Best Children’s Crafts Websites and Resources
You all rolled your eyes at me a few weeks ago when I shared all the personalized gifts and the letters to Santa. “Christmas!?” You yelled at the computer screen in your bathrobe. “Why! We’ve barely passed Halloween!”
I think you’re Jimmy Stewart.
Who’s laughing now that you ate a wonderful feast and it’s time to start shopping? Do you see how fast it goes? Which got me thinking how every year I want to do some crafty projects during the holidays with my kids and suddenly it’s Christmas Eve and I suggest we tear a page out of that Spongebob coloring book and work on that. Big fun.
Maybe you want to make some gifts with your kids to save some money to pay for your plumbing problems (it’s like child labor!) or maybe you’re just one of those nice parents who enjoys making things with kids. Either one.
Speaking of parents who enjoy making things with their kids, Kiddley is a wonderful site where Claire Roberts of Loobylu creates and collects great crafts and activities for kids. Some will make great easy rainy (snowy) day activities and others nice gifts. Surely someone on your list can use a pinecone hedgehog? It’s a great place to collect inspiration.
Kids Craft Weekly (sadly, now defunct) is another inspiring site. Australian mother of two, Amber Carvan found crafting to be the best way to keep her and the kids busy and she realized she enjoyed creating new projects to do with her kids. She started her weekly newsletter to help other parents do the same. Each issue outlines a set of activities following a theme and are intended to be low cost, educational and fun. You can browse the newsletters online and browse some great resources. Issue 16 begins with a short tutorial of ‘Pretend Play’. At eight-years-old my daughter doesn’t really want to play pretend with me anymore but if only I’d found this piece before. You can’t imagine the frustration I could have saved my daughter who found me utterly useless at a tea party. I also love this page of ‘No Fuss Craft Ideas’, it’s easy to forget how much kids love the simplest of ideas. You’ve got paper clips? You have hours of entertainment for a four-year-old.
For older kids I love DIY Kids. Ellen and Julia Lupton are sisters, mothers and designers (among other things) and started DIY Kids to share their love of design for kids with others. My daughter’s loved all the projects we’ve tried, like these door hangers and especially this t-shirt.
Come back tomorrow when I’ll show you my favorite crafts your children can make which could be given as heart warming holiday gifts. Get that sweatshop in the basement nice and hot and come back here tomorrow.
