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

Cake fail, forgot to turn off the oven, cake was rock solid !

I left DH in charge of my two recently while I went doing the supermarket shop. DD, feeling bored (cause he was just trying to get on with his own stuff, instead of interacting with them...) decided to make a batch of slime, in the kitchen. I came home to a lovely burn mark in my nice wooden worktop where she had spilled some of the activator on it...

Two years ago I bought an easter craft basket full of paints to paint all the eggs but Olivia decided to paint her legs black all over, such a mess

For the volcano experiment we added red food colouring. Didn't work.... so DH shook the bottle.

Cue red stains on bespoke fabric roller blind in the kitchen, which I had to bleach off with a toothbrush.

We also had to repaint the kitchen ceiling and wall too. Cost of paints: £40.

we were doing crafts and painting pictures and you turn your back a second and the teddy and wall got the creative treatment. all good fun but had to redecorate

Slime we can never get it as expected, nearly but not quite very frustrating

I made the mistake of letting my two year old do some painting in the garden with me. She ran off with the paper which had wet paint on and I jumped up to take it off her and ended up dropping my new phone (i'd only had it a week) onto the slabs, smashing the screen!

We got a roll of lining paper and rolled it down the garden path. Then put paint on hands and feet to make nice prints on it. Except my daughter then four, slipped, did a comedy whirlwind with her arms and splattered on the paper. Smeared hand prints, footprints, and a nice bum print too (which she thought was hilarious!). The red paint never came out of her shorts. 😂

Where to start!? The rather top heavy too unwieldy to wear easter bonnet. Some weird cornflour and conditioner concoction that was supposed to be fun to play with but ended up a weird drain clogging messBefore I had kids I thought I would be a wonderful arts and crafts mum gluing pasta shapes and painting mini master pieces with kids. Turns out Im a here is some paper and pens and get on with it sorta mum

My girls really wanted to make slime - we followed some instructions online, using bicarbonate of soda or baking powder can’t remember which, some contact lens fluid and pvc glue and it just wouldn’t come together. We kept stirring and stirring and adding more of the ingredients but it wasn’t happening. Had some very disappointed girls and left with lots of gloopy mess to dispose of! Still not sure what we did wrong!

We decided to paint rocks... With acrylics, despite covering the table I didn't cover the floor, needless to say I think I've waved goodbye to my rental deposit...

my lil boy decided to paint a canvas the other day! I think more paint ended up on my carpet than it did on the canvas!

We let dd1 draw on the French doors/windows with paint and felt tips as you can obviously really easily rub it off and it seems less wasteful than using lots of paper. During one of the fun sessions I needed to go and answer the door and sign for a delivery with a very chatty delivery man - came back to find she had gone 'off grid' and was merrily painting/had painted the bottom of the kitchen island and all along one wall. DH pointed out that maybe we had blurred the boundaries somewhat...

Play doh in the carpet everytime (& anytime i try to make cakes from scratch)

A few years ago our DC's made home made catapults. We live in the middle of nowhere so they could use them relatively safely.
Until the day they used them to shoot down the United utilities drone.

My dd, when she was four, gave all her paint brushes a haircut. Some of them were a lovely brand new set from a proper art supplies store and hadn't been used yet. I usually just by cheaper brushes etc but thought it would be nice to buy really good ones where the bristles don't fall out. I had to go out and buy a whole new set. Cheaper ones this time

Buy not by

When DS1 and DS2 were bored one half term, I got out the finger paints to make home made Christmas tree handprint Christmas cards. I literally turned my back for 30 seconds and they had smeared their faces with the green paint (toxin free) and their faces and the whites of their eyes were even green - In the bath they both went - a 30 minute activity took hours to remedy !

We've got a little rainbow glued quite firmly to the kitchen table!

My daughter and her friend wanted to experiment with making extra fizzy soda pop using my ancient 1990s machine, they ended up exploding the bottle over the whole kitchen!

Painting nice pictures/ cards - ten brown pictures later....I give up!

The cola menthols thing. Wrecked the paint on the back of my house

Trying to make pom pom animals with my little one was disasterous. Ended up looking like an aneamic hairball.

I well remember the time that my mum dediced to create a fancy dress costume for me to wear to school on a dressing up day. Unfortunately, her sewing wasn't up to scratch an by 10am, the seam on my Ali Baba trousers had come apart.

I had to suffer the indignity of spending the rest of the day with my trousers secured by two large safety pins!

Glitter pictures always end up with glitter everywhere!