h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The pot noodle can come in handy over the Christmas period for making some rather interesting and useful gifts for children and adults alike

PEN HOLDER

What you need:
1 clean & empty pot noodle pot (no easy task )
decorations of any sort
glue

Stick decorations to the pot noodle pot any way you feel like and that's it.



POT CLOWN

What you need:
1 pot noodle pot
1 ping pong ball
Short length of garden cane (about 30cm)
Fabric
Ribbon
Glue
Googly eyes
Felt Tip Pens


How to make your pot clown.

Firstly, it is advised you either eat the pot noodle (if you can stomach it), or throw the contents away as you won't be needing that.

Next, cut a hole in the bottom of the pot noodle pot big enough for the garden cane to fit through.

Cut a hole in the ping pong ball and insert the garden cane. Glue the cane in place then thread it through the hole in the bottom of the pot noodle pot.

Use felt tip pens to give the ping pong ball a nice looking face, and stick on the googly eyes, a bit of wool (for hair) and make a little hat out of fabric.

Wrap fabric around the pot noodle pot and glue to the top of the cane near the ping pong ball 'head'. Also glue the fabric at the base of the pot noodle pot and then tie a bow using the ribbon near the pot rim.

Pull the cane up and down to operate the clown, it will hide in the pot and pop out again. That should keep the little blighters occupied for about 2 minutes.

for those of us on the other side of the lake, what exactly is a 'garden cane'?

also the pencil cup was something we used to make in school, only we used clean empty tin cans (like canned goods come in). and a great idea for decorating them is macaroni or pasta noodles (especially since they come in so many shapes these days)

I assume the garden cane mentioned is a piece of bamboo cane or something similar.

I'm surprised you used tin cans for that in school - our parents/teachers would have been paranoid about sharp edges.

You could make musical shakers for children. Put different amounts of rice in each pot and cover with tin foil which MUST by securely stuck down with cellotape otherwise rice will go everywhere. The outside of the pot could be decorated with wrapping paper. Kids will love making music.