Fran has a 6-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy, and they live in Hampshire, UK. Using items from around her house along with her brilliant artistic ability, she has created these very bright and colourful Alphablocks for her son. Let’s see how she did it….

Describe activity:

I painted & drew the CBeebies Alphablocks onto loo rolls to get my big-fan son into junk modelling. I flattened the loo roll tubes slightly, so they’re oval-shaped. Then painted the bottom halves with one layer of white poster paint and let dry. Then I drew with a pencil the outlines of the Alphablocks, using pictures on google as a guide.

Notes/any other info about it – what worked/didn’t work

I found that if you draw the faces before you put the poster paint on you won’t be able to see them and you’ll have to do it again. I went over the pencil in black sharpie, and then carefully coloured using sharpies. I plan on covering these in sticky back plastic to make them last longer, they’ve already got a few sticky fingerprints!

What’s your next project idea:

Next up I’m planning on doing something along the lockdown rainbow theme. I work in the theatre and have a sample of theatre lighting gel colours, that I think may get chopped up!

How are you finding being housebound with kids so far?

Lockdown so far has been testing, but my salvation has been routine. We found one that worked for us, and we stick to it. The days we accidentally fall out of routine can be painful for the adults and the kids.