Hobbycraft stores up and down the country offer a selection of free and low-cost craft workshops for children across the school holidays. We popped to Hobbycraft Silverlink (aka Newcastle) to check out their FREE Slime Workshop during February Half Term and I have to say, I was really impressed.
Scroll to the bottom of this page for details of upcoming FREE and low-cost Mothers Day and Easter Workshops and links to book.
Now I am not a crafty mam - we rarely do crafts at home as the mess does my head in. The kids however love this kind of thing so outsourcing and letting someone else take charge is a win-win solution for us.
I pre-booked a place for Heidi and Jack a few weeks in advance online. Although the workshops are free and there is no hard sell at all, it is a canny marketing tool by Hobbycraft as it was the first time I have stepped foot in one of their stores and I loved it. I could not believe how cheap their sets were either, I had a pre-conception that it was expensive. We picked up three paint your own money box kits for under £5 (in total). Bargain!
At Silverlink, the Slime workshops take place at the front of the store. We headed over at our allotted time and a member of staff ticked our names from the list. Workshops are small with only 2 other children joining Heidi and Jack at our session. Our workshop lasted 30 minutes and although they were led by a member of staff, parents do need to stay too - it is not a childcare session.
I was really impressed with the range of colours on offer and they were not stingy with their quantities either. There were two types of slime to choose from - regular slime or snotty slime.
I love that an experienced member of staff led the session and kept the kids right. I would have no idea when to stop adding activator or when the slime was ready.
Slime has three basic ingredients - pva glue, activator and paint. Heidi and Jack loved getting creative with different colours.
When the slime is nearly ready, you tip it on the table and add a little more activator. Prepare to get messy!
Then after 30 minutes, it is the perfect consistency. Paper towels are provided to clean up and you can take your slime home in a paper cup or bring a container from home as we did.
Heidi and Jack really had a brilliant time. I can't believe the workshop was completely free. The sessions were professional, provided all materials and enjoyable with no mess at home! I will definitely book more sessions in the future and would recommend.
I spotted this poster featuring upcoming in-store events for Spring.
These sessions are available to book now. They use Eventbrite which isn't the easiest when searching for tickets as you basically need to look through each timed session and scroll down past Aberdeen to find your local store and then see how many tickets are available. I have just checked and there are still tickets available for the following events:
- 29 Feb - Spring Wreath Decorating £5
- 7 March - Paint Your Own Ceramic Money Box £2
- 14 March - FREE Create Your Own Mothers Day Card
- 21 March - Easter Bonnet Making £3
- 28 March - Make an Easter Bonnet £3
- Easter Holidays - FREE Easter Suncatcher Workshop
- 11 April - Chocolate Egg Decorating £1
Workshops are available to book across the UK, in the North East scroll down to Gateshead (Team Valley), Newcastle (Silverlink) and Stockton-on-Tees (Teeside Shopping Park).
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Our 3 for £5 Paint at Home Money Boxes we picked up in-store.
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We've done a few of these sessions at hobbycraft and every one has been excellent. I believe there are only ever 5 spaces per session so they do book up quick
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