Cocktail Umbrellas & Cup-cake Flags
If you have a party coming up or you just fancy a pretty drink & a cup-cake then why not make cocktail umbrellas & cup-cake flags to add an extra special something to the occasion.
Cocktail Umbrellas
Mini umbrellas add a fun, colourful touch to any drink, they are easy to make and can be themed for all occasions.
You will need:
A pair of compasses & pencil
Ruler
Pencil
Eraser
Scissors (straight & fancy edged)
Glue stick
PVA glue & fine brush
Cocktail stick (for a short drink)
or wooden skewer (for a tall drink)
A new washing-up sponge - to stick
the umbrellas in when drying (not in photo)
What to do
1. On the back of a piece of patterned paper draw an 8cm circle with the pair of compasses & pencil, cut it out using fancy edged scissors. Carefully rub out any pencil marks.
2. Draw a 2½ cm (at the widest part) pie segment on the back of the circle (there should be a small hole in the centre of the paper circle made by the compass, use this centre point as a guide for where to cut to). Cut out the segment with straight edged scissors, carefully erase any pencil marks. Place the paper pie segment to one side to make the cup-cake flag later.
3. Spread some glue (using a glue stick) along one of the short edges where the segment has been cut out (the area glued will need to be widest at the outside edge and gradually thinner towards the central point). Overlap the two short edges, sticking them together. This will make a cone.
4. Place a dot of PVA glue at the inside central point of the cone.
5. Gently push either a cocktail-stick (for a short drink) or a skewer (for a tall drink) into the PVA glue & paper so that the point of the stick is just sticking out the top of the umbrella.
6. Leave to dry (a washing-up sponge is great to stick them in to dry).
Cup-cake Flags
These little cup-cake flags are so cute & colourful, and they are a great way of using up the scraps of paper from the cocktail umbrellas. You can also take the initial idea and cut out different shaped flags in whatever coloured paper you like especially for a themed party/event, really it's just an excuse to make cup-cakes.
You will need:
Scissors
Cocktail stick
PVA glue & fine brush or glue stick
What to do
1. Straighten the back of the flag by cutting off the fancy edge.
2. Snip about 1 cm from the two points next to the new back straight edge (this will change the triangle into one with a squared off back section which tapers to a sharp point).
3. Spread some glue along the back of the squared off section.
4. Wrap the glued part of the paper around one end of a cocktail stick & leave to dry.
5. When dry stick it in the top of a cup-cake to decorate.
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