Scented Lavender Fans to help combat the heatwave

It is warm isn’t it?

I’m not complaining- much- but my children are. All this week as part of our #summerfun project we are concentrating on crafts related to the sun, so making Scented Lavender Fans to keep us cool in the sun is the perfect craft.

Obviously you need lavender- fresh or dried stems. Dried work best as they will keep longest: the fresh lavender I used released a lot of moisture when I laminated them. I used about 6-8 strands, but you can use more if you have it. We also used glitter, a laminator sheet, ribbon and an iron.

So first you need to tie your lavender at the base of the stems- this will form the handle of your fan. Once you have tied it- don’t do it too tightly because you need to arrange the stems a little and you can always re-tie after.

Lay your tied lavender down on top of the open laminator sheet. If you don’t have a laminator, that doesn’t matter as you need an iron to make this craft. Alternatively you could use sticky back plastic/contact paper instead.

Arrange the stems of the lavender in a fan shape- then draw a rough arc across the top under the flower heads. Use this as a guide and cut the laminate sheet accordingly- it will be hard to cut around the flowers when done so this is the best way. Cut an arc at the bottom too, to allow for the handle and bow to peep out. Try to cut across the sheet so that you keep some of the join as this will make it easier to fold the laminate sheet back over later.

Heat your iron and put within arms reach. You will need a dry heat.

Now, place your lavender back on the inside of one side of the laminate sheet, arrange into a fan,  then decorate in between with leaves, other flowers or glitter/confetti as we have done. You can use a heavy book to hold the fan handle in place whilst you do this. Once you are happy, fold over the top laminate sheet, and carefully iron across the laminate sheets until the sheets have fused together, pressing down firmly as you go.

Once your sheet has cooled, trim off the excess- make sure you cut a sealed section rather than a bubble, and re-tie the handle with ribbon.

Waft gently across your face: you will get cooled scented air that makes the heat much more bearable. For other lavender ideas, why not watch our lavender Google craft Hangout, featuring:

Red Ted Art is the Queen of Lavender Wands, and also told us how to make no-sew Lavender sachets. Great tip.

Kids Chaos baked tasty Lavender Scones.

Zing Zing Tree also baked: she made lavender cookies. Yummy.

Me and My Shadow made delicious refreshing Lavender Lemonade.

We also made Lavender Body Polish using the simple recipe we have already blogged about but with an added tablespoon of lavender.