How To Make A Mini Bow & Arrow!

Nothing says adventure like bow and arrow! And nothing says health and safety nightmare like our lawyers, so today we're showing you how to make a mini bow and arrow: all the fun and only a fraction of the danger! Create and decorate your own bow and then have fun shooting your cotton bud arrows! Remember, get an adult to help you and only aim at your sticky note target!

You will need:

• Lolly sticks
• Cotton buds
• Sticky notes
• Pens or whatever you'd like to decorate with
• Dental floss
• An adult with a pair of scissors

Step 1

Get your adult to make two small grooves at the top of each end of your lolly stick with the scissors - this will keep your string (dental floss) in place. Remember to GET AN ADULT for this - adults are very boring and have nothing better to do than spend time in A&E, but you're far too busy and important for that.

Step 2

Put your lolly stick(s) in a glass of water for at least 30 minutes before you start, so they get nice and bendy without snapping. Use this 30 minutes to annoy your adult or think up things to do once you're basically Robin Hood

Step 3

Tie your dental floss round one end of the stick so it fits in the grooves. Then (with your adult) carefully bend back your lolly stick (Not too far, we don't want it to break!) and tie the floss at the other end too. Not only is dental floss very handy and flexible, it will make your bow smell very refreshing!

Step 4

You should now have your bow!

Step 5

Decorate your bow any way you like - colouring pens, stickers, sticky gems, washi tape - go wild!

Step 6

Get your arrows - we've used these soft cotton buds (recyclable of course!) with a flat end to give them a real arrow feel, but if yours are the same at both ends, get an adult to help you cut off one end at the tip

Step 7

Practise - Start practising your shooting skills, being VERY CAREFUL not to aim at anyone!

Step 8

Draw your target on a sticky note - this will stick easily to your wall without leaving a mark! We've drawn a bullseye but it can be anything - your least favourite teacher, broccoli, whatever you like!

Step 9

Set up your target and voila! Make a whole load of bows for you and your friends and personalise them, and see who hits the target first!

Now you can go out into the wild and use your bow and arrows on all sorts of deadly foes - chimeras, poltergeists, fruit, the list is endless! If you don't fancy straying too far from home, you can always invite your friends over to compete and see who can fire the most arrows in a minute, who has the best decorated bow, and who has the best target (You could draw your least favourite food or something else gross!).

A mini bow and arrow is always a handy item when protecting yourself from mythical beasts, such as a fire-breathing dragon or an arrogant snake.

Is a pineapple threatening to take over your kitchen? Show them who's boss by pinging a cotton bud in their direction. They'll soon settle down.

Chain-wrapped ghosts can be particularly troublesome in the summer, for some reason. A well-aimed cotton bud arrow will clear your path to victory and/or the shops.