Kathy, from Somerset, has made these vibrant flowers, made out of tin cans. Kathy even made some more just so that she could put together these step-by-step pictures of the process for us all. Thanks, Kathy, we all really appreciate it!…

What did you do?

  1. I used empty Diet Coke cans, but any cans (or plastic bottles) could be used. WARNING: The metal is extremely sharp.
  2. I cut the top off them using kitchen scissors.
  3. I then cut the petals by cutting down the cans, varying each one to given different shapes.
  4. I then painted them using at least two coats of acrylic paint – some colours cover better than others.
  5. Then finish them with Mod Podge, to give a little protection.
  6. Lastly, I fixed them to the garden fence using nails.

What other things have you been doing?

Another idea that was all my daughter, Martha’s idea, was the ‘Bad Milk’

She came upstairs to tell me that the milk had turned bad overnight. I was confused as I was sure it should be ok. I then found this in the fridge!

Tell us all a bit about yourself…

I’m Kathy and I live in Yeovil, Somerset. I have 3 children – an 11-year-old son, and 13-year-old twin girls. Only one of the girls was interested in doing this with me. I normally work part-time but am currently off sick as I had an operation for a ruptured appendix on Good Friday, and was pretty poorly with it.

I have to confess, I am struggling, as a single mum, being housebound with kids during lockdown. I do my best to help with school work, but trying to do that, as well as keeping the house together, cooking etc, all whilst recovering, is proving to be tough.

Do you have any tips for other parents?

I have learned to try not to beat myself up too much if not all the schoolwork gets done. We are all struggling with this in different ways, and there is no right or wrong. We can only do our best.

I love seeing all the projects on the Housebound with Kids Facebook page. We are all doing things that we wouldn’t probably find the time for in the real world. I really hope our children look back at this time with good memories.