How to make a Dragon puppet and Goat for Chinese New Year with Bostik!

 

How to make a Dragon puppetMy kids and I have been having so much fun this week making dragons and goats for Chinese New Year (2015 is the year of the Goat). Every month we’re sent a box of random materials as part of the Bostik Craft Bloggers Club with Tots100. As it’s half term next week I bet you guys are looking for activities to keep the little peeps happy, so here’s how to make a Dragon puppet (or windsock) and Goat for Chinese New Year!

Dragon Puppet or windsockChinese New Year Dragon Puppet

These guys have brilliant tails which billow and twirl whether they’ve been propped up to make a windsock or used as a hand-held puppet. They’re also very adaptable which means you can use the same basic design and customise the face etc.

What You’ll Need

Bostik Glu Dots

Paper Cup

Small Polystyrene Balls

Googly Eyes

Foam

Pipe cleaner

Ric-rac or Ribbon

Tissue Paper

Lolly sticks

Sticky Tape

Photos are great when it comes to craft tutorials but I thought it would be easier for this one if I also provided you with a video showing exactly how it’s made. There are also text instructions and a couple of pics below.

Step 1 – Start by drawing and cutting out a mouth from the flat end of the paper cup.

Step 2 – Using your Bostik Glu Dots stick two polystyrene balls to the back of the cup to make eyes. Stick googly eyes on top to finish.deyebrows

Step 3 – Grab some foam (I used foam wristbands) and draw out two eyebrow shapes. Stick these onto the top of the eyes using more Glu Dots.

Step 4 – Pick up the pipe cleaner and fold in half to make the Dragon’s horns. Stick between the eyes using Glu Dots.

Step 5 – Take a short length of foam and fold the ends into the centre to make nostrils. Secure using Glu Dots.

Step 6 – Cut half a moustache out from foam, repeat to make a second half. Cut ric rac or ribbon to the same length or a little longer and use a Glu Dot to stick on top of the moustache.

Step 7 – Stick the nostils onto the thinner end of the paper cup using a Glu Dot. Then stick the moustache into place just under the edges of the nostrils.dface

Step 8 – Next cut a length of foam (or half a wristband) and stick to the paper cup behind the nostrils to make the bridge of the Dragon’s nose.dtissuepaper

Step 9 – Take some tissue paper and stick to the inside of the paper cup using sticky tape. We also cut out thinner lengths of tissue paper from a contrasting colour to make streamers, stick to the cup.

Step 10 – This next bit is for the adults!! Cut two small holes in the bottom of the Dragon’s face and insert two lolly sticks. Add a third which is placed between the first two and bind together using sticky tape.

Play with your Dragon!

GoatChinese New Year Goat craft

This little guy is really cute and very quick to make!

What You’ll Need

Bostik Foam Pads

1 Polystyrene Ball

Wool

Cardboard

Pipe Cleaner

Pens

goat1

Step 1 – Pick up your polystyrene ball and attach the end of a ball of wool using a Bostik Foam Pad.

Step 2 – Wind the wool round and round until the ball is completely covered. Secure the end by tucking under the wound wool. You can use another Foam Pad or a Glu Dot if needed.goat2

Step 3 – Cut a pipe cleaner into four pieces and bend one end of each piece to make feet. Push these into the ball.goat4

Step 4 – Draw a face for your Goat onto cardboard. Cut out.goat3

Step 5 – Stick onto the front of your ball using Foam Pads and ta-da you have your Goat!

Lego Castle Launches At Warwick Castle

Lego Castle

Through the mists of time and the world of legend springs forth the brand new Lego Castle range! Whether you have knightly aspirations or long to be rescued from a dragon’s keep, this is sure to be the Lego set for you. It certainly appealed to my family as we traversed the ancient grounds of Warwick Castle to see its launch this weekend past.

Lego Warwick Castle

We began our journey with a treasure trail about the grounds, hunting high and low for dragon eggs. The clues led us around and about until finally we reached the fabled Lego flag and claimed our prize: chocolate coins! Lego Warwick Castle

Next we rode invisible horses to the Lego tent situated just outside the magnificent Warwick Castle gatehouse. Here we built castles, stables and buildings inspired by our surroundings.Lego Building

We met the beautiful Lego Princess who came to thank us for joining her quest.

The event is not just intended for us writerly types though. If you would like to join in, Lego Castle is hosting two weeks of castle-building capers from 12 to 26 August including costumed characters, build a castle play area and a treasure trail. Plus you have the bonus of being able to explore historic Warwick Castle and pretend you are a character from the current TV program The White Queen. Or is that just me?

Warwick Castle

At the launch we were lucky enough to be able to view and play with all the new playsets. We instantly fell in love with the bright red dragon from the Dragon Mountain set (70403, RRP: £34.99) and I have already been told about 100 times how my kids ‘need’ (not want need) the huge new King’s Castle (70404, RRP: £79.99).

King's Castle

As a family we are self confessed Lego nuts, my kids have Lego shoes, Lego clothes, Lego clocks, Lego watches and a copious amount of the bricky stuff itself. I suppose this could be due to my husband and me being a bit overly Lego mad from childhood. It’s wonderful to see the kids share our passion. We are also quite keen on history and mythological tales, so it’s easy to see how Lego Castle might appeal to us.King's Castle

We were fortunate to be given a few boxes of the smallest playset ‘Forest Ambush’ (70400, RRP: £7.99) to take home and try out. In comparison to the licensed ranges of Lego, the Castle range seems far better value (a small box of LOTR Lego will normally set you back £12-£13 as a comparison). The set contains two good knights, two bad, a dog, a cart with treasure chest and disguised forest ambush. The kids (and adults) had a lot of fun playing with these sets, but I think you really need more to fully appreciate the range.

Lego Castle

We were so taken with the characters that we hurried out to buy the Dragon playset the very next day 🙂 and our lounge has become chivalric beyond belief!

I took plenty of photos of the play in action but in the end I thought a video might better illustrate the fun we had, so without further ado I give you a little family animation we call….

The Princess’s Rescue!

The Princess has been kidnapped by the Dark Wizard, can the Knight save her and defeat the dragon?

Lego At Warwick Castle Details

Lego Castle are hosting the activities above between 12 to 26 August 2013.

Book online in advance for the best value entrance fees: adults from £17.10 and children from £11.70. Check www.warwick-castle.com for prices and latest attraction schedule.

Lego Castle Details

LEGO Castle is suitable for children aged 5+ and is available in toy shops nationwide from August 2013.

For further information log on to LEGO.com/CASTLE

Eggcellant Easter Eggs!

I’m probably not the only parent who received a letter recently telling them that their children had to decorate an egg for school. This seems to be a yearly tradition where the kids get messy, the parents worry about the eggs cracking and the teachers judge whose is best. Last year I found out about the competition too late and my kids didn’t enter. So this year we tried to be a bit more prepared and set to work decorating eggs last night.

I started by looking online for some inspiration, there are some fantastic websites out there with all kind of eggy projects. A lot called for white eggs which I don’t think I’ve seen for years, but they were all very impressive and definitely competition worthy. My kids liked the idea of making their eggs into animals, I could only find instructions for farm animal eggs online, so we had to make ours up as my son wanted to make a Lion, my daughter a Dog and my youngest a ‘Dagon’ (translation – Dragon).

The lion is made by dying an egg yellow and then cutting up a pompom for his mane, cutting out ears and noses from foam and googly eyes.

The dog is made by dying an egg brown and then using pompoms for ears and nose, then foam nostrils and tongue and more googly eyes.

 

Then the Dragon was made by dying an egg green and attaching big googly eyes, a foam nose and wings. They all have pipecleaner legs and tails.

 

 

We also decided to make some marble eggs, to do this you dye an egg one colour first, then in a second pot of dye you add some oil (I used olive) and swirl the dye around the roll your eye in it and dry.

We made Cuthbert the happy egg.

Then Ceril the unhappy egg, he’s mainly unhappy because youngest dropped him and cracked his back 🙁

 

Then we made a Dinosaur egg.

 

The nice thing about these marble eggs is I don’t think there’s any reason you can’t eat them. The dye is all made from edible ingredients. Here is an unpeeled marble egg (as eaten by my husband).

Egg Dye Recipe

If you want to make some egg dye for yourself it’s really simple. Just take a small cup of hot water, add about 1 teaspoon white vinegar and then some food colouring. I used gel colouring to give a vibrant colour. Just roll your eggs around in the dye until they are the colour you want and then dry.