DIY projects are a great way to keep kids busy, productive and entertained during the summer vacation – Here are 5 fun crafts that are easy to create based on easily available and inexpensive craft products.

•    Paper drink umbrellas
What you’ll need: Decorative scrap paper, glue, pencil, toothpick (or wooden kebab skewers), pinking shears or scallop scissors
How to: Use a pencil to draw circles on the paper by using a Heinz baked beans can. Cut the circle shape and then cut a tiny slice into the paper circle. Wrap around into a cone shape and add glue to edges. Add white glue to head of the cone and stick in skewers, then allow to dry.
Price range of scrapbook paper £0.10 – £2.00
Price range of pinking shears £5.90 – £22.00

•    Decorated Flip flops
What you’ll need: plastic flip flops, ribbons, flower beads (bead box), glue
How to: Wrap the Y section of the flip flops with your desired ribbon using the glue to secure both ends. Add your beads or embellishments and decorate as you wish. Then allow to dry for a couple minutes.
Price range of flip flops £0.75 to £15

•    Tie dye t-shirts
What you’ll need: t-shirt, rubber bands/strings, dye, rubber gloves, large pot/bucket, BBQ tongs (to hold shirts and stir dye), newspaper and plastic bags (to protect your work area)., rags/paper towels (to clean up)  – OR you could buy a tie dye kit which allows you to do up to 5 shirts!
How to: Follow kit directions, but bear in mind that using a plain white t-shirt is best for achieving the desired results.
Price range of kits £6.75 to £12.50

•    Finger Printed Shopper
What you’ll need: plain, light coloured canvas shopping bag and finger paint
How to: Most finger paints are non-toxic and washable such as the Crayola Beginnings 3 Washable Finger Paints. You can get as creative and artistic as you like as there are no set rules to paint your bag.
Price range of shoppers – £0.75 to £10.00

•    Paper party bracelets
What you’ll need: scissors, old paper towel tube, scrapbooking paper, glue, buttons, and other embellishments (beads, photos etc)
How to: Use scissors to cut tube along length, to desired size of bracelet, glue scrapbooking paper and embellishments to decorate.
Price range of scrapbook paper £0.10 – £2.00

In preparation for the back-to-school season, Twenga, the new-generation search engine, studied the price of 98,939 school supplies used by students in the UK, France and Germany.

The results reveal that the “regular price” (median price figure) of a shopping basket containing 16 standard school supplies including pencils, pens, erasers, notebooks, etc (full list of products below) dramatically decreased by 10% from 2008 to 2009, whereas “bargain price” (first quartile price figure) of the same supplies dropped by 5% from 2008 to 2009.

Most importantly, at an average of £62, the UK’s bargain shopping basket was  10% less expensive than the same basket in Germany where it cost €81 (£69), but 7% more expensive than in France where it costs €68 (£58). This not only shows that deflation is strong in the UK and France, but also demonstrates that the combination of price-falls in the UK with the decline of the British Pound against the Euro have made the British prices more competitive internationally.

Germany is the only country where both the regular and the bargain prices of the shopping basket increased, by 22% and 10% respectively. This rise comes from school bags for which German parents are often ready to pay more than €100 (£85) to get a robust backpack with wheels. Schoolbags cost on average three times more in Germany than in the UK.

“Our observations confirm that price deflation is heavily at work in the UK day-to-day shopping.” commented Therese Torris, VP of Content at Twenga.

Comparing prices is more important than ever
Although prices in the UK have dropped since 2008, the cost for a regular shopping basket of school supplies still adds up to £130, which still is 15% more expensive than in France. This is the price that some British parents will pay this back-to-school season if they don’t hunt for bargains properly.

“Parents should be careful to not be blinded by deflation and price reductions in the UK,” said Therese Torris, VP of Content at Twenga. “Although a slight discount is tempting, they can still save more than 50% by going for the better deals, staying informed, and comparing prices online.”

For example, British parents can find a school bag from a well-known brand for around £15 instead of paying the £40 or more asked for by most online shops. In the same vein, by taking just a few minutes to compare prices online, they can easily save up to 50% on a scientific calculator.

Whether they do their shopping for school supplies on the high street or online, we advise parents to check prices with Twenga before they shop”, says Therese Torris. “It’s the heart of the services we provide, a simple way to search and compare. By typing the product’s name or the model number of a product on Twenga.co.uk, anyone can get all the product offers available online and their prices”.