brainsterIf you were signed in, you could rate this activity and add it to one of your lists.
Henna Designing
Enjoy a healthy and natural alternative to tattoos!
Henna designing is a great and healthy way to decorate the palms of your hand and the top of your feet with beautiful and intricate patterns. Traditionally henna is applied on the hands and feet, but you could get creative, and apply them almost anywhere on your body, like a decorative one around your navel, or on the sides of your calf where the slit of a ballgown may be, for example. Some people even apply henna around their necks in the pattern of a necklace!
You could prepare a henna cone very inexpensively right at your own home. Here's how to go about it -
- You will need the following ingredients to prepare henna paste for about two hands of designs -
3 tablespoons henna powder
water as required
eucalyptus oil
clove oil
In a bowl, first combine the henna powder with 1 tsp of eucalyptus oil and 10-12 drops of clove oil. Add a little water to prepare a thick paste. The paste should be of a consistency that could fall from a cone filled with it, not too runny, and not too thick.
Make sure the paste is not too lumpy. If it is, pass it through a fine muslin cloth to get rid of the lumps, leaving you with a nice, smooth paste.
Take a square sheet of plastic and make a cone out of it. Use adhesive tape to fix up the plastic properly so that the henna paste will not leak out of the cone.
Slowly put in spoonfuls of the paste into the cone, pressing down the paste into the cone and avoiding any air bubbles. Once you have half the cone full, bunch it together and close it off with a rubber band and some more adhesive tape.
Cut the other side of the cone to make a small hole. Make as small a hole as possible. Press the cone to make sure the henna flows out well, or you could cut the hole a little bigger if required. This will be your writing instrument for creating the henna design.
Keeping your left palm as stiff as possible, draw the desired design on your palm using your right hand. Or you could involve a friend and draw for each other if that is more comfortable.
Let it dry completely. The longer you keep the henna on, the darker it will turn out. Even after you take out the henna, don't immerse your hand in water for a few more hours for the full colour of the henna to appear.
It's advisable to apply henna in the night, so you could just sleep off with it on your hands and then take it off in the morning, for maximum colouring results.
Flags: Very Short (0-60 mins), Short (1-3 hours), Solo, With a Friend, Children, Teens, Adults, Indoors, At Home, Day, Night, Sunny, Snowy, Rainy