Paper Cup Dragon – 10 Minute Crafts

Crevette (6 years 6 months) was delighted when I told him we had been chosen as Bostik ambassadors. Throughout the year, we will receive a box full of crafting goodies. It was a dream come true for Crevette!

You see, my little man is not the sporty type. There are a few after school clubs available at his school, but they at all sports-based. Crevette would much rather attend an arts and crafts or cookery club. He loves nothing more than a little project we can work on together, and he was bubbling with excitement when we opened the parcel together.

Our theme was ‘Chinese New Year’. When I asked my little man what he wanted to make, he went for a dragon. Although I love crafts, my drawing skills are pretty non-existent so we had to be creative with that one!

I wanted to go for a quick crafty activity that would require no specific skill, few materials and could be done in less than ten minutes. We went for a paper cup dragon.

This is what we used:

A gold paper cup

Scissors

A knife

Red mirror card

Bostik ‘glu dots’

Orange and yellow tissue paper

2 googly eyes

2 green pompoms

PVA glue

Start by cutting a small (about 3cm diameter) hole in the bottom of the paper cup.

Using a knife, cut a 7 cm slit on the side of the paper cup.

Cut a 7×15 cm rectangle of red mirror card and fold it in two (lengthways).

Cut out triangle shapes in the top half to represent spikes. Stick both sides of the spikes together using ‘glu dots’.

Put the spikes through the slit and stick the bottom half of each side of card to the inside of the cup, using ‘glu dots’.

Cut strips of yellow and orange tissue paper.

Stick ‘glu dots’ on the inside of the cup and attach a strip of tissue paper to each, alternating between orange and yellow.

Stick the googly eyes on the pompoms.

Using PVA glue, stick the two pompoms on the cup.  Leave to dry.

Blow through the hole to see your dragon breathe fire!

Although I have to admit our dragon looks more like a squid than a fierce fire-breathing creature, it was a fun activity and a nice sensory experience for Wriggly, who was mesmerised by the tissue paper as Crevette was blowing.

If you have an angry toddler or preschooler (I have two of these at home at the moment!), you could use the dragon as a way to help them calm their anger by taking deep breaths and breathing through the cup more and more gently. Hopefully, calming the dragon will calm them, too. If you can get them to hold the cup without tearing the tissue paper first, that is!

If you are looking for quick and easy activities to try with your children, why not give a go to our toilet paper roll bunnies, reindeer lanterns, finger painting, painting the bath, thumbprint art or try making play dough?

Disclosure: Bostik sent us a selection of crafting supplies free of charge as part of the Tots100/Bostik Craft Bloggers’ Club. All photos and opinions are my own.