Easy-Peasy DIY Burns Night Napkin Holders

Burns Night is coming up this week, an annual beacon of light in the January gloom, when we take the opportunity to celebrate Scotland’s National Bard – a.k.a. an excuse to have a big, fancy, haggis slap up meal! Actually, unlike many other places in the world that celebrate Robert Burns, we eat haggis in Scotland all year round, but we’ll take any excuse to have a bit of a party really.

Whether you are going all out and hosting a Burns Supper and want to impress your guests with some personal touches, or just want to spruce up your haggis dinner to something a bit special, I have an easy-peasy DIY for you, to make some Robert Burns napkin holders in four simple steps! You can even get the kids involved, if you don’t mind glitter all over your house! All you will need is a printer and some toilet rolls. Oh yeah, and the glitter. Don’t forget the glitter.

Okay, I simplified a bit, you’ll need a couple of other bits and pieces too. Here’s what I used to make 9 napkin holders:

• Print outs of some Robert Burns portraits, ca. 6cm tall. Just search for ‘Robert Burns portrait’ on the internet, and you’ll find loads.
• Some sturdy-ish cardboard, big enough to stick the print outs on, e.g. from an old cereal packet.
• A pair of scissors.
• Some glue, ideally with a pointy nozzle.
• Glitter! I decided to go for two colours, but you could just do one.
• Some empty toilet rolls.
• Acrylic paint in a colour of your choice.
• A paintbrush.

Step 1: Cut the toilet rolls in to thirds, paint them inside and out, and leave them to dry.

Step 2: While the toilet rolls are drying, roughly cut out the Rabbit Burns portraits, stick them to the cardboard, and then carefully cut them out in to oval shapes.

Step 3: Apply a thin layer of glue around the outside edge of the cut out portraits, sprinkle with glitter and leave to dry. Then shake off the excess.

Step 4: When everything is dry, glue the portraits on to the toilet rolls, so that the open ends of the rolls are pointing ups and down the way. Leave to dry once more. Insert napkin. Done!