Craft Time With The Free Time Roundup
We all are looking for fun ways to fill the bonus time we now find ourselves with, with the kids. My kids and I are big lovers of craft time, Here are some suggestions of tried and true crafts, the more mess they are allowed to make the better, needless to say, the plastic table cloth from your local Dollarstore will be your best friend.
Anything involving paint has to be their favourite, and to be honest mine too, my favourite art piece that I have is a large canvas we did, with masking tape, I taped the word love, then the whole family (minus the youngest because she wasn't born yet when we did it, but I keep meaning to add hers) took turns dipping our hands in different coloured paint covering the whole canvas, when it dried I removed the tape and painted the letters with white sparkly paint. Craft time is a great way to make memories, and also fill time with something fun between their favourite tv show and lunch.
Paper Plate Weaving
If you are someone who cross-stitches among the many other crafting talents, this Paper Plate Weaving is a great way for a young one to practice and learn the art. It's a great way to use up some yarn ends and allows the littles to feel like grownups making crafts as you do. Resulting in fun art they can hang on their walls when they're done.
You can either trace a cookie cutter or you can draw a simple photo onto a plate or piece of a cereal box, follow the steps and guide them through their very own version of a basic cross-stitch. These would be great for Mother's day gifts which is coming up soon, the best gift you could give a mom is one from the heart made from your kid's own hands.
Ninja Stress Balls
A couple of years ago my middle child made one of these in school, (well not the Ninja Stress Balls specifically they were just normal plain ones these are way cooler) then hounded me for what felt like years but it was actually only a week on our next craft day, to make these.
It wasn't as bad as I was envisioning it to be, we ended up making a few, now don't get me wrong, it wasn't a totally spotless project, I don't think I know how to do any craft without making some form of a mess, but they are neat little things when you are done. Bonus if you needed a stress ball or having physio for your hand it's a great little thing to have on hand. They last forever, well for us up until it was time to move and in no way was I risking throwing that in a box and having to explain the white powder all over everything if one happened to break in transit.
Rainbow Rice
This is a fun alternative to sand, you and the kids can make up some of this Rainbow Rice to play in. put it in a medium-sized container bury some of the kids smaller toys in the bottom, and have them hunt and dig for them with their hands, loads of fun to be had, they great thing about this project is it is fairly easy to clean up when they are done with it, seal it on a container for the next time.
I really wish I had found this when I decided it would be fun to make homemade moon sand for the kids, they loved the process and they really loved playing in it, I was not as huge a fan of clean up, it became an outside play thing real quick after the third clean up and expanding to 2 table clothes, this would have been SO much better not to mention the fun colours!
Personalized Wall Art
This Personalised Wall Art is pretty much like the one I mentioned at the beginning of the blog, you can tape a name a word a shape anything that strikes your fancy, and the method can be how you like as well, we choose the painted hand, you and the kids could use brushes, your hand rollers, your finger or any medium you want to experiment with.
This is a great time to make gifts from the heart for whatever the occasion mothers day, fathers day, birthdays for a grandparent it's a great time to put the bonus time with the kids to good use to get some fun gifts made.
Melted Bead Ornaments
My kids have made this for me at school for mothers day, and it's one of my favourite crafts that they brought home to me, I still have one of them in my car hanging on the rearview mirror. So of course at craft time when they asked to make more of these Melted Bead Ornaments I was all over it, we made tons, they gave them as gifts I hung a few and by a few, I mean like 10 out over our porch area they are really pretty when in the sun.
When you make these there is a slight smell when they are being baked, I did mine in the toaster oven to try and contain it a bit. It's nothing outrageous by any means, just don't be alarmed the end result is totally worth it.
Cool Canvas Yarn Art
The last one in this collection, but certainly not the least for options of crafting ideas, is one I really want to do with the kids for our next craft time, it looks really neat. This Cool Canvas Yarn Art is one I know will be a definite hit with the middle child it's something different that we haven't tried yet. She is a lot like her mother in that aspect, she loves trying new crafts. The downfall however to her learning new crafts is she wants to make a million of whatever it is, so guess what everyone is getting for Christmas if this one is a hit in this house,
I hope you enjoy your bonus time and get in lots for fun family craft time there is truly nothing better than quality time with your loved ones.
Pattern Suggestions
- Color Blend Scarf
- Online Colour Generator Program: Canva
- Solomon's Stitch Crochet Roundup
- How to Crochet Bead Stitch Wave Pattern
- Crochet Wire with Beads Tutorial
Deb says
Thanks for these great ideas. I have my grandson staying with me and will try some of these crafts
Marina King says
I have tested most of these, the kids and I really enjoyed them.