An activity requiring a fair bit of patience, but which will give you lots of satisfaction and is sure to be loved by children: hot air balloons made with walnuts!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• walnuts
• tempera paints
• string
• plastic caps
• hot glue
• metal eyelets
• nylon thread

METHOD

Using the tempera paints, colour the walnuts (or let the children paint them!) as you like.

Cover the outside of the plastic caps with hot glue and wrap them with string, until the outside is completely covered. These will be the baskets of your mini hot air balloons!

Cut the string into small pieces and glue them along the walnuts and sides of the caps to make the ropes joining the baskets to the balloons.

Place a metal eyelet at the top of each walnut, and pass the nylon thread through.

Now, you can place a small character inside each basket and hang your hot air balloons off a lamp, a shelf, or wherever you like to add a touch of character to a corner of the home.