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9 Surprisingly Simple DIY Crafts to Keep Your Kids Entertained for Hours — Image Source: Pexels

Finding affordable DIY kids’ crafts that will actually keep your kids entertained can be a challenge. If you want to encourage your kids to put down their devices and get creative, check out our list of 9 simple art projects below. These DIY kids’ crafts don’t require tons of materials or an art degree to pull off. And even though they’re shockingly simple, they have a big payoff, giving your kids hours of amusement or a new toy to enjoy.

Easy DIY Kids Crafts

1. Homemade Playdough

Do you know that you can make homemade playdough out of common pantry staples? This easy recipe uses flour, salt, cream of tartar, water, and vegetable oil to form a basic dough. Then you can mix in a few drops of food coloring to create vibrant colors.

if you store it in an airtight container, it will stay soft and pliable for up to three months. Although your kids can simply shape the dough with their hands, they may enjoy using a set of mini cookie cutters to take their creations to the next level.

2. Sock Puppet

Making a sock puppet is still one of the most popular DIY kids’ crafts because it’s cheap, easy, and fun. All you need are a couple of pairs of clean socks, scissors, hot glue, and a multicolor pack of felt. Googly eyes and yarn are also welcome additions if you have them!

But even with basic supplies, you can create some super cute creatures, like a dragon with scales or a dog with floppy felt ears. If you have a cardboard box lying around, you can use it to create a puppet theater so your kids can put on a show.

3. Tissue Paper Pom Poms

One of the best DIY kids’ crafts for little girls is these tissue paper pom poms. Your daughter will have a blast pretending to be a cheerleader with her very own set of colorful pom poms. All you need to make them is a pair of scissors, some tape, and colorful tissue paper.

Simply help your child fold a few pieces of tissue paper in half. Then cut the sheets into thin strips, being careful to stop a few centimeters from the fold. Divide each sheet in two by cutting along the fold, and roll up all your sheets into one conical pom pom, securing the bottom with tape. This is a great way to use up leftover tissue paper from the holidays instead of throwing it in the trash.

4. Windsock

Get your kids involved in decorating the porch by making windsocks together. This project is simple—all you have to do is form a piece of construction paper into a cylinder and tape it together. Then attach some strips of tissue or crepe paper to the bottom, which will blow in the breeze.

To hang it, you can fashion a hook out of a piece of string. Your kids can embellish the construction paper using markers, stickers, or glitter to further customize their windsock.

5. Junk Journal

Junk Journals are eco-friendly DIY kids crafts — Image Source: Pexels

One of the best DIY kids crafts for children and adults alike is junk journaling. This activity involves making collages out of recycled or found materials instead of using expensive scrapbooking paper.

First, you’ll need to start saving random scraps of paper, such as receipts, food packaging, junk mail, ticket stubs, or even your child’s homework. You can also collect and dry natural materials from outside like leaves and flowers. Craft odds and ends such as ribbons and buttons can also be fun additions to a junk journal.

Then all you have to do is help your kids arrange and paste the items you’ve collected on blank journal pages. You can also add hand-drawn text and illustrations to enhance your recycled collages.

6. Paper Mache Hot Air Balloon

Paper Mache Hot Air Balloons are interactive DIY kids crafts — Image Source: Pexels

There are few crafts as easy as paper mache. What’s best is you don’t need any wacky supplies, just watered-down glue, strips of newspaper, and something to use as a form. Martha Stewert did a fun DIY for a paper mache hot air balloon. While her instructions are for a purely decorative balloon, there are also plans available for a functional, flying hot air balloon using a small tealight.

7. Newspaper Origami

Origami is a very fun DIY craft for kids, but some younger children who are still developing motor skills may have trouble folding very small pages. This is why we recommend using bigger sheets of newspaper for origami. Plus, you probably have some old newspaper lying around, making this activity budget-friendly. There are many tutorials online to teach you how to make a variety of projects, including newspaper cranes, hats, functional garbage bins, and more.

8. Cardboard Boomerang

Cardboard Boomerangs are educational DIY kids crafts — Image Source: Pexels

Boomerangs provide endless fun and a great excuse to get outside. While there are plenty of options for sale, did you know you and your kids can make boomerangs at home? Whether you use paper, cardboard, foam, or wood, there are plenty of options and designs available for free on WikiHow. This craft is also educational, offering you an opportunity to teach your kids about aerodynamics and how a plane’s wings work.

9. Sidewalk Paint

Sidewalk Paint is one of the best DIY kids crafts — Image Source: Pexels

If you’re looking for DIY kids’ crafts that don’t require lots of supplies, check out this sidewalk paint recipe. It uses just two common household ingredients: cornstarch and food coloring. You’ll also need some water to thin the cornstarch slurry into a spreadable paint. We appreciate that this paint recipe is nontoxic and provides hours of outdoor fun for kids of all ages!

What are your favorite DIY kids’ crafts? Share your ideas in the comments!

Vicky Monroe

Vicky Monroe is a freelance personal finance writer who enjoys learning about and discussing the psychology of money. In her free time, she loves to cook and tackle DIY projects.

I have to say, this first month of 2011 has been a busy one. There just seems to be a never-ending string of things to do! It is amazing. But, I am not complaining. I like being busy and, while single parenthood is never boring, it is a different feeling to be busy in the workplace and doing things outside motherhood. That said though, I find it funny how I am constantly reminded of things that are kid-related. Let me elucidate.

I grew up in a relatively comfortable home. I was educated well and I was able to travel to a few places around the world and experience different cultures and meet all kinds of people. As a result, I like to think that I have maybe an additional perspective on some things compared to others who have not had the chance to experience the same things. Don’t get me wrong. I am in no way belittling anyone or making myself bigger than who I am. I am simply saying that I believe I have a wider take on things having had a bit more experience compared to how I think I might have viewed things had my circumstances been otherwise.

Because of that, I try my best to apply what I’ve seen to how I raise my kids. I want them to be open-minded and exploratory. I want them to question and come up with their own answers and be independent. I want them to judge and treat people well and not to be so fixated on material things. I want them to be comfortable but to understand the values of patience and hard-work and not to take anything for granted. So, I try to guide them and introduce them to as much as I can and think they should be exposed to at their age, that I feel would help them develop this way. I want to give them the same chance to experience what I did growing up but I also want them to have some simple roots. I grew up in a much slower time after all and back then it was easier to sit back and see things move without getting a migraine. I have come to observe though how tough this considering what they are surrounded with today.

Do we really need all this technology?

There is so much to do, so much to see, so much you are told you should want and have that it is easy to lose track of simple things that cost you a fraction of the cost of what is suggested and adds character, develops the mind and body, and teaches the child lessons that no amount of money can buy.

Today is the age of the Internet and computers and all these high tech toys that are so attractive and do so many interesting things that it is easy to believe that you just absolutely need one and that you cannot live without one and be up-to-date. Well, I have nothing against computers and games. I actually find that a lot of the games tackle history and music very well. And, c’mon, I have blogs! But I really think there is something about books, and outdoor play, and arts and crafts for children that technology cannot teach.And this is the experience of the activity for itself, not pixelized or in HD or from a flat screen TV. I hope I will be able to properly explain what I mean. Let me try through a couple of examples.

OK, call me old-fashioned. I read somewhere that babies born this year might be reading from e-books and that speciality bookstores might be extinct in 10 years or so. Well, I think that is just sad. While you can practice your imagination reading off a tablet as well as the page, the beauty of the printed word, the smell of a book, the feel of a genuine and hand-crafted cover is something that adds dimension to your creative experience and adds something to your appreciation of the story and the story teller. It’s just something that would be lost reading from a tablet. I understand how games today are supposedly designed to add dexterity and to improve fine motor skills but how about all of us folks who became dexterous without the latest Wii game? I think we did really well and had the added benefit of healthy lungs, fit bodies, and a joy of sports and activity that I think is lacking today. And how about appreciation of nature, and smelling how fresh the air can be in a park, or watching the sun rise or set and feeling the droplets of rain on your face, all during outdoor activities. Who can say that those experiences are not treasured memories that give that special glow to an otherwise sepia image of your childhood?

The point here is that I am reminded everyday, during those pleasurable times when I am busy, how great it is to be busy and how great it is to know what it means to also be simple as well. And this is something I want for my kids too. Yes, I want them to be modern but I also want them to be unassuming and appreciative of things that they might overlook surrounded by technology. I think this is important in creating open-minded, independent, discerning, and balanced individuals.

Do you embrace technology for your children or try to promote older activities?

Brian

Brian is the founder of Kids Ain’t Cheap and is now sharing his journey through parenthood.

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