Dragon's Den: A Pop-Up Craft

The following craft activity may or may not be inspired by a television show of the same name.

When challenged to do a ‘dragon’ themed craft activity as part of this month’s Bostik craft challenge, the first thought that came to mind was a fire-breathing dragon guarding treasure in its den.

The challenge was how best to translate this into a fun craft activity that children can do. This is what we have come up with. I say we, for both J and M got in on the act, offering creative input. When I talked about creating a paper dragon, J surprised me by saying he already knew how to make one. He had learnt it at school!

To make this Dragon’s Den craft you will need:

• Long strips of coloured card paper. We used green and orange
• A cardboard box with a lid
• A sheet of tissue paper in your choice of colour. We used a pale grey.
• Scraps of red tissue paper
• A spring from a ballpoint pen
• Bostik glu
• Pair of scissors
• Sparkly embellishments

Start by spreading glue all over the cardboard box and cover it with the sheet of tissue paper. Pierce a small hole in the bottom of the box, squeeze in and secure one end of the small spring in it. Make sure you cover the exposed end outside the box with more tissue paper. Pierce and fix a small square piece of card to the other end inside the box.

Embellish the box with sparkly jewels and sequins of your choice.

Glue the ends of the two strips of card paper to each other. Fold them back and forth over each other, alternating between the two colours. The result should be a spring-like intertwined length of card. This is the main body of our fire-breathing dragon. Make sure the body is long enough to ensure the ‘jack-in-the-box’ effect we are trying to emulate.

Now glue one end of this body to the piece of card stuck to the spring in the box.

On a separate piece of card, draw the face of the dragon and cut it out. Stick pieces of red tissue to one end for the fire. Now glue the head to the dragon’s body in the box.

Line the box with the remaining tissue paper and spread ‘treasure’ over it.

Your Dragon’s Den is now complete. Close the box so that the dragon is hidden away inside. Every time you open the box, the dragon should pop out, fiery flames blazing from its nostrils.

J has spent the day pretending to be a knight fighting the naughty dragon.

Disclosure: We were sent a box of craft material to complete this challenge as part of the Bostik Blogger campaign.