Steve The Pet Dragon

"Mummy, I want to make something!"  6 words.  6 words that mean 2 hours of preparation, hunting down crafting supplies & scrap from the recycling bin.  Followed by 2 minutes of intense concentration, and mummy spending the next half hour carefully creating a whatever whim passed through the head of a preschooler in the ad break between Peppa Pig and Ben & Holly.

Deep in concentration

This week it was "Mummy, I want to make a pet dragon!"  While I was still in my pyjamas.  Somehow, we managed to postpone making dragons until after breakfast.  There's no way I'm doing craft activities when I can't see straight yet!  Somehow, I gathered together a random assortment of junk from our "rainy day drawers" (mostly sourced from the closing down sale at Woollies, bored moments in Wilkos, and leftover tat from long since abandoned craft ideas of my own).  Added a few bits & pieces from the recycling bin, and we were off.


So, I've no doubt you're wondering, how DO you make a Pet Dragon?

Ingredients
One empty toilet roll tube
One empty Yeo Valley yogurt pot (other brands are available, but the shape was good)
One A4 sheet of green sugar paper
Some green tissue paper (toilet roll would probably work too)
A small piece of red sugar paper
Glitter Glue
2 Googly eyes (you mean you DON'T have a stash of googly eyes?)
Sticky tape or sticky pads
PVA glue
Green paint

First, paint your toilet roll tube green.  This is the bit your preschooler will actually deign to do.  Maybe.

Cover your yogurt pot with PVA glue, and then stick the tissue paper to the pot.  Be a bit rustic.  It's a dragon, not Kate Moss.

Put them both to dry for a few minutes.

Cut your piece of green sugar paper in half.  Make one half into a cone for the tail, and use sticky tape to fix it together.  Fold the other piece in half again & cut out two wing shapes.

Attach googly eyes to the front of the yogurt pot, and cut a tongue shape from your red paper, and stick this to the front of the yogurt pot too.

Stick the toilet roll tube to the inside of the yogurt pot using sticky tape to form the body.

Stick the cone of paper to the inside of the toilet roll tube to form the dragon's tail.

Stick your wings to the underside of the dragon's body, so they are flappable.

Decorate using glitter glue.

Take daft photos of a toilet roll dragon eating from your birdtable.

The dragon is called Steve.  For some reason EVERYTHING is called Steve at the moment.  She doesn't even know anyone called Steve, except for a cousin of mine who she hasn't seen in a couple of years.  But this is Steve the Pet Dragon anyway.  He's quite a welcome addition to our household, as I've had to be a pet dragon a lot recently and crawl around on my knees making firey noises, and apparently making toast.  Welcome to our home, Steve!