How do you combine creative writing, fairytales, origami and playground games? By making a fairytale fortune teller, of course!
Also known as cootie catchers in the US, you will probably remember (if you are a certain age and female) making these little folded fancies with colours, numbers and fortunes on them and waylaying schoolfriends or reluctant members of your family in order that they might have their fortunes told. Outcomes would range from becoming a millionnaire to dying in a variety of nasty ways, so perhaps a fortune teller that mixes up the beginning, middle and ends of fairytales isn’t too far from the original idea after all.
You can download my fairytale fortune teller at downloadablecootiecatchers.wordpress.com. The owner of the site might sound familiar, too. Somethings I wish I could stop thinking of new projects and just get on with the novel!
Lou Treleaven 
Fantastic. I loved these as a kid but I thought that how to make them was lost forever. I have just posted about street games I played as a child too, so I have been very much in that childy frame of mind. Excellent Lou.
It’s amazing how many of these games and rituals have survived, isn’t it? We used to have a lot of ‘crazes’ at school too: I remember the craze for jacks when girls would spend hours crouched round little metal stars carefully bouncing a ball and trying to pick up the jacks on the back of their hand. Was it before or after french skipping? And we spent all of one summer bouncing a tennis ball in a cut off leg of our mum’s tights… simple times!!!