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Easy and Affordable Craft Activities For Kids

Home > Brisbane > Craft | Art | Fun for Children
by Emily Burgoyne (subscribe)
Loves all aspects of the written word, both the reading and the creation of.
Published May 31st 2011
It is cold, wet and windy outside; the kids are bored and tired of your usual indoor activities. Why not try your hand at craft? Here are five easy examples that will inspire your child's creative side. Moreover, they won't cost you a fortune, instead most recycle common items found around your home.


Dough Forget the store bought stuff, make your own instead. All it takes is some flour, salt, vegetable oil and water. If you want coloured dough, simply kneed in a few drops of food colouring. A packet of plastic animals and various kitchen utensils and you kids will be entertained for hours. Once they're finished playing simply put it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator, ready for the next day. Salt dough can even be baked in the oven until hard to create permanent pieces.

Sand Painting Kids tired of boring paint, why not try adding some sand? Simply collect some sand in an icecream container and mix in enough paint to alter its colour. You may also want to add some glue to ensure the sand paint will stick, or paint a layer over dry finished pieces. Cut up empty cereal boxes or similar to use as canvases. A messy craft activity so old clothes and a newspaper covered work area are highly recommended.

Fishing A magnet, a wooden rod, string, some paper clips and light card are all that is needed to create the pieces to this fun game. First create your fishing rod by tying the magnet to a wooden rod (or even an old wooden ruler) with string. Get your children to draw fish or other sea creatures on scraps of light card or reuse empty food boxes. An alternative is to cut out pictures from magazines and glue them onto card. Once done, cut out all the fish and slide a paper clip on so they can be caught. Now it's simply a matter of catching them with your rod, and inventing the rules. The possibilities are endless.

Homemade Snap A favourite game to be played, why not add a personal touch by making your own cards? All you'll need is some pieces of card and anything from crayons to paint to decorate them. Cut the card to a desired size (try 8cm by 12cm). Then taking four cards create the same simple design, a heart or star for example, on each of them. Repeat this, making more identical cards and create a deck as large as you like. For something different make why not make a deck of circle cards instead?

Homemade Jigsaw Puzzle Why spend lots of money on a boring jigsaw design when you can make your own. Get a piece of light card large enough for a good floor jigsaw. Then find a picture and glue it to the card. Now it's simply a matter of cutting it up into different size pieces. There are endless possibilities to what your jigsaw could be a poster of a favourite movie or singer perhaps. Older children may like to make a collage of favourite pictures cut from magazines to create more of a challenging puzzle.

Don't let your craft options stop here; the internet can be a wonderful place to find craft ideas, instructions and recipes. Why not go to your local library to get out some craft books.

Finally whatever you do, do not underestimate your child's creativity and imagination. Why not give them some cardboard boxes, fabric scraps, beads, buttons, pens, pencils, glue and see what they produce.
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Why? Easy and affordable activities, just for kids.
When: Whenever you want a little peace
Where: Your home
Cost: Fairly cheap, but it all depends on you
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