Five fun DIY holiday projects

Silly putty

Make your own slimy goo and customise it with glitter and food colouring.

What you need:

• 147ml clear glue (a few tubes of Bostik or Pritt craft glue should work)
• 147ml water
• ½ teaspoon Borax
• ½ cup hot water
• Food colouring and glitter for decoration

1. Pour the glue in a bowl, add the same amount of water and stir until well combined. Add a few drops of food colouring, stir, then add some glitter and stir again.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the ½ cup of hot water and Borax, until the powder has dissolved. Add this mixture to the glue one and stir. Watch it turn into stretchy sludge.
3. Store it in an airtight container or ziplock bag and it can keep for months.

Outdoor games

Turn a section of your pavement or stoep into a bowling alley! Collect ten empty 500ml plastic cooldrink bottles, peel off the labels, paint them with a couple of stripes and take turns to bowl them over with a tennis ball.

Build your own giant outdoor Scrabble board. Draw the letters and numerical values onto cardboard (you can divide an A4 into four). You can either make a permanent board by laying down paving stones in a certain section of the garden and painting on the special values (double and triple letter and word scores) or just lay the words down the grass. If you choose the latter, you can use the whole lawn as the game board, with the winner decided on total number of letters or words.

Edible Christmas decorations

• Christmas tree decorations don’t have to be limited to tinsel, lights and coloured balls. Here are a few edible decorations:
• Make old-fashioned sugar cookies in shapes like hearts, little people or Christmas balls and trees and decorate them with fondant or coloured icing. Use a toothpick to poke a hole in the top of the decorations, make a loop with string or ribbon to hang it up with.
• Another easy decoration is rice crispy treats rolled in a ball, dipped in white chocolate and then covered with jelly tots, smarties or other small sweets.
• Buy sugar cones or other ice cream cones, fill them with sweets or chocolate coins. Make a small hole on each side of the coin to thread your string through.
• You can also fill small bags with treats, tie them with festive ribbon and hang them on the tree. Label each guest’s bag and watch them hunt for their little gift.

How to make your own bouncy ball

The kids won’t bother you for R2 to get a bouncy ball once you’ve mastered making them.

All you need is:

• ½ cup warm water
• 1tb Borax
• 1tb cornstarch
• 2tb white liquid glue
• food colouring (and glitter, if you’re adventurous)

1. Mix the warm water and Borax in one cup and the glue, cornstarch and food colouring (and glitter) in another.
2. Pour the glue mix into the water mix. It will harden after a few seconds. Use a fork or spoon to take it out once it’s not sticky anymore.
3. Roll the mixture into a ball. The more you roll it the firmer it is.

Toilet roll art

• Turn those boring toilet rolls into great wall art. You just need any toilet paper or paper towel rolls, craft glue and laundry pins.
• Flatten the rolls and cut them into smaller pieces. Create a design and paste the pieces together, using the laundry pins to press the sides together until the glue dries.
• You can paint the rolls or add bits and bobs like feathers, glitter, coloured paper and small mosaic tiles for some colour and texture.
• You can glue the artwork to a canvas or board and hang it on the wall or use wall hooks or adhesives to attach it to your chosen spot.