For some of us, the thought of the fast-approaching 6 weeks holiday so soon after lockdown fills us with dread. How can we possibly entertain them?

No matter how much of a struggle the past 4 months have been, one thing that has brought us together is crafts. When home learning became too much, we were able to unwind with the craft box. I will be completely honest here and confess that my crafting skills lack somewhat, and we often shift between the 4 activities that I do know!

With that being said, you can imagine how overjoyed, not only myself but Shaniah unquestionably were, when we were invited by Viking Direct to participate in an online crafting party, hosted by Tea and Crafting.

Viking Direct sent us a package of materials to use for the event. I was well aware of Viking Direct before this, however, I naively assumed that they just sold office supplies. I was wrong, very wrong. They stock everything from your standard office stationery, to cleaning products and the ever so treasured, toilet roll!

The event started at 10 am on Saturday 13th June, and we had a morning jam-packed with easy crafts which can be made using things found around the home.

The first activity of the day was the chocolate bubble wrap. The girls loved eating the chocolate, even before it made it to the bowl! This activity was so simple to do, yet the result looked extremely impressive. The activity involved laying down about half an A4 page of bubble wrap, we used our gifted cleaning products to make sure that our bubble wrap was clean enough for us to pour on the melted chocolate.

While we waited for the chocolate to set in the fridge, we set to work on making our fire breathing dragon using toilet roll tubes, glue, paper and stickers/felt tip pens for decoration. Shaniah loved this activity, especially because when you blow into the toilet roll tube, the tissue goes crazy, just like fire!

The final activity, Shaniah’s favourite, was making parcel tape feet. We were able to add the personal touch by drawing around our feet to make the feet for this activity. If you have someone else, the parcel tape feet get even more exciting as you’re able to race them!

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If any of these activities sound like something your child (or you), would like to do then stay tuned, as I’m about to share the instructions to all three of them! Half term has never looked so good!

Parcel tape feet

For this activity you will need (per person):

2 cotton buds or a kebab stick

1 parcel tape

1 straw

1 piece of paper

a pen

1. Cut a straw in half and tape it (using the parcel tape) to the inside of the tape roll making sure that the straws stick out of the edge of the tape on the opposite sides (i.e. left and right) and that they are placed on opposite ends (i.e. top and bottom) inside the tape roll. You only need a finger’s width of straw coming out of the tube so trim off any excess.
2. Remove the cotton wool from the cotton buds on both ends. If you’re using a kebab stick, there’s no need to trim at all.
3. Take a sheet of A4 paper and fold in half. Then trace around your child’s foot or get siblings to help each other do this. Cut two little feet out of the paper.
4. Place your feet (ensuring it’s left and right foot side by side) and tape the cotton bud to the inside of each foot.
5. Slot the cotton buds into the straw, roll the parcel tape and watch your feet walk!

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Fire breathing dragon

For this activity you will need:

1 A4 sheet of paper

scissors

glue stick

toilet roll tube

a sharpie or marker 

tissue paper

• Take a sheet of A4 paper. Measure how high your toilet roll tube is and then cut a strip of paper along the long side of the A4 using that measurement.
• Spread glue over your toilet roll holder and then glue your paper to the toilet roll tube and cut where the paper overlaps. Trim off any edges that overlap the opening if needed.

• Add eyes and a nose to your dragon’s body. Do this by using a Sharpie to draw the eyes and then draw a little square under your eye. Thus square will fold back and be glued down so that the dragon’s eyes stay upright. Do the same for the nose and glue the eyes and nose down.
• Cut tissue paper into strips no longer than about 10cm in length and about a finger’s width. Glue the strips to the top (this would be where the dragon eyes and nose are placed) and bottom of the inside of the toilet paper to the sides of the toilet roll, at this point it’s fine if the tissue paper overlaps.
• Hold your dragon at an angle in front of you and breathe into the toilet roll tube – you’ll see its tissue paper fire beath come to life!

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Now on to my absolute favourite! So much so that we’ve already remade it but with my niece as well!

Chocolate bubble wrap

You will need:

Bubble wrap

chocolate 

and some optional toppings if you wish!

• Make sure that your work surface and hands are clean before you start this activity.
• Originally we used Aero chocolate for this activity as it was easy for little hands to break this apart. It just crumbled with little pressure, making it the perfect chocolate to use.
• As we’ll be touching food products everyone should wash their hands or use some hand sanitiser.
• Cut a small piece of bubble wrap about half an A4 size and just give it a quick wash and dry it.
• Crumble about 3-4 chocolate bars (or 1 whole bar of dairy milk) into a small bowl using your fingers to squash the Aero and watch it crumble beautifully into the bowl.

• Wash your hands to clean away all the chocolate left on your hands.
• Melt in the microwave at 30-second intervals. Ensure you stir after each 30-second blast, so you can evenly distribute the heat and help it melt quicker.
• Pour the melted chocolate onto the bubble wrap and then spread it over evenly with a spatula or knife, making sure that it’s not too thinly spread. The second time we did it, we put sprinkles on! 
• Pop it into the fridge for about 30 minutes to set.
• Whilst the chocolate is setting, clean your working area again wiping away any split chocolate etc.
• After it is set, peel back the bubble wrap from the chocolate and be amazed at your homemade chocolate bubble wrap. This honestly tastes amazing!

We had an amazing morning with Jane using the materials from Viking Direct to make all of our creations. Thank you so much for giving us some joy and entertainment during lockdown! To find out more about Viking Direct, follow them on Twitter, also be sure to check out the hashtag #CraftingWithViking for more on this crafting session.