Get Down and Dirty with Fun Kids’ Crafts

Summer is the perfect time to let kids run wild with fun, imaginative crafts that the family will treasure forever. These four cheap and dirty crafts let kids go where their imagination takes them without ruining a bunch of expensive art supplies.

Newspaper Paintings

Reuse old newspapers by turning them into your little one’s first canvas. Prime them with white acrylic or let youngsters go wild directly on the printed page — pages can be doubled up, glued, cut and taped together to make a background for enormous masterpieces at a fraction of the cost of traditional canvas or art paper.

Paper Plate Family Portraits

A stimulating way to stimulate your child’s creativity, making paper plate portraits is a fun activity that encourages family interaction. Once all paintings of every family member are finished and dry, punch a hole into the top and bottom of each plate, tie the plates together with yarn and hang the finished product in your child’s bedroom or other place of pride.

Coloring Pages

A simple and inexpensive way to make the most out of your child’s crayon box, print-outs of coloring pages are a no-brainer for road trips, restaurants and other situations where you need to distract the little ones without relying on a smartphone. Consider handing out inexpensive watercolor pencils — once pages are colored in, run a wet sponge over the color and watch the art become a painting!

Clay Modelling

There’s nothing more messy or fun than digging your hands into a lump of clay. Air-drying foam clay is ideal for little ones who want to create bigger, less detailed sculptures, whereas smaller lumps of bake-dry modeling clay are great for older kids who want to perfect their shapes before committing to a finished product.

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