Make Something Awesome

Things to make with your own two hands

Paper, paint, cardboard and string. Nothing here needs a craft-store trip, and every one comes with a mess rating so you know what you're in for.

16 projects10 you can do on your own

Two things first

Cover the table before you open anything. And if a step says grown-up, it's about the sharp thing or the hot thing, so wait for them.

30 min+ an hour to dry

The salt does the stars for you

Salt Watercolour Galaxies

Wet paint, a shake of table salt, and by the time it dries you've got a night sky full of stars you didn't paint. It looks like a trick and it's really just salt being thirsty.

Easy1 galaxy paintingOpen

15 min

Press its back and it hops

Origami Jumping Frog

One index card, ten folds, and a frog that actually jumps when you press its back end. Make two and race them across the table.

MediumOpen

1 hr+ glue drying overnight

Junk in, robot out

Cereal Box Robot

A cereal box body, a tissue box head, toilet roll arms and whatever bottle caps you can find. No two ever come out the same, which is the whole point.

MediumOpen

45 min

Four knots, over and over

Candy Stripe Friendship Bracelets

The classic diagonal-stripe bracelet, with one knot to learn and nothing else. Once your hands know it, you can make one during a whole movie without looking down.

MediumOpen

40 min+ paint drying between coats

Make a stranger's day

Painted Rocks to Hide

Paint a rock, write something kind on the back, hide it somewhere public and never find out who found it. That's the whole game and it's better than it sounds.

EasyOpen

30 min+ paint drying

One plate, one cut, one dinosaur

Paper Plate Stegosaurus

Fold a paper plate in half, cut a zigzag along the fold for the plates on its back, and the rest of the dinosaur is just paint and a couple of cut-out legs. It stands up on its own.

EasyOpen