Mumsnet users share with Frankie & Benny’s the craft activities or kids experiments that have gone wrong

[EllieMumsnet]

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Arts & crafts, cool science experiments, baking...they all sound such fun and great ways to spend an afternoon with your child/children and 99% of the time they are. Sometimes though, something might go a little left; maybe it wasn’t really the kind of trajectory you had in mind for that rocket or perhaps you put a bit too much bicarbonate soda in that science experiment and ended up giving a lesson on explosives instead. With that in mind Frankie & Benny’s would love to know all the craft activities and kids experiments that you’ve tried to do and have gone wrong.

Here’s what Frankie & Benny’s have to say: “We know Easter holidays are a key time for any family to spend time and do activities together. Whether it’s going out to share a meal, going to see a movie or entertaining the kids with home experiments, we all love to try new things. This half term, Frankie & Benny’s is giving away free slime with every kids’ meal and we want parents to share with us their home experiments disaster stories, including those who’ve tried to make their very own slime!”

Perhaps you too have tried to make slime and you’re still finding it in different places all over the house? Or maybe you tried to help your child with their homework, mistook superglue for PVA glue and are still trying to pick bits of your hands? Or maybe you tried a famous sweet and fizzy drink experiment and immediately regretted it?

Whatever craft activities or kids experiments you’ve done that have gone wrong share them on the thread below and everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

Decided to make Xmas cards with 2yo DD. Got card blanks and ready mixed paint from poundland in dark blue and white. DD mixed the paint up on a plate and I put the cards face down to 'print' her patterns on to them.

All went really well, was happy with the result, DD had paint on her face, hands, in her hair, in her mouth - but all to be expected. Just popped her in the shower. And washed. And washed. And washed. And checked the paint bottle in panic as the toddler got bluer and the bath got stained...

Apparently poundland ready mix paint is acrylic.

Made my adorable 2 year old a birds nest out of grey paint pva and string moulded over a bowl and left to dry for a week. He wore it on his heAd decorated with chicks and cute Easter flowers as a hat for his preschool Easter parade - all was well till he sneezes and the whole lot disintegrated . He was left standing with a grey piece of string dangling from his nose!

And also the time I set fire to the laminated (and almost the kitchen) by laminating autumn leaves to make a mobile - dry leaves +hot molten plastic - fire!

It has to been green slime - which has permanently stained my pine dining table - oh dear, should have put more newspaper down when we were making it. Tablecloth it is from now on.

I let my daughter open a big glitter pot once.... it was like a shower of the stuff everywhere! We found it in random places for ages!

Hi this long winded but I’m 22 I’ve got 2 babies already one who is 2 and one who’s 1 they have separate dads anyway, I met my partner last year we had a rocky start he jumped out of my second floor flat cause he drank a litre of vodka (he has drink issue at 21) we’ve had ups and downs I’ve tried to commit sucide last month as ive suffered depression all my life I have low self esteem and other problems, I’m constantly over reacting over little things and always looking for reassurance that he loves me but he calls me a physco, long story short I’m pregnant, I’m apparently 8 weeks but look more 17, I was a size 10 and haven’t gained weight anywhere else really but my stomach so no can barley fit a 12 over my tummy so with my low self esteem this makes me feel worse so I’ve been complaining , I don’t wqnt him to fall out of love with me cause I’m disgusting, I tell him but he has a go at me for keeping on.. yesterday he followed one of those insta famous girls naked and I argued I thought it was disrespectful because I’ve been feelings shit and basically he made me feel guilty and told me he was leaving cause I’m physco and what not and now I’m stuck, he came back around and stuff but I just don’t feel happy obviously love him and want a baby but I can’t have a third with another I want this to be right but he’s making me feel like pure shit I stuck by him when he’s treated me like dirt (to long for this) I just feel like maybe I’m best leaving and the child but that’s horrible, I can’t talk to him cause he says he hate these chats

The time DD stuck all of the little chicks upside down on her Easter bonnet so they all looked dead.

Bettermonkey, try posting in relationships.

Oh so many fails in this house......

Mentos and coke - fired a stream of brown fizz onto neighbour's clean washing hanging on her line.

Glitter glue - DS did well keeping it on the card but then stroked the cat with his glitter glue fingers. Cat was green and shiny for weeks.

Dinosaur archeology kit - you have to scrape a block of plaster to find the plastic dinosaur bones inside. DS was getting nowhere so DP tried using a sharp knife. Resulted in trip to A&E and stitches to his finger.

I could go on ........

We had picture books with stickers - you attach the stickers to the book to adorn the pretty princesses with jewels and crowns, etc. Except my two were much happier attaching the stickers to themselves; I turned my back for one minute to find them head to toe covered in stickers, face and all!

We tried to make some gingerbread Minions- took an absolute age with 2 DC fighting over who was doing the mixing, decorating etc... Yellow icing absolutely everywhere!! They looked a right mess and didn't taste much better either!!
We've also had 'fun' with play d'oh... how do you even get that out of carpet?????!

Last year we made a 'gorgeous' Easter bonnet, with lots and lots of PVA scrunched up tissue paper as 'flowers' lots of glitter, we left it to dry overnight on the light oak dining room table - the hat stuck to the table and the colour from the wet tissue paper soaked into the wood making a 'tie dyed' look on the wood. I had to get a professional wood restorer to get my table back to it's full glory. Yikes !

MY daughter has made a model of the tomb and the stone rolled away for Easter at school in Lent club. Her dad mistook the stones for a poo.... we couldn't stop laughing about it but didn't tell our Matilda who was very impressed with her creation

My 5 year old tends to see her body as her canvas. She’s drawn “tattoos” in felt tip all over her body in her time. She’s currently sporting hand and foot “tattoos”
She also persuaded her friend to give her a haircut so she now looks quite daft. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Pretty much everything I try turns into a disaster! The worst is when I tried to make that cornflour slime stuff that is a liquid and a solid. Don't know what went wrong but it was a mess went absolutely everywhere and then to top it off DS refused to touch it because it looked 'acky'

Definitely the mint in a bottle of coke experiment!

My boys tried to make a Timebomb soda that they'd seen somewhere probably YouTube Suffice to say, mentos + cola makes one heck of a mess on a bedroom carpet once they've got bored because 'it doesn't work' and gone to play Nintendo instead

Getting out play sand and my 1 year old try to eat it!

'chocolate' cakes that had to be dipped in sugar while eating, as that part of the recipe had been skipped

we tried to make a volcano out of papier mache and added too many layers too fast and it collapsed.

Slime- just that- always an epic fail!!!

Yesterday we made an Easter bonnet, we ended up with the hat glued to the table. Has left a terrible mess. It was soon covered with a table cloth while I decide what to do about it.

vinegar and bicarb rockets. I used to do them with film canisters but they are so hard to find these days. I got some plastic test tubes with push in lids, thought they would be a good substitute but firstly it's really hard to keep them upright, and then they all split. Fizzle.
(I did eventually find the better option is steradent-type tubes, with an upside-down paper cup with the bottom cut out as a stand)

Oh so many, but the time I saw lovely homemade wrapping paper for Christmas on pin interest. Brown parcel paper and get your toddler to do cute hand prints on it with sparkly green and red paint. Lovely, grandparents would love it, my Christmas gifts would look stylish. What could possibly go wrong ?

Thankfully I chose to do this in the kitchen, except the doorbell went. Got back to find my kitchen covered in green and red hand prints. And foot prints, because he'd stepped in it. The led towards the stairs.

The paper was just all red and green mess mushed together.

Lots of cleaning later, just picked up some wrapping paper in Tesco instead...

Papier mache over a balloon. It was supposed to harden and we'd cut it in half for Easter egg shape. But dh popped balloon too early and it imploded very sadly and deflated to a goo.

Bought my DS (8) a science kit, him and his dad were doing the experiments and decided to try to volcano one.....I said to do it in the bathroom in the bath so that it was easy to clean up, thinking I could just rinse the bath out.
They followed the instructions but got impatient waiting for the reaction so added more of the mixture it was the I heard “wow” lots of giggling from both and then and “oh!” I went in to look and it had exploded there was red sticky goo all over my bath my tiles, my shower curtain the white ceiling the wall and mirror on the opposite wall the floor, everywhere....it looked like a murder had taken place.
All experiments now take place outside and I got a nice newly painted bathroom and new floor..so guess not all bad 😂