Our Ikea toy kitchen has always been a firm favourite with my kids and it has sparked their imaginations from toddlerdom right through to age 6 and will do beyond i’m sure. So when we are going away and i am packing a few toys to keep them entertained this is my solution:

I came up with a portable toy kitchen hob made from a reinforced box and it’s perfect for transporting play food and pans inside.

I used a 6 bottle wine box, which lets face it are in plentiful supply following the nightmare of Covid lockdown with small children! The beauty of this is that it is already reinforced so can carry a fair bit of weight.

All you need is:

• an appropriately sized box
• some silver gorilla tape
• a4 white paper
• pens
• celotape
• 5 plastic milk bottle lids
• paper fasteners
• pipe cleaner

The first thing i did was draw the hob rings on a sheet of a4 white paper and stick it to the centre of the box using celotape. I then covered the paper in celotape to protect it (you could laminate it if you have one). I then covered the box with silver gorilla tape, being careful to surround the hob neatly.

I then added the hob switches using bottle tops and paper fasteners. I finished with a mechanism to close the box using a bottle top, paper fastener and pipe cleaner.

It is now ready to use. You could decorate it further with stickers or just keep it plain and simple! Happy crafting.