Favorite Kiddie Crafts ?

I was just wondering what are yours or your LO's favorite crafts.

DD2 is right into craft at the moment, anything from making a bracelet with her Nanna to drawing, coloring, paints and gluing.

So what do you guys do, what household items do you use and where do you source your 'supplies' or ideas?

This week we have made:

1. 2 x beaded bracelets (BIG beads)
2. Birthday Card with glitter, stickers and drawings
3. Letterbox and love letter @ the library - coloring, cutting & gluing
4. Toilet paper role animals - owl & elephant
5. 1 Ice cream stick monkey

I'd love some other cute ideas to try, i am googling at the moment and the stencils and things you can print for free are great, i think it's just as much fun for us mums.
Was thinking of making pasta necklaces ????????

The girls got an awesome craft table from DP's aunt for x-mas folded up it's a cupboard with blackboard fold it down it's a table with built in storage, in it we have - taxta's, crayons, pencils, glues, paints, paint brushes, stickers, glitter, paper, coloring books, feathers, colored icy pole sticks, beads

I have just realised and started keeping toilet roll inserts, paper towel inserts and will keep egg cartoons.
Am thinking of keeping bottle caps (milk ones)

What else should i add to the stash?

Paper plates make great masks, tambourines etc.

Have a look at enchanted learning dot com, they've got lots of crafty activities. Also for $80 you can get the pre-reading craft kit from homeschooling australia, which includes a booklet of ideas plus the bulk of supplies you need to make them.

As for your own supplies, you can never have enough goggle eyes and pipe cleaners.

some of my fav web resources are "made by joel", "the frugal family fun blog" and "irresistible play based learning". My first stops for craft ideas.


Other things to save are the netting used for orange bags, great for all sorts of play and early embroidery, free postcards from cafes can be used to build sculptures if you make little slits in them, cut out pics from junk mail for pasting, buttons for sorting, threading, counting...

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As for your own supplies, you can never have enough goggle eyes and pipe cleaners.

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Ohh forgot we have goggle eyes AND pipe cleaners :rofl:

arround christmas and easter, i keep some of the gift wrap, and chocolate foil (ya know the coulored easter eggs one?) sometimes cut it up, or rip it up and they glue it onto paper, toilet rolls ect. cotton balls are great, so is cut up sponges, diffrent things to glue down, leaves and sticks are also favourites.
if you can get sponges big enough, cut them into shapes and youve got your own paint stampers (cheeper then store bought ones to)
not one of my faves, but the kids love it, playgroup has a "messy day" the 2 fave things all the kids love, is the foam table, homebrand shaving foam and food colour they mix it, make pictures in it (id recoment a good thick plastic cover for the table/surface you use!) also there hands may stay the color you chose for a while.
another mees day fave is a large container of the gelli baff stuff.
ahh theres heaps but ive just gone blank!! will come back if i have any "brain waves" :rofl: very unlikly!

Dd loves watching mr maker and we get heap sof ideas from him. I just let her go wild with paddle pop sticks, card board and glue cos sje love cutting things and sticking it onto the paddle pop.

at the moment we are making a paper mache pig. I just got a ballon and mached it with some corn flour glue and then going to use egg carton for the snout and the legs.

Great thread! :)

i also keep egg cartons, magazines, nappy boxes (if u use spossies) they make great box cars, aluminum foil and scrap bits of material.

This morning we made toilet roll valentines butterflies for DP tomorrow (although DD1 couldn't help herself and HAD to show him hers :rofl: )

HERE are pics of the girls making them (4 pics i think) - is a locked BB album.
I think they did a FANTASTIC job.
DD1 did all the gluing and they both did drawing and stickers :) and DD1 was in charge of the glitter :rofl:

i Have a book here somewhere called 365 craft things for kids.

some are to advanced but some are like ships out of tissue boxes.
tv out of cereal box.
stained glass windows with cellophane,
fishes out of paper plates.
paint squish butterflies ( dollop few bits of paint in middle of page and fold in half and squish :)

love those butterflies hun sooo cute

lanterns with paper, fold paper in half length ways, get girls to cut strips or diagonals then unfold and join the short ends together to make a circle.. very sweet

Childhood 101 has some great ideas every week too

Polystyrene shapes they can decorate (we made hearts this week)
Dye some rice with food colouring and then they 'draw' with white glue and sprinkle the rice on
oh Kawazuki we made lanterns this week too!

I always have a pad of coloured paper, newspaper, old scrapbook papers (DD loves it when I clean out my scrapbook stash).
Shaving cream prints are fun - I either use the table outside or the paddling pool to contain it

Wow so many great ideas there guys!!! Ah I loved Mister Maker while it was on ABC and DS got really excited watching it with me.....but he just has no interest in anything other than crayons and colouring books!!
When I have tried to set up some painting or cut and paste type things he gets angry, throws the paint brush or whatever at me and runs away lol he's not 2 yet so Im kinda hoping its just a phase lol

Oh Oh more ideas, am keeping the bottle tops to use as 'wheels' on things am thinking of buying some patty pans.
I have just figured out the take and toss cups fit inside the girls art cabinet PERFECTLY so will buy some of these and put their bits and pieces in them aswell as the zip bags and stuff we are currently using.

Does anyone else have THIS (1 & 2) art centre.. it's AMAZING, both girls fit at it and they LOVE it.

damn i really want to see your pics ZF! Can you add them to the BB album instead?

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damn i really want to see your pics ZF! Can you add them to the BB album instead?

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Will try, hmm is there any way of having a public album we could all upload craft pics too ?

hmmm no we don't but I will be keeping an eye out for that....DD would love that.

Maybe on one of the photo sharing sites I can make a BB craft album and pop the user and password in here
Then we can show off our ideas and kiddies beautiful crafts

ds2 realy wants to make cakes today, i realy cant be botherd, so im going to get him to make some play-doh instead, this ones easy, no cooking and is ready for play in 20 mins or less depending how fast you can mix.

I am SUCH A GREAT MUM :rofl:
Not long finished dying and drying pasta for the girls to make necklaces and pictures... :rofl:

If you would like to share pics of your LO's craft projects please feel free to load them to HERE

Username & Password are both BBCRAFT

You can upload then come back here and ask us to go check it out :)

super mum ZF! :D

Is Miss A old enough to use scissors? Could make snowflakes (fold a circle of paper in half then in half again and make little cuts out of the folded side). If she can't use scissors you could do that bit, then they could just decorate them with glitter/paint etc. Tie a length of string onto one side and you can hang them up. Maybe more of a christmas/winter project though!
Finger painting or potato painting?

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Is Miss A old enough to use scissors? Could make snowflakes (fold a circle of paper in half then in half again and make little cuts out of the folded side). If she can't use scissors you could do that bit, then they could just decorate them with glitter/paint etc. Tie a length of string onto one side and you can hang them up. Maybe more of a christmas/winter project though!
Finger painting or potato painting?

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She likes to 'TRY' and use scissors, might go out and buy her the kiddie ones that only cut paper.. she's 2 going on 10 and thinks she can do all these things on her own.. although she does do a pretty good job.

Ohhhh Potato painting... see ladies THIS is why i come on here... for my sanity.
We made DP a 'replica' of his ute the other night, out of an egg carton and bottle tops.
DD also made his work ladder out of pipe cleaners, his numberplate and a toolbox :) was so cute.

We're really getting into the craft stuff more now that DD has turned two!! :D It's lots of mess but FUN!

I had a very 'crafty' day on Tues this week - first we did some colouring with crayons and pencils, then later on the paints came out and we painted with the easel and paints AND then in the afternoon the craft bits and pieces came out and we got glue everywhere and DD made something for DH when he arrived home! Very cute.

Did some playdough today.....

Been on the websites you've suggested - some good ideas!

What's potato painting?? off to google LOL

thats a very nice owl!

Hey ZF can you upload the art studio pics on that photobucket? DDs bday is coming up soon, might tell her aunty and uncles to get it for her seeing that i dont want anymore toys lol

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thats a very nice owl!

Hey ZF can you upload the art studio pics on that photobucket? DDs bday is coming up soon, might tell her aunty and uncles to get it for her seeing that i dont want anymore toys lol

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I can do it first thing tomorrow for you hun, about to go and soak in a bath... KID FREE... woo hoo.

Man i dont know why this thread never shows up in my subscription!!

anyway, our local spotlight store is having a closing down sale. They have bags of junk for $5. I bought soo man bags, LOL sure is junk but so worth it. Theres lots of ribbons, paint, paint brushes, buttons, nik nax, but its pick of the drawer.

DD now has 3 large box full of craft stuff LOL!!!!!!!!!!

and all she plays with is masking tape, paint, paper and her scissors!

We did smiley faces on paper plates the other day - DD loved that, I think she did about 5 in a sitting!

We have a local council run place called "thats not garbage" or something similar, and basically business's donate excess or scrap stuff and then you can go in and fill diff size bags, starting at like $2 upwards. Its stuff like corks, photo paper, material, plastic tubes, etc. All really good stuff.

I haven't looked on it for a while, but the playschool website I think has some good ideas. One I like is roll a piece of paper up into a tube, put some marbles into different coloured paint and then put them in the tube, put the lid on and roll the tube around. Makes some cool effects.

What about using white crayons to draw on white paper, and then paint over the top - kind of like secret messages?

Will upload desk pics tonight.
Also we did 3 crafts today... both girls painted a canvas then DD1 made an octopus and a spider (pics will be loaded).

Do you have any falling leaves at the moment? I remember as a kid we used to do leaf paintings, just cover the leaf in paint and press it onto paper and it leaves the cool veiny effect.

Today at playgroup we made kites (I use the word very loosely..lol) using paper bags with holes punched at one end, and some of the curly ribbon, or you could just use string, tied onto the holes. Then paint or stick stuff onto the bags with glue, and glue some streamers to the bottom.

OMGGGGGG
I just looked at the activity table!! Please please ZF can you let me know where did you get it?!??!?!
OMG Must buy it for DD I LOVE ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

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OMGGGGGG
I just looked at the activity table!! Please please ZF can you let me know where did you get it?!??!?!
OMG Must buy it for DD I LOVE ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

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DP's aunt baught it and i think it was target or k-mart.. it's awesome isn't it.

YUP!! i told my brother to get it for DD's bday pressie LOL

cant wait!!! is it stable? and is the wood good?

Seems quite stable, it takes a bit to put together but i did it all on my own so can't be too hard :)
The wood seems fine, the girls have managed to climb up on it before and no toppling over or splits.

i cant wait!!!
im bidding on some on ebay lol
dont want to pay full price even though my brother is getting it for DD

Ive just uploaded DD's current craft center LOL

It is in the sub album titled M2OSB

Ah yes that looks a lot like our previous craft setup :rofl:

ZF, I used to save heaps of carboard stuff. Cereal & tissue boxes, egg containers, tags off new clothes, old birthday cards, etc... Anything basically that can be cut & glued onto another piece of paper & I would stock up on those cheap glitter glue pens, pom poms, glitter, those sticker number & letters & I would just bring the whole box out & the kids would cut, paste, colour, draw & stick until their hearts are content.

Now that my girls are a bit older, I'm eyeing off those paper punch things that are in all different shapes, KWIM? & some beautiful paper so they can make their own birthday cards for friends & family.

Craft honestly makes my girls worlds go round. I get jack of the mess, but honestly, they enjoy it soooooooooooooo much.

OMG ZF you wouldnt know what happend and i must tell you!!

I went to Target to check the art table and at first id idnt see it but i saw one that had the train set. THen there was a box ripped and it had white legs and i thought, the train set is blue how can it have white legs

So I pushed the train set out only to find the art table!

Better yet, it had clearance on it for $69.95 AND THEN when i went to scan it it was $49.95!!!!!!!!!!!

OMGGGGGGGGGG I was in shock! LOL

anyway thats all! LOL

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OMG ZF you wouldnt know what happend and i must tell you!!

I went to Target to check the art table and at first id idnt see it but i saw one that had the train set. THen there was a box ripped and it had white legs and i thought, the train set is blue how can it have white legs

So I pushed the train set out only to find the art table!

Better yet, it had clearance on it for $69.95 AND THEN when i went to scan it it was $49.95!!!!!!!!!!!

OMGGGGGGGGGG I was in shock! LOL

anyway thats all! LOL

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:dance: WOO HOO BARGAIN :dance: