We Join Together Virtually to Get Creative in Our Lockdown Event

Here at Viking, we love nothing more than starting our weekend with a good crafting session. What better way to spend a lockdown Saturday than with a selection of fabulous bloggers and their families, getting crafty with lots of everyday use products from our website?

Last Saturday, we hosted our first ever virtual craft event, #craftingwithviking. Although we couldn’t be together physically, it was wonderful to see all of the families getting together online ready to craft.

The event started at 10am, where we welcomed all our guests to the event, and explained what we had in store for them. The lovely Jane from Tea & Crafting then took over the reins to lead the mornings activities, which consisted of:

• Chocolate bubble wrap
• Fire breathing dragons
• Parcel tape feet

Up first was the chocolate bubble wrap. This activity consisted of melting chocolate, and spreading it onto bubble wrap, to form a piece of chocolate which is all bubbly! We used Aero chocolate for this activity as it was so easy for little hands to crumble.

Whilst waiting for the chocolate to set, we moved onto making our fire breathing dragons. In this session, we learnt how to make colourful dragons using toilet roll tubes, glue, paper and either stickers or felt tips for decoration on our dragons.

The final activity was making parcel tape feet, which was a clever way to take everyday items and put them to use in our crafting. For this activity, Jane asked all the children to draw around their feet to make their moving feet. This activity is so simple, as all you need is your card, cotton wool buds (or kebab sticks) and parcel tape! If there are two of you, you can have a race with your sibling to see whose feet move the quickest!

At the end of the event, Jane encouraged all our lovely families to clean their hands and workstations, especially as there was chocolate eating involved! Jane used hand soap and hand sanitiser as well as some other cleaning products to stay clean and tidy throughout the session, which are both essential items for crafting in a clean and hygienic way.

The fun doesn’t stop here, if you want to try any of the activities at home, we’ve included the tutorials for you!

Fire Breathing Dragon

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Hold your dragon at an angle in front of you and breathe into the toilet roll tube – you’ll see its 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

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!

Thank you to all of the incredible bloggers and families who joined us for our virtual craft event, we had a wonderful time! For more photos check out our Twitter page (@Viking_Chat) and the hashtag – #CraftingWithViking.