Simple craft activities for kids

Are you one of those awe-inspiring super-mums who magic up labelled boxes of exactly the right crafty bits for fabulous arts activities at no notice? If so, send tips now!

On the other hand, if you love the idea of a creative afternoon when the rain is pouring down but aren’t sure where to start, read on.

Here are four simple craft activities that kids love. Even better, they don’t need tons of preparation. In fact, you may even have everything you need in the house already. Perfect!

Kitchen Paper Art

If your art supplies stretch to a few felt-tip pens, a roll of kitchen paper and some tap water you’re sorted for this activity. Kitchen paper art is super simple, extremely effective and takes next to no time to organise (and only a few minutes to clear up). Impressive!

What you need

• Kitchen paper - white if possible but it does still work with coloured / patterned paper

• Coloured felt tip pens

• A small dish of water

• A teaspoon or paintbrush

Making it happen

1. Tell your child to draw patterns on a sheet of kitchen paper, using the felt tips. They can be anything from a few marks to an elaborate drawing, so you can easily adapt the activity for different ages. Encourage them to be as creative as they like and try out loads of different colours.
   

2. Once the drawing is complete, use the teaspoon or paintbrush to drop small amounts of water onto the kitchen paper.
   Tip: Start with small droplets of water and build up as you see the effect. If you’ve got young children, give them a hand with this step to make sure you don’t totally destroy the kitchen paper!
   

3. Watch in awe as the water makes the pen marks travel, creating a unique art design.

Tissue Paper Prints

This one takes a little more preparation but it’s still super easy and creates amazing prints. Again, great for kids of many ages: if you can hold a paintbrush, you can make tissue prints - and if want to make the activity more challenging for older kids, try layering, patterns, blending…

What you need

• Blank paper / card to make your print on - thick paper or card works best, as it’s less likely to disintegrate during the activity

• Coloured tissue paper

• Dish of tap water

• Paintbrush

Making it happen

1. Cut up the tissue paper into small pieces - about 2cm square is good but part of the fun of this activity is experimenting with different shapes and sizes.

   Tip: If you’ve got young kids, cut up the shapes in advance. Older kids can do this themselves as part of the activity.
   

2. ‘Paint’ water onto your blank paper so that it’s damp (not completely soggy!)
   

3. Place pieces of the coloured tissue onto the damp sheet in whatever pattern you like. The water will make them stick onto the paper.
   

4. Leave the sheet to dry.
   

5. Once dry, carefully peel off the tissue and you’ll find a gorgeous print.

Tip: If you’ve got an impatient artist, it’s not essential to leave the tissue to dry as the colour transfers onto the paper pretty instantaneously. However, the longer you leave the tissue on, the more intense the colour at the end and the greater the surprise when it’s peeled off.

Stick Mobiles

Whatever the time of year, there’s always something in nature that can be turned into an art project. Let your kids loose on anything from pine cones, leaves, petals and twigs to stones and shells and you’ll be amazed at what they can produce.

Here’s one simple idea that you can make work with pretty much anything you find. Even better, you can start with a a nature treasure hunt to find the bits you want to use in your art. Two healthy activities all blended into one - that’s what I call a win!

What you need

• A strong, relatively straight stick - although curves can add an additional layer of challenge!

• Coloured wool

• Stones, shells, petals, pinecones… anything you like that is not too heavy to hang off your stick

Making it happen

1. If you’ve got time, start with a nature treasure walk. This doesn’t need to be a huge outing - a walk down your street or to a local park works fine. It’s amazing what you can find even in the middle of a city if you look hard enough! Take a bag and (assuming it’s safe to do so) encourage your children to pick up natural objects from the ground which could be used in their stick mobile.
   

2. Bring everything home - you’re likely to have enough for some great printing and natural pictures too, so keep anything you don’t use in the mobile.
   

3. Take a piece of coloured wool. Tie one end to the stick then wind it round several times so it’s secure but with a long end hanging down.
   

4. Wind the other end of the wool around one of your natural objects, so that it will hang down. You can take the simple route of winding it round tightly and tying it - or try more creative options, like making a hole to thread the wool through.
   

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4, using different colours of wool at different points of the twig.

Ta da - you’ve made a stick mobile.

Foil art

Aluminium foil is another kitchen basic that can be transformed into a fabulous crafting material.

Fancy making a magic wand? A twig or pencil covered in tin foil is perfect. Or how about creating a foil shield and going on a magic adventure? Or shaping foil icicles to hang in your window over Christmas?

Personally, one of my favourite types of foil art is creating rubbings, mainly because it’s so simple but can give you instantly fabulous results.

What you need

• Tin foil

• Leaves, coins or any other relatively flat object which has raised detail

Making it happen

1. Place the tin foil over the object and rub gently.
   

2. Ta da - your foil print will magically appear.
   

3. Repeat with other objects.
   

4. Frame your foil print or use it as the background for a picture.

Now that’s what I really call a simple craft activity for kids!

What simple craft activities do your kids love? Share your tips and images on the Freelancing Mums Instagram and Twitter pages. We’d love to see them!

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