Favorite Kiddie Crafts ?

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

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?

[indie24]

Paper plates make great masks, tambourines etc.

[Yeddi]

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.

[jackrose]

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...

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

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

Ohh forgot we have goggle eyes AND pipe cleaners

[~Lashes~]

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" very unlikly!

[Mum2SweetCs]

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.

[Shanti]

Great thread!

[danita]

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

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

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

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

[kawazuki]

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

[~Kim~]

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

[Daffodil Mumma]

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

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

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.

[Mum2SweetCs]

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

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

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

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

[~Kim~]

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

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

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