Create a Paper Garden – free family craft sessions at Wales Millennium Centre this half term

Wales Millennium Centre is once again turning its foyer into a giant work of art – with the theme for this half term being Create A Paper Garden.

The Cardiff Bay arts venue regularly runs free family craft activities during school holidays, with visitors asked to add to the giant canvas using materials supplied by the centre.

We headed there this afternoon, and spent about an hour in the centre, creating things to add to the giant garden.

We were in the Bay anyway, as we’d been to see the Lego Batman Movie at the Odeon in the Red Dragon Centre and taken part in the free Lego block and build workshops from the brilliant Kids Construction Company. We also got to meet Batman – “Not the real one though, Mummy.” As regular readers will know, we’re blogger ambassadors for the Red Dragon Centre but we weren’t there in any official capacity today. Rather, we were there for my Batman-obsessed toddler. He loved the film… but developed a sudden fear of the caped crusader when he met him in the flesh. A family cinema ticket cost £16 for me and the three kids, and with free parking it was the cheapest cinema option in Cardiff too.

Before the crafts at Wales Millennium Centre, we’d been to see Lego Batman at Odeon in the Red Dragon Centre

We thought we’d make the most of our day (and the free parking!) and head across the road to Wales Millennium Centre for the workshops.

They’re running all this week until Saturday 25^th February, from 11am-4pm We arrived around 2.45pm and as numbers are limited in the enclosed craft area, we had a short wait of around 10 minutes.

After having a look at what had been created earlier in the day, Little Miss E, my seven year old daughter, decided she wanted to make some flowers; Little Man O wanted to make some carrots for the veg patch and Toddler Boy I wanted to make a fish for the pond and a ladybird.

We helped ourselves to craft materials from the well-equipped table and set about making our creations, sticking, gluing, cutting, and using our imaginations as best we could.

My children were so pleased to be contributing to the garden there were no issues with them not being able to take home their creations. I had worried Toddler would be upset about handing his over, but he was fine.

When the session closed and the space was empty, we headed up to the first floor to look down on the creation – and it was fantastic from that perspective.

I’m not sure if we’ll make it back this week to see the end result – but we’ll certainly be looking out for photos on social media.

Create A Paper Garden runs daily at Wales Millennium Centre until Saturday 25th February. No need to book, you can just turn up although there may be a wait during busy times.

For more information on Wales Millennium Centre’s weekly Saturday craft workshops and their monthly Toddler Time singing and music preschool events, see the website.

For more ideas of family friendly events this half term, see this post.

See the Cardiff section of Cardiff Mummy Says for more reviews and previews of local family days out and attractions, or follow us on Instagram or Twitter.