12 easy craft activities for kids

Natarsha Brown suggests some easy, cheap and stress-free arts and crafts kids’ activities to keep the little ones entertained while you are stuck at home.

So you feel a little frazzled by sudden school closures or the need to self-isolate at home with your little ones? And, to make matters worse, the usual outings you would do to keep the kids entertained – like going to the movies or spending a day at the beach – are off the cards. While the obvious answer is to go online for some easy entertainment, it’s important to have a mix of creative activities as well. Here are some easy arts and crafts ideas to keep little imaginations active.

1. Book-press flowers

When I was a little girl, I adored picking flowers from the garden and pressing them into the pages of my books (my Grimm’s Complete Fairytale’s hardback was usually overflowing with dry petals). If you have never done this before, it’s a simple as can be: pick some flowers (to avoid getting a mouldy final product, choose ones that you know dry well, such as daisies, roses pansies and geraniums), grab some baking paper to line the pages, place the flowers inside and gently shut the book. Wallah!

Tip: Once dry, you can incorporate these flowers into painting and drawing activities. Just stick them on!

2. Stick painting

It may sound trite, but this activity is a fun way to mix up a painting or drawing session. Head out into the backyard to find some sticks then bring them inside and go crazy creating some fun patterns. If you have a vase or an empty juice bottle, collect the sticks into a bundle and display them for a couple of weeks – it will make your child feel like they have added something special to the house and will brighten up the room.

3. Rainbow flowers

For this you will need a couple of supplies: glasses, food colouring, water and white roses or carnations, but other than that, it couldn’t be an easier activity. If you already have food colouring in the house, that’s great, otherwise duck down to the local shop or order some online. A little tip: primary colours seem to lead to the best results, however, others will still show up if you have a little one obsessed with a certain colour. Then you just pour some water into a cup, pour some colouring in, then place one flower (with the stem still on) in each glass and leave for a minimum of eight hours. Easy peasey and very pretty!

4. Water painting

The major benefits of painting with watercolours are that the mess is less, it’s easy to set up and, more importantly, easy to clean up. You will need a cup of water, paper, a watercolour pallet and paintbrushes (if you have a variation of sizes this will mix it up for the little artists). Then either leave the kids on their own to get creative or talk them through the different techniques, such as using a wet brush versus a relatively dry brush. Afterwards, if you have a clothesline, hang the artworks up to dry faster and give out a couple of ‘awards’ for a laugh and to make the mini Van Gogh’s in the making feel appreciated (e.g. ‘most life-like’, ‘most creative’ and ‘most funny’).

5. Magic milk marbling

If your little ones are more interested in science than getting creative, this activity is the perfect middle ground. A shallow bowl, milk, food colouring, eyedropper and liquid dishwashing detergent are the necessary tools and hopefully you will have most of these around the house already. Start by pouring some milk into a bowl (so that it is less than a centimetre deep), then use the eye dropper to place a few drops of food colouring into the milk in various places (keep the bowl still and don’t mix the colours). Once you are happy with your creation thus far, add a few drops of detergent… and watch the magic happen! The colours should start to swirl together and the kids will love changing up the patterns.

6. Foliage faces

Nature craft is a win-win: it costs nothing (or next to nothing) and it also gets the kids outside. Crafting foliage faces out of nature is super simple, but can turn out oh so beautiful. Get the kids to collect some supplies from the garden in a basket (leaves, sticks, flowers, berries, bark… you name it!), lay out a piece of paper for them to arrange their creation on, and then get to work! It might be handy to split the face up into thirds (eyes, nose, mouth) so your little one finds it easier to balance the symmetry.

Tip: For some inspiration, check out artist and designer Justina Blakeney’s Instagram account – she is the queen of foliage faces!

7. Autumn leaves garland

It’s that time of year again: beautiful autumn. This has always been my favourite season – as a little girl I loved watching the leaves change colour on the trees and collecting a little rainbow of earthy tones once they fell to the ground and hanging it up in my bedroom. How to make the rainbow? It’s easy! Just use a piece of string to thread through each leaf – grouping them by colour (orange > brown > yellow > light green > dark green) – and then hang your garland over a doorway, bed frame or somewhere else convenient around the house. Half the fun is collecting as many different coloured leaves together as possible, and it’s a lovely way to instil an appreciation of the seasons and their changing effects on nature in the kids.

8. Paper plate butterflies and rainbows

The paper plate is the most underrated craft material around. You can turn it into pretty much anything if you use your imagination, but my favourite has to be butterflies or rainbows. Simply paint the paper plate in whatever pattern your heart desires then either a) cut it into two ‘pacman’ shapes and stick them together back-to-back to make butterfly wings or b) cut them in half to make two rainbows. Add pom-poms for a little extra spunk – three in the centre for a butterfly body or a bunch at each end of the rainbow for clouds.

9. Leaf stencils

This is one of the easiest ways to inject some creativity into your painting parties. Lay some newspaper down (this one can get a bit messy), collect some leaves from outdoors (the flatter the better), dip your leaf surface into the paint and press it down onto some paper. The leaf imprint will make a wonderful pattern, and if you draw a trunk first, you can create a whole tree!

10. Pet rocks

It may sound cheesy, but I have found that kids find these little ‘pets’ absolutely adorable (at least for the first 24 hours or so). The other plus is they make a cute gift for your little ones to give to their friends, a convenient paperweight or funny decoration for their bedrooms (make a whole family!). All you need is googly eyes and glue… how easy is that? If you want to make them a little more unique, buy some decoration items like a bow, wool for hair, glitter, pipe cleaners, string or material scraps for clothes.

11. Pom-pom bookmarks

I loved to read as a little girl, in fact, I’m pretty sure I read my copy of Anne of Green Gables at least 10 times before I turned 12. When my grandfather gifted me with a bookmark shaped like reading glasses, I was obsessed. It sounds so small, but a fun bookmark can really add a touch of fun to reading and also gives you a sense of accomplishment as you move through the book (as it becomes very noticeable how much you have gotten through). Making your own? Even better! First, glue a large pom-pom to a ribbon or popsicle stick, this will be the animals head. Next, stick on some googly eyes and a smaller pom-pom to create a nose. Then add some felt for ears or some pipe cleaners for whiskers… and you’ve got yourself a cat or mouse.

12. Make a craft circuit!

Make a day of it by setting up a variety of materials at different stations and let the kids take in turns moving between each one. They can try their hand at the above arts and crafts ideas or let them use their imaginations to come up with their own ideas with the materials provided at each stop. Tell them they get a certain amount of time at each one, then put on a stopwatch and do a not-so-serious countdown from 30 minutes. This will hopefully help with their attention span by turning it into a game and also mixing up what they are doing.

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