There's no longer any excuse for lacking inspiration on a rainy afternoon. Today's bookshops are crowded with how-to manuals for go-to dads (and mums), offering blueprints, plans and proposals for countless ways of transforming cardboard, glue and craft materials into hours of DIY fun.
Made by Dad is one such book, promising "67 Blueprints for Making Cool Stuff" and crammed full of photographs, instructions, illustrations and plans to photocopy.
A bulging craft drawer, artistic skills and endless patience are advisable prerequisites, as is the space to host large, ambitious structures that frequently colonise the edge of tables or the side of drawers.
As ever, the ambition levels of some of the featured projects are through the roof, and you'd be well advised to have a thorough leaf through every option before letting your children make specific requests. For example, the marshmallow and cocktail stick model of the Eiffel Tower looks fantastic on the page, but will make the house-proud crafter somewhat nervous in practice. Take a deep breath and dive in.
You can watch Scott Bedford at work with his boys making a 1-ton lamp shade.
PWT rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Made by Dad: 67 Blueprints for Making Cool Stuff