I've drawn lines to show you where since they didn't show up well in my picture.)
Turn the paper paper coloured side down and fold the corners back diagonally so that they meet at the center of the paper.
Turn the paper over that the folded parts are underneath. It should look like this:
Write your fortunes into the blank triangles.
Once you've written in your fortunes, fold the corners toward the center again. The numbered part of the paper will cover the center design. Be sure to crease firmly along the folds.
The next fold confused me at first but it's actually very simple. Fold your square vertically into a long rectangle, with the numbers inside and the squares with the colour names on the outside. It will look like this.
Pick the folded paper up with the center fold pointing downward, towards the palm of your hand.
Use your fingers to pinch the diagonal folds near the center of the bottom fold, and the fortune teller will open up.
Place the forefinger and thumb of each hand into one of the pockets formed by the colour name flaps, and play away.
Have fun!
Want to learn more?
If you'd like to learn how to play the fortune teller game, or would like to see more instructions on how to fold one, this link from Dreamworks Animations is very helpful.
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This post is linked to Hearthfelt Hopes blog hop hosted by Aliso Kitchen
