We were invited by Viking to try three great craft activities for children during lockdown. Viking are an office supplier who also sell stationery, craft supplies and cleaning products. We joined in with a zoom chat one Saturday morning with our children to get creative. We knew that it involved chocolate, so we were excited to join in! We'd been sent the products we would need by Viking ahead of the chat, including toilet roll, and hand soap.
Both children were keen to join in, which surprised me as my son doesn't tend to enjoy crafts. We knew we would be making bubblewrap chocolate, a fire-breathing dragon and parcel tape feet. The lovely Jane from Tea & Crafting led the workshops and it was fun to simply be told what to do and not have to be imaginative about creative activities. I have definitely struggled to constantly come up with new ideas to keep the children entertained.
The bubblewrap chocolate was definitely the favourite in our house and it looked amazing. I didn't even get a bite though as it disappeared very quickly! The fire breathing dragon was my favourite and I enjoyed seeing the children's creativity. My son's ended up looking rather like a ballerina and my daughter made an amazing scaled creation with huge eyes! The parcel tape feet were the most fiddly, but with a bit of help we got there and they were great fun and made us all giggle as they spun around. There are full instructions of how to make all the crafts below.
I hadn't realised that Viking sold such a huge range of products and I will definitely buy from them in the future. In fact, I have been looking at the Viking website for hand sanitiser as we need some for the B&B before we re-open in a few weeks. Thank you so much to Viking for inviting us to take part in the craft workshop, it was really good fun and gave us some great ideas to keep entertained this summer.
Fire Breathing Dragon
1. Clean your working area and wash your hands or use some hand sanitiser before starting.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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. This square will fold back and be glued down so that the dragon eyes stay upright. Do the same for the nose and glue the eyes and nose down.
5. 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 roll tube. There’s no need to add tissue paper to the sides of the toilet roll, at this point it's fine if the tissue paper overlaps.
6. Hold your dragon at an angle in front of you and breathe into the toilet roll tube - you'll see it’s tissue paper fire breath come to life!
Chocolate Bubble Wrap
1. We loved using Aero chocolate for this activity as it was so easy for little hands to break this apart. It just crumbled with little pressure, making it the perfect chocolate to use.
2. As we'll be touching food products everyone should wash their hands or use some hand sanitiser.
3. Clean your working area thoroughly.
4. Cut a small piece of bubble wrap about A4 size and just give it a quick wash and dry it.
5. Crumble about 3-4 chocolate bars into a small bowl using your fingers to squash the Aero and watch it crumble beautifully into the bowl.
6. Wash your hands to clean away all the chocolate bits left on your hand.
7. Melt in the microwave at 30 second increments. Ensure you stir after each 30 second blast, so you can evenly distribute the heat and help it melt quicker.
8. Pour the melted chocolate onto the bubble wrap and then spread it over evenly with a spatula or knife, making sure it's not too thinly spread.
9. Pop it into the fridge for about 30 minutes to set.
10. Whilst the chocolate is setting clean your working area again wiping away any spilt chocolate etc.
11. After its set peel back the bubble wrap from the chocolate and be amazed at your homemade chocolate bubble wrap.
Parcel Tape Feet
Make sure to clean your working area and wash your hands before starting on this activity.
1. Cut a straw in half and tape it (using the parcel tape) to the inside of the parcel tape roll making sure the straws stick out of the edge of the tape on opposite sides (i.e. left and right) and that they are placed on opposite ends (i.e. top and bottom) inside the parcel tape roll. Take a look at the image to help you place the straws. 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 it half. Then trace around your child's foot or get siblings to help each other to do this. Cut two little feet out of the paper.
4. Place your feet (ensuring it’s a left and right foot side by side) and tape the cotton bud to the inside of each foot (using image as a guide).
5. Slot the cotton buds into the straw, roll the parcel tape and watch your feet walk!
Both children were keen to join in, which surprised me as my son doesn't tend to enjoy crafts. We knew we would be making bubblewrap chocolate, a fire-breathing dragon and parcel tape feet. The lovely Jane from Tea & Crafting led the workshops and it was fun to simply be told what to do and not have to be imaginative about creative activities. I have definitely struggled to constantly come up with new ideas to keep the children entertained.
The bubblewrap chocolate was definitely the favourite in our house and it looked amazing. I didn't even get a bite though as it disappeared very quickly! The fire breathing dragon was my favourite and I enjoyed seeing the children's creativity. My son's ended up looking rather like a ballerina and my daughter made an amazing scaled creation with huge eyes! The parcel tape feet were the most fiddly, but with a bit of help we got there and they were great fun and made us all giggle as they spun around. There are full instructions of how to make all the crafts below.
I hadn't realised that Viking sold such a huge range of products and I will definitely buy from them in the future. In fact, I have been looking at the Viking website for hand sanitiser as we need some for the B&B before we re-open in a few weeks. Thank you so much to Viking for inviting us to take part in the craft workshop, it was really good fun and gave us some great ideas to keep entertained this summer.
Fire Breathing Dragon
1. Clean your working area and wash your hands or use some hand sanitiser before starting.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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. This square will fold back and be glued down so that the dragon eyes stay upright. Do the same for the nose and glue the eyes and nose down.
5. 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 roll tube. There’s no need to add tissue paper to the sides of the toilet roll, at this point it's fine if the tissue paper overlaps.
6. Hold your dragon at an angle in front of you and breathe into the toilet roll tube - you'll see it’s tissue paper fire breath come to life!
Chocolate Bubble Wrap
1. We loved using Aero chocolate for this activity as it was so easy for little hands to break this apart. It just crumbled with little pressure, making it the perfect chocolate to use.
2. As we'll be touching food products everyone should wash their hands or use some hand sanitiser.
3. Clean your working area thoroughly.
4. Cut a small piece of bubble wrap about A4 size and just give it a quick wash and dry it.
5. Crumble about 3-4 chocolate bars into a small bowl using your fingers to squash the Aero and watch it crumble beautifully into the bowl.
6. Wash your hands to clean away all the chocolate bits left on your hand.
7. Melt in the microwave at 30 second increments. Ensure you stir after each 30 second blast, so you can evenly distribute the heat and help it melt quicker.
8. Pour the melted chocolate onto the bubble wrap and then spread it over evenly with a spatula or knife, making sure it's not too thinly spread.
9. Pop it into the fridge for about 30 minutes to set.
10. Whilst the chocolate is setting clean your working area again wiping away any spilt chocolate etc.
11. After its set peel back the bubble wrap from the chocolate and be amazed at your homemade chocolate bubble wrap.
Parcel Tape Feet
Make sure to clean your working area and wash your hands before starting on this activity.
1. Cut a straw in half and tape it (using the parcel tape) to the inside of the parcel tape roll making sure the straws stick out of the edge of the tape on opposite sides (i.e. left and right) and that they are placed on opposite ends (i.e. top and bottom) inside the parcel tape roll. Take a look at the image to help you place the straws. 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 it half. Then trace around your child's foot or get siblings to help each other to do this. Cut two little feet out of the paper.
4. Place your feet (ensuring it’s a left and right foot side by side) and tape the cotton bud to the inside of each foot (using image as a guide).
5. Slot the cotton buds into the straw, roll the parcel tape and watch your feet walk!
Disclosure: We received craft products in return for this post.
