Visitors to the Museum of Docklands found a creative way to celebrate the Chinese New Year on Sunday.

Using their art and crafts skills, families made their own Chinese zodiac animals out of paper and felt at the museum in West India Quay.

The Chinese zodiac, known as the Sheng Xiao, relates each year to an animal in a 12-year cycle, with 2011 being the year of the rabbit.

But budding artists took inspiration from the whole zodiac, coming up with a selection of fire-breathing dragons, friendly-looking dogs and multi-coloured monkeys.

Occupying the fourth position in the zodiac, the rabbit is associated with characteristics such as sensitivity, compassion and luckily for the young visitors, creativity.

Jennifer Stratton, 6, clearly got into the spirit of the day, even impersonating a monkey for her older brother, Nathaniel, 11, who had designed his own Chinese dragon.

The year of the rabbit began on Thursday.