Crafts for kids step by step for kids of all ages. The crafts are grouped depending on popular techniques and materials used.
You can use a variety of materials for the crafts (starting from familiar and popular to uncommon ones). Besides paper, clay, and pipe cleaners, you can create from polystyrene, cocktail tubes, beads, and even pasta. All you need for that is your own imagination, modern techniques, and teachers’ achievements.
At the bottom of each photo, there is a link to a step-by-step instruction. All the tutorial are located within the tratatuha.com website and don’t lead to any external resources.
Crafts for Kids: Top 200 Ideas Step by Step
To be successful at making crafts, follow these tips:
- Study the list of materials required for making a craft, so that you could prepare everything you need before getting down to work;
- Be careful with piercing objects. It is important to use only special scissors for kids with rounded tips. If any holes to be made, use blunt punches under adult supervision only.
- Handle the materials carefully. Paints and playdough can leave stains on the surface, solid objects can scratch it. Therefore, you should protect the work surface by covering it with oilcloth or put special plastic or wooden plates;
- When using paints, you should change water as often as possible, and then wash brushes and hands thoroughly. To prevent paint from getting dry, you should keep a paint pot tightly closed, just like a box of paints.
- After working with clay and playdough, you should keep them wrapped so that they won’t dry. It’s recommended to wrap clay in a wet cloth and clay – in common paper.
- Pencils should always be well-sharpened. Don’t use a knife or blade for that. You should sharpen them with a special sharpener.
- You should keep felt pens closed with caps so that they are always ready for further work.
Paper Crafts for Kids
Paper is one of the simplest, most affordable, and easy to process materials. You can use it to make lots of various crafts, which can even find practical application. Working with paper imperceptibly influences a child’s overall development: his fingers get stronger, sensory impressions improve – at his sensational level, he learns to feel the paper texture, density and color.
A pencil, a ruler, glue, scissors and, of course, colored paper or cardboard – that’s all you need to create exiting crafts. A bit of skill and patience – and you will get an amusing cartoon or fairy tale character or a one from your own imagination. For example:
Paper Strips Crafts
Paper strips crafts belong to volumetric modeling and paper design. For such crafts, strips of double-sided colored paper 1 cm wide are the most common, especially when creating paper balls and body bases for animals and birds. Also, strips can be folded into a certain character at once; smaller strips can be glued into a drop and used to make amazing volumetric applique works.
Rooster Craft with Paper Strips
You can make many interesting crafts from thin strips of paper. This time we have a simple paper sun – easy creative work for kids.
Accordion Paper Crafts for Kids
There are two ways to make a paper accordion. Both of them are widely used for children’s crafts for creating various paper toys and other interesting items.
- method is simple. Make small folds on paper surface. Fold a piece of paper forward, then turn it over and make one more fold of exactly the same size in forward direction. To make it more convenient for small children, you can draw parallel strips on a sheet of paper in advance.
- method. Cut off two long paper strips, glue their ends together at right angles, and create a small accordion by interlacing them. Then, it can be used to make great bodies for animals and birds.
Paper Rosette Crafts
Do you love doing rosette crafts? All you need is a splash of creativity and you’ll be onto making your very own craft in no time.
Paper Cones Crafts for Kids
Another great base for crafts is a paper cone. It’s easy to make it of paper or cardboard. For that, draw a circle and divide it into sectors. For example, in 4 parts. If you cut off one part – you will get a wide cone, two parts – a medium, and three parts – a narrow one. Depending what kind of craft you need, choose the right size of a cone, and then use small details to complete your character or your craft.
Origami Technique
Paper toys, animals, plants, vehicles, birds, and various items made using Japanese origami technique will please anyone who gets them as a gift – parents, relatives and friends.
Origami differs from applique works, carving silhouettes and many other forms of art by the fact that it is the art of the whole. You don’t need to cut or stick anything; you should use a single whole paper sheet. It’s possible to impart expressiveness and individuality to a craft by complementing it with some details. For example, eyes and faces for animals, patterns on bodies, clothes.
Modular origami has become popular recently, which is more difficult for children and consists of several pieces of paper.
And other various ideas that you can find in the Origami for Kids section.
Paper Quilling for Kids
Easy paper quilling step by step for children’s creativity. A collection of simple ideas, from light shapes: circles, droplets, ovals, triangles. Quilling animals, birds, plants. Since the quilling section is already quite large, it’s time to collect all the ideas in one review, with links to detailed instructions.
Toilet Paper Roll Crafts for Kids
A paper roll is a remaining roll of thick recycled paper. It is also called a cylinder or a tube. Forming a ready-made strong and stable base, a toilet paper roll can a perfect basis for creating voluminous crafts for kids. Colored paper or cardboard is also used for work – for wrapping a paper roll and cutting out additional details. For some crafts, a roll is covered with paint or using felt pens. Besides toilet paper rolls, base rolls from paper towels, parchment paper or foil are suitable.
Pipe Cleaners Crafts for Kids
Making and inventing models made of pipe cleaners is no less exciting than folding origami, shaping playdough, and making paper crafts. Using pipe cleaners, you can make lots of interesting and funny crafts for friends, parents, and useful things for yourself. This work develops imagination, children learn to be patient and diligent.
You don’t have to make crafts in the offered color scheme. You can take any pipe cleaner that corresponds to your ideas, mood and preference.
Felt Crafts for Kids
A variety of felt crafts, tutorial, step-by-step instructions, easy ideas for kids. Simple crafts that will allow you not to be bored and have fun. To make easy crafts from felt, you need a little: the material itself, a template, scissors, threads and a needle, as an option – a hot glue gun. Most often soft toys, flowers, souvenirs.
Clay Crafts for Kids
Clay is a perfect material for a novice sculptor! You can use it to make real masterpieces that will decorate your home or be used as toys. Using clay, you can shape lots of amusing things, animals, birds, people, everything you can imagine. Clay is bright and convenient to shape. The very name of this material proves its excellent plastic properties.
Modeling develops a child’s artistic taste, ability to observe, highlight the main points and characteristics. Children learn not only to watch, but to see as well, since we are literary surrounded by characters, objects and stories; they live in books and cartoons. You should only help your child to find them – to find wonderful, original and interesting things in everyday life. At the same time, any creative work develops perseverance, skills and talents.
Clay shaping rules:
- Before getting down to work, you should prepare the workplace and knead clay so that it becomes soft, manageable and elastic.
- It’s recommended that you start making crafts from the main, the largest part and then shape smaller ones and connect them together. Small details are crafted in the course of making the character.
- It is most convenient to attach small parts using a modelling tool. It can also be used to make various cavities easily and accurately.
- When shaping clay crafts from separate large parts, you should press the parts tightly and cover the attachment point with clay to make the craft stronger.
- After finishing the work, you should clean the workplace and wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water.
Crafts of Natural Materials
Natural materials are a fount of ideas and opportunities for developing children’s creativity. Working with it has a great influence on a child’s thinking and imagination. Here, novelty, creative search, ability to achieve ever more perfect and unique results are always possible. When walking in a park or a forest, you can pick up leaves from different trees, acorns, chestnuts, cones, herbs, interesting twigs for making crafts.
Basic rules of collecting materials and preparing for work:
- Twigs or roots should be washed and dried in a cool dry place;
- Cones and chestnuts should also be washed and dried;
- It is recommended to collect cones from wet soil.
- You should collect fallen leaves only. The best time for collecting them is late summer and early autumn. At this time of the year, leaves are especially beautiful, diverse and colorful;
- Crafts made of fruit and vegetables can be used for puppet shows, Christmas tree decorations, and even as a gift to dear ones. The main thing is to use safe materials to fix the parts, so that later these crafts could be eaten. It can be skewers, toothpicks, or thick starch glue.
For the presented kids’ crafts, a variety of materials, as well as techniques are used that develop fine motor skills, which means that they stimulate children’s speech and mental activities. But the main task is to teach a child creative vision. After all, it is the skill that distinguishes a creating, demiurgic person.