10 Mess Free Crafts Kids Love

It's time for another 10 Things Kids Love.  This week I am excited to have Georgina here from Craftulate to share with us 10 Mess Free Crafts Kids Love!  We love making crafts over here.  Having a few ideas for mess free crafts is always great.  Some days I just don't need the extra mess to clean up. Now I have a wonderful list of ideas to references.   I hope you find a few ideas you like too.  

10 Mess Free Crafts by Craftulate

1. Ziploc Bag Painting

This is a fantastic way to introduce children to painting. Add cardstock and paint to a bag, seal it, and give it to the child. They can squish it “freestyle”, or you can tape it to the table. As long as your child can’t (or won’t!) open the bag then this style of painting has zero clean up!  A variation of this involves taping the paint-filled bag to a window. You could also add baby oil to make some marbled paint as shown by Inner Child Fun.

2. Animals from Hand and Feet Outlines

There are loads of handprint and footprint crafts around, but what if that is just too messy for you? Get a template of your child’s hands and feet and keep it “on file”. Use it as an outline to make any of the handprints crafts. Check out the Mess-Free Hand and Foot Lobster in the above link.

3. Painting in a Can

This is particularly great with young children – my son was 1 year old when we did this. Use a large container or can with a lid, cut some cardstock and fit it round the inside of the can. Pour in some paint and add some items that will rattle (like balls, beads etc). Seal the lid and let your child shake it up! A variation of this is Marble Painting Cake Tin.

    

4. Pour Paint Rockets

This is a great activity from Toddler Approved! Coat the inside of a sealed bottle with paint and turn it into a rocket!

5. Contact Paper Suncatchers

At Craftulate we love contact paper! Tape it to the table, sticky side up, and use it as a canvas for wool, tissue paper, feathers – all kinds of things! When finished, add another piece of contact paper over the top to seal in the collage. Then cut out various shapes and designs. We have made Easter eggs, Valentines hearts, and Christmas baubles!

 

6. Sculpture

Let your child express themselves by making their first sculpture! Use some Styrofoam as a base (a great way to recycle packing material) and give your child straws, pipe cleaners, feathers  and see what they create. No hand wipe needed!

7. Shaving Cream in a Bag

Tried painting in a bag? Next try shaving cream! No Time for Flashcards has some great ways to teach kids about colour mixing - without getting messy.

8. Tissue Paper Ball Picture

Draw an outline in advance (I drew a sunflower) and provide squares of tissue paper. Screw up the tissue paper into balls and glue them onto the outline. I have also tried this with feathers. You can reduce the potential gluey mess by only applying glue in small areas at a time.

9. Crayon Rubbings

A classic craft that is suitable for a wide range of ages.  All you need is some paper, crayons and some interesting surfaces. Either provide your child with some textured surfaces or get them to look for themselves!

10. Sandpaper and Yarn Craft

Momtastic demonstrates that sandpaper’s rough surface is perfect for “sticking” yarn to. Let your child get creative! Inner Child Fun made snowflakes!

I hope these ideas have inspired those amongst us who are fearful of the mess (and clean up!) to get crafty! If you need further help getting started I have some general tips on my blog here. 

About Craftulate:

I’m Georgina, a British crafty mom living in America with my husband and son. I love doing all kinds of arts and crafts with my son, and enjoy the challenge of keeping him interested and engaged. I started crafting with my son when he was 1, and I was very afraid of mess! Over the past year I have gradually got used to his hands getting painty and I think that is a very good thing!

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All kids are different and only you can decide how you let your kids play. And with what materials you let them play with. My children are supervised when playing. Please keep this in mind with any post you read of mine!

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