25 Free Arts Crafts Things To Do At Home

Wondering what to do for arts and crafts with kids at home? We’re sharing 25 easy craft ideas with you that’ll entertain all ages during the lockdown. From mess-free painting for little ones to epic canvas art for older kids, these project ideas are fun, imaginative, and simple ways to spend time together during the lockdown. Get started on your art projects now!1. Use Toy Cars To DrawYou’ll need: tape, felt tips or crayons, a toy car, and a cardboard boxFlatten out a cardboard box and lay it out on the floor. Tape a felt tip pen or a crayon to the back of a toy car so that the nib is facing downwards, and then give it to your child to drive and draw on the cardboard at the same time! Another variation of this is to roll your toy cars through paint and let your child paint-drive them across the cardboard - only if the cars are old and you don’t mind them getting paint-spattered though!2. Create Rainbow Melted Crayon ArtYou’ll need: loads of crayons, a hairdryer, heavy-duty glue, a canvas or thick piece of card, a towel, and a grown-up’s helpLay an old towel on the floor and make sure you’re wearing something you don’t mind getting messy. Line up your crayons in rainbow order and glue them to the top edge of the canvas with the points facing downwards. Make sure the crayons are overhanging off the edge of the canvas a bit. A good tip is to lean your canvas against the wall and put a sheet of newspaper behind it to avoid mess. From here it’s the fun bit: grab your hairdryer and, aiming downwards, blow hot air onto the crayons so that the wax melts and moves down the canvas. When you’ve finished, wait for the wax to dry and you’ll end up with a beautiful rainbow art project!3. Make A Glitter JarYou’ll need: a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid, glitter glue, hot water (not boiling), and a spoonDollop some glitter glue at the bottom of your jar then add hot water and stir it up until the glitter is dissolved. Let the water cool to room temperature, tightly screw the lid on, shake it up and you’ll have a magical glitter jar to play with. It’s a great ornament for kids’ rooms too.4. No-Mess Painting For ToddlersYou’ll need: 2 different coloured paints, a large ziploc bag, a baking tray, and a paintbrushThis is perfect if you want minimal cleanup and maximum craftiness for your toddler. Squirt or dollop 2 colored paints at either end of a ziploc bag and then seal it up (make sure it’s definitely sealed). Place it on a baking tray, give your child a paintbrush and let them ‘paint’ from outside the bag! They’ll love seeing how the colors change when they mix together, and it’s a great opportunity for you to teach them about the colors of the rainbow.5. Make Your Own JigsawYou’ll need: a magazine or finished coloring page, glue, a cereal box, and scissorsFinish a coloring page - either from a book or print a free one from the internet. Glue it to a piece of card and trim it so that it’s the same size. After this, cut up the image and turn it into a jigsaw. If you want to make it trickier, cut it into smaller pieces.6. Make Playdough From ScratchYou’ll need: 1 large bowl, 1 small bowl, 60ml warm water, 1 tbsp odorless oil, 8 tbsp flour, 2 tbsp salt, and food coloring, and 1 tbsp vegetable oil Why pay for playdough when you could just make it from scratch with this easy recipe? Mix flour and salt together in the big bowl and set aside. In the smaller bowl combine the water, oil, and a couple of drops of your chosen food coloring. Pour the liquid mixture into your large bowl and mix together with a spoon. Sprinkle the kitchen counter with flour and lay the dough onto it. Knead it together for a couple of minutes until it feels like a recognizable playdough consistency. That’s all there is to it!7. Make Flower BuntingYou’ll need: string, colorful pieces of paper, and scissorsCut your pieces of paper in half so that they’re around A5 size. Fold them in half and cut out half a flower shape, along with a small semicircle on the crease, towards the top. Open up your piece of paper and it should look like a full flower with a hole at the top. Feel free to cut more little pieces out to give it more detail too. When you’ve cut out a few flowers, thread them onto your string and you’ll have homemade flower bunting.8. Create Your Own Recipe BookYou’ll need: a few sheets of paper, coloured pens, and a staplerThink about your favorite meals and snacks and write down the recipes for them, making up your own if you’re feeling imaginative! When you’ve come up with as many recipes as you can ask for help to staple your sheets of paper together to make an official book. Don’t forget to design the cover too!9. Paint Your Nails (Without Actually Painting Your Nails)You’ll need: card or cardboard, a pencil or pen, scissors, and nail varnishIf your kids love painting nails, this is an easy way to do it without the mess. Get your child to trace both their hands onto the card (we recommend doing a few templates so you have more to play with). Cut out the hand shapes and draw nails on them. From here, your child can create whatever nail art they’d like on the cardboard hands! We recommend doing this on an old towel or plastic tray just in case there’s any mess.10. Make Sock PuppetsYou’ll need: old socks, googly eyes, and other crafty bitsGlue googly eyes to an old sock and any other decoration to create your puppet character. You could add pipe cleaners as hair or sew a mouth onto it - the possibilities are endless!11. Make A Monster MaskYou’ll need: card, string, hole punch, and felt tipsDraw an outline of your favorite animal or monster’s face on a piece of card. If you’re slightly lacking in art skills there are loads of templates you could find online and print instead. Remember to compare your design to your child’s face to make sure it’s the right size. Color in your mask, punch a hole on either side, and thread string through to turn it into a cool dress-up mask.12. Party CrownsYou’ll need: card, scissors, tape, glue, and decorationsCut a long strip of card about 10 cm wide. Cut out triangles from one of the long edges to make it a zig-zag edge. Wrap the strip around your child’s head and mark where you’ll need to fasten it. Decorate the card with beads, feathers, and pipe cleaners. When it’s ready, tape the 2 ends together according to where you’d marked it earlier and crown your child king or queen of arts and crafts!13. Make Glittery Snow PaintYou’ll need: heaping 1/2 cup shaving foam, 1/2 cup PVA glue, a large mixing bowl, spatula, and glitterCombine PVA glue and shaving foam in a mixing bowl with a spatula or spoon. Add glitter (remember, a little goes a long way), and keep mixing until it’s all combined and your puffy snow paint is ready to use! Decant it into a sealable container if you don’t think you’ll use it all at once.14. Make A Junk MobileYou’ll need: a wire hanger, string or wire, and small pieces of ‘junk’Grab small bits and bobs from around the house, this could be anything from old Christmas tree decorations to puzzle pieces that don’t seem to fit in any puzzle. Stick or tie these pieces of ‘junk’ to about 5 strings of different lengths (ranging from about 20-40cm). Tie each of these strings to a wire hanger and you’ve just made yourself a junk mobile!15. Create A Rainbow MosaicYou’ll need: old magazines, a piece of cardboard, scissors, and glueFirst, cut an arch shape out of a piece of cardboard. Next, you’ll need to cut out bright colors from any magazines you’ve got lying around the house - you could also look through your recycling bin and see if you can find any colorful wrappers, pieces of paper, or bits of packaging to use. When you’ve got plenty of colorful pieces of paper together, glue them onto your arch in colour order to make a rainbow collage!16. DIY Pirate ShipYou’ll need: a large cardboard box, wrapping paper tube or another long pole, paper, pens, scissors and tapeAhoy there! Using a felt tip draw planks of wood all around your cardboard box, making it look like a real pirate ship. Draw a skull and crossbones onto a piece of paper and then tape it to one end of the cardboard tube. Use more tape to attach the tube to the outside of the box - the higher the better. There you have it, a pirate ship, complete with Jolly Roger flag!17. Make Your Own DrumYou’ll need: a plastic bowl, paper, and an elastic bandThis one is super fun for music-loving kids. Grab a plastic bowl, place a piece of paper over the top and seal it there with an elastic band. You might need to tie it more than once if it’s a small bowl. Easy as that - you now own a drum! Experiment with different size bowls to see how the noises change.18. Create Your Own Top TrumpsYou’ll need: paper, a pen, and scissorsOlder kids will love creating their own version of Top Trumps. Pick a category (eg. family, book characters, food) and create a deck of cards based on it. Cut them out and play together! The best part is that you can always add more cards at a later stage if you suddenly get more ideas.19. Make A CollageYou’ll need: old magazines, scissors, glue and a piece of cardWhen you think of crafts, you think of collages. Go through an old magazine and cut out your favorite bits - maybe that’s a cool toy, an interesting word, or just a fun color you love. Glue them all onto your piece of card and you have a personalized collage!20. Learn To Draw AnimalsYou’ll need: access to YouTube, a pen and paperWe try to avoid ideas involving screens but this is a great little craft for animal-loving kids. Find a how-to-draw-animals video on YouTube and use it to perfect your art skills. Loads of them are super easy - see how many animals you can learn how to draw over the next few weeks.21. DIY 3D Picture FrameYou’ll need: a cereal box, tape and/or glue, a picture, scissors, and materials for decoratingWhy not put some of the artwork you’ve created over lockdown into a homemade 3D frame? Trace the picture you want to frame onto the front of an empty cereal box. Draw another rectangle about 0.5cm inside the one you just drew. Cut out the smaller rectangle with scissors or a scalpel if you have one. Decorate your box frame with beads, feathers, glitter glue - however, you want to personalize it. Lay your picture face-down on the table and cover the corners with tape. Slot the picture into the cereal box and stick it in line with the hole you cut out. Remove the flaps at the top of the box and you’ve got your own 3D box frame.22. Make An Open-Mouth CardYou’ll need: paper or card, coloured pens and scissorsFold an A4 piece of paper in half (to A5) and then in half again (to A6), making sure you’ve pressed down on the folds. Open up the card so it’s back to A4 and about a quarter of the way up the long vertical crease cut a horizontal line about 3-5 cm long (it might be helpful to draw this line out first). Fold the card back to A5 and widen this slit so that when you fold it back to A6 again the slit has become two triangles poking out at opposite angles. Open and close the card and you’ll see it’s turned into a mouth! Color in red behind the mouth and then from here, you can add any animal design you’d like - we love turning it into a frog!23. Create A Time CapsuleYou’ll need: a shoe box, mementos, and decorationsCreate a time capsule of your time in lockdown. Cut out newspaper clippings, create an ID card with your height, age and hobbies, take photos of your family and print them - the possibilities are endless. When you’ve collected everything, put it in your shoe box and hide it away somewhere to find later.24. Make Painted Rock CharactersYou’ll need: brightly coloured acrylic paint, black felt tip, plate, paintbrushes, and rocksCollect rocks from the garden (they shouldn’t be too pale or too dark). Wash them and let them air dry if you have time. Draw out your character design with a felt tip - it will be super faint but don’t worry, you’ll be covering it up anyway. Choose your paints, decant them onto a plate and start painting your masterpiece, using smaller brushes for details. They’ll take about 12 hours to dry and then after that, you can place them around your house as decoration!25. Make your own face maskYou’ll need: half an avocado, 1tbsp cocoa powder and 1tbsp of honeyAt the end of a busy day you probably just want to chill out together. Why not do it while pampering with homemade face masks? Mash half an avocado so that it’s a guacamole consistency, add cocoa powder and honey and mix to combine. Apply the mixture to your face, leave it for 15 minutes, and just relax!For more family lockdown fun, head to blog.kidadl.com.Want to take your crafts outside? Why not try making some beautiful shadow butterfly wings…‍Credit: Bambino Mummy.