Invitations

Hand of Friendship

You will need:

• A4 paper or card
• Felt tip pens
• Scissors
• Glue
• Glitter
• Stick-on gems

What to do:

1. Fold the card or paper in half to make a card with the fold on the left hand side.
2. Draw round your hand by placing the thumb and side of hand on the fold.
3. Cut out the hand shape, leaving the fold intact.
4. Using pens, glitter and glue you can add nail polish and rings to each "hand".
5. Inside each card, record the details of the party, including a supply list for each guest. The supply list should include a sleeping bag, nightwear, change of clothes, toothbrush and hairbrush plus any other beauty products, teen magazines and music.

Did you know that nails are made of the protein keratin, the same protein as in your hair?  The nail grows from a nail root that is under the end of your nails. This is the only part of your nails that is alive. The part that shows is dead. That's why it doesn't hurt to cut them. It takes about 6 months for your fingernails to grow from the root all the way out to the nail tip. Your toenails take 2 to 3 times as long.

Anatomy of a fingernail

Your nails are made up of layers of keratin — a protein that's also found in your hair and skin. Each nail is comprised of several parts, including:

• Nail plate. The nail plate is the part of your nail that's most visible — what you see when you look at your fingernails.
• Nail folds. This is the skin that frames each of your nails on three sides.
• Nail bed. Your nail bed is the skin beneath the nail plate.
• Cuticle. Your cuticle is the tissue that overlaps your nail plate at the base of your nail.
• Lunula. The lunula is the whitish, half-moon shape at the base of your nail.

Your nails grow from the area under your cuticle (matrix). As new cells grow, older cells become hard and compacted and are eventually pushed out toward your fingertips. Nails grow at an average of one-tenth of an inch a month. The nails grow faster on your dominant hand, and they grow more in summer than in winter. Nails are also permeable, which means they let in liquids that come in contact with them.

Bags of Fun

You will need:

• A4 paper or card
• Felt tip pens
• Scissors
• Glue
• Glitter
• Photo of the party girl’s face

What to do:

1. Fold the card or paper in half to make a card with the fold on the top.
2. Cut the card in two to make two narrow cards.
3. Cut around the card to make it into a sleeping bag shape.
4. Inside each card, record the details of the party, including a supply list for each guest. The supply list should include a sleeping bag, nightwear, change of clothes, toothbrush and hairbrush plus any other beauty products, teen magazines and music.
5. Decorate the front of the card to make it look like a sleeping bag.
6. Make a small slit towards the top of the card and insert the photo of the party girl to make it look as if she is peeking out of the top of the sleeping bag! Glue it in place.

Mirror Mirror…

You will need:

• A4 card
• Silver foil
• Felt tip pens
• Scissors
• Glue
• Glitter
• Stick-on gems

What to do:

1. Draw an 18 cm (7 in) circle with a handle on the card then cut out.
2. Draw a 15 cm (6 in) circle on the silver foil and cut it out.
3. Stick the silver foil on the card so that it looks like a hand mirror.
4. Decorate the edge of the mirror and the handle.
5. On the back of the mirror record the details of the party, including a supply list for each guest. The supply list should include a sleeping bag, nightwear, change of clothes, toothbrush and hairbrush plus any other beauty products, teen magazines and music.

How do mirrors work?

A mirror is made from a sheet of glass which is backed with a silver coating.  Silver reflects very well since it reflects almost every colour; copper or gold would not reflect blue very well. The glass surface is flat and smooth, which means that the light would be reflected in one direction and not scattered.  Both of these properties are highly desirable for good mirrors. Did you know that it is possible to make a liquid mirror? Yes – by spinning mercury it is possible to create a parabolic-shaped mirror which is ideal for use in a telescope. A parabola will bring incoming parallel rays of light to a single point - which is exactly what you need for a sharp picture. In this way it has been possible to make a liquid mirror 3m across! If you want to know more http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s64751.htm

Party Favour Invites

You will need:

• Circles of tissue paper or cellophane
• Chocolate beans or love hearts
• Curling ribbon or tinsel
• Label
• Scissors
• Glue
• Glitter
• Crystal heart (see instructions below) – need to prepare these a couple of days in advance

To make a crystal heart

From
http://www.planet-science.com/
outthere/sugar/activities_archive/crystal_hearts.html

You will need:

• Borax Laundry powder (available from large branches of Boots)
• Pipe cleaners
• Heavy jar, with a wide neck
• String
• Pencil
• Marker pen
• A glass
• Red food colour

What to do:

1. Shape a pipe cleaner into a heart shape
2. Suspend the heart from a pencil and hang it in the heavy jar.
3. Mark the jar to indicate where the top of the heart is.
4. Remove the heart and fill the jar with hot water up to the mark.
5. Add 1/3 glass of borax powder and stir until it is all dissolved, (The water needs to be just off boiling temperature, and borax is a mild irritant – so take care!) you can add red food colour at this point too which will make the heart grow pink crystals.
6. Suspend the heart in the solution making sure the pipe cleaner is completely immersed in the solution and isn't touching the sides or bottom of the container.
7. As the solution cools, the crystals will begin to form on your pipe cleaner.
8. Leave overnight. Remove from the solution and allow to dry.

Variations:

Overnight soaking will give you very thickly crystallized ornaments. If you want some of the colour of the pipe cleaner to show through, leave in the solution for less time.

If you want, you can spray your finished ornament with acrylic sealer or clear spray paint to keep the crystals from falling off too quickly.

You’ll notice from the pictures that we made an arrow to go with the heart – you can make flower shapes, teddy bear shapes, anything, providing it’s not too fussy, will come out covered in crystals. If you think that one pipe cleaner makes too small a heart, join two together and use that.

Try using other salts such as sugar or table salt – are the crystals different?

The Science:

The borax powder dissolves in the warm water but as the water cools the molecules of borax crystallize out of the solution onto the pipe cleaner. If you look closely you can see their shapes.

In many solids the arrangements of the building blocks of the material (ion, atoms and molecules) can be a mixture of different structures. In crystals, however, a single type of collection of atoms is repeated over and over throughout the entire material. For an analogy, you can think of crystals as a big skyscraper, in which all the rooms are built to exactly the same design.

The Party Favour:

What to do:

1. Take a circle of tissue paper or cellophane.
2. Add a handful of chocolate beans or love hearts.
3. Tie the top with curling ribbon or tinsel.
4. Add a label stating the party details.
5. Make the label out of pastel coloured card. Make sure you choose a pretty shape and add glitter.
6. Add party confetti to the favour.
7. Fix the crystal heart to the favour.

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