I am so proud of our buddy Marie who has just published her first book. The team at her publisher, Wiley, who maintain a pretty solid crafty website themselves, put together an adorable package of Marie’s ideas and photographer Nicole Gerulat’s images.
As you can see in the table of contents above, the projects are organized by month. My own kids love making things in anticipation of upcoming holidays, so this layout would draw them right in.
If you don’t already know Marie’s site, head over to Make and Takes to browse the zillions of projects she and her contributors have posted. She often uses her own kids as models on her blog, and they each make an appearance in her book. Aren’t they the cutest?
If you need inspiration for unplugged time with your family, consider buying a copy of Make and Takes for Kids. If you’d like to win a copy, simply leave a comment before November 21 telling us what your go-to creative activity is with your child(ren). On 11/21, I will select a winner at random from the comments to receive a copy of the book.
playdoh. I like making fun animals and they just like it!
Fingerpaints and legos! But not together!
we just started making our own playdough and it provides lots of entertainment for my son.
My oldest is 2 1/2 and we are just starting to get into crafts. We do a lot of abstract collages with stickers, pompoms, glitter and googly eyes. (Play doh is great too, Carrie)
Our most used craft-type activity is just getting out the tray of water color paints. Low mess and instant gratification of color.
Shaving Cream- cheap, fast, messy and easy clean up! We do it in the bath, on the wall outside on baby dolls and in hair. We also paint with it and let it dry on paper.
We also do a lot of freestyle cookie decorating with sprinkles, icing and such.
We love play doh too, but my kids love to color, especially if I give them really big pieces of paper for their creations. They love to paint, but I’m not a fan of the mess, so that is a special treat at our house.
I love to see their creativity flourish when I provide them with multi-media coloring/cutting/gluing options and lots of big paper to draw on/paint/collage/trace/glue etc. The only problem is the resulting mess (holy mackerel) and sometimes they start looking for new and interesting things in my desk drawer (the land of permanent markers and sharp tools).
I am with Brenna, at our house, it is shaving cream!
Go to activity is creative dress up and dance.
Sidewalk Chalk Paint…..so fun!
Good old crafts…. beading and anything that can be glued to paper – cotton balls, feathers, funny eyes, buttons.
Construction paper and glue… Always within reach!
Coloring and stickers when I just need a few minutes with relatively little clean up…sidewalk chalk when it’s nice out…finger paint when I want to break out the big guns and make my two-year old extra excited.
Hi! We found a bunch of buttons and use them for everything from sorting shapes and colours and sizes, and for crafting making ornaments, magnets and just for glueing on as decorations.
fingerpaint and playdoh
gr8 giveaway
For Thanksgiving, I love making fingerprint turkeys with kids!
I always search the web for holiday themed crafts to make or printable coloring pages. We especially love holiday themed bingo at our house.
My go -to creative activity with the twins is getting out the Do A Dot paint markers. Very little mess and they love them!
i need a lot of work with crafting. we basically play Play Dough and color…but every now and again we finger paint!
My son has really been into stringing beads onto pipe cleaners lately. Otherwise playdoh for sure!
I’m not super crafty, but I like painting with my son. I also like decorating cards for relatives together.
We love to watercolor or play with homemade playdough while Mommy’s watching dishes
I don’t have any children, but I do have three nieces and a nephew, and I love pulling out sock puppets when we need a quick around-the-house craft.
My 3 yo son will play for an hour : quietly with play dough. I let him road the kitchen for tools and he is good to go while I make dinner. I hope this lasts for a few weeks. Or a least days.
Painting!
Hmmm…making cards for Grandma!
We love all kinds of crafts. Right now, the boys just seem to enjoy coloring and drawing their own pictures, but we are also starting to look for ideas for ornaments to make.
My son is only 14 months, so our go-to craft project is just paper and crayons. But I love the idea of monthly craft projects for kids!
Reading all these comments tells me that we need to be more creative at my house! Sheesh! We bake- does that count??? Thanks for hosting!
Dough, real dough. We love to bake too.
We play with dry beans and play doe but I am starting to look for new ideas.
Right now, our go-to crafts are just drawing, play-doh and sometimes playing with stickers. That is, if you don’t count carving a pumpkin for Halloween. So we could use some inspiration!
Love, love, love anything with glitter! My house doesn’t love it but my toddler sure does!
My LO is only 2.5, so we keep it simple with construction paper, crayons, chalk, markers and pens. He seems facinated by ink pens right now instead of the usual art supplies he gets to use at school, which is simple for me.
I find its easier to let my kid go crazy with art supplies while CONFINED. If you’re scared to hand your kid a marker, strap him/her in a high chair and go for it! Once I realized I didn’t have to fear my house being covered in markers, I really let my LO go wild!
Another tip, for when confinement isn’t possible or you need to keep it neat is to keep a small paint brush and a piece of construction paper handy (in the diaper bag?). Dip the paint brush in water and let your child “paint” on the construction paper. When it dries, you can do it all over again. This is a good thing to do to keep restaurant waits interesting.
We love making homemade scented play dough in the winter and homemade sidewalk chalk in the spring. Both of these also work great as birthday gifts for our kids’ friends!
Crafts with clay and play-doh are our favorites!
we make lots of dioramas with old shoe boxes + homemade moon dough with food coloring.
Marshmallows and toothpick structures.
Construction paper, markers, scissors, tape or glue. My kids are at the point I don’t even need to suggest things to make, they just go at it making whatever their little hearts desire. WOW!
Anything with glue or paint and we are good to go!
I like making collages with clear contact paper. Kids collect treasures from the yard, then we stick it on the paper and add another piece on the top. Especially good for fall leaves and spring flowers.
My little one is still a bit young for crafts, but he does like homemade playdough.
We love to get out the legos and lacing cards. Looking for new ideas as well! Thank you!
Making collages from magazine pictures is the current favorite in our house. Very easy and it holds their attention for a long time.
dyed Condensed milk painting on food like pancakes or rice cakes. It is a sticky mess, but super fun.
soluckyducky at gmail dot com
Oh how I would love this book!! With three kids barely four and under, and a craft lover, I would hit it running!
We like to play with playdoh. Thanks.
Our go-to is also play-doh. It allows me to have some hands-on creative time myself. (I make a mean clay kitten.)
As a new grandma, my best activity is to snuggle up and read some stories or sing some songs. (I obviously could use some great ideas!) This sounds like a great book and I’d love to be the winner! thanks