You don’t have to be an expert to know how to make cool crafts. With a chunk of time, the proper materials and sense of fun, you and your kids can create oodles of crafts.

You can decorate your house, give crafts away as presents, or keep them as precious memories of your kids’ creative energies.

Crafts with kids

One way to save money on gifts is to do them with your kids. One person who almost always receives a gift is the teacher. Instead of buying your child’s teacher the usual gift card, you and your kids can create a personal gift for them.

This Disney FamilyFun site lists a few creative projects that you and your kids can make for a beloved teacher, including:

• Painting a birdhouse
• Getting a small T-shirt for a bear, having all of the kids in a class sign it, fabric painting over the shirt to bring out the signatures, putting the shirt on a teddy bear and presenting it to the teacher
• Decoupaging a tray with photos of the kids in the class
• Painting a photo album and putting a picture of the class inside

Activity Village also provides an extensive list of gifts that kids can make.

Each of these gifts is personal and inexpensive, and will be remembered by a teacher for far longer than a coffee shop gift card!

Year-Round Decorations

One way to save money on decorations is by creating them with your kids! There are loads of easy crafts that will brighten up your house without breaking the bank.

Kaboose Crafts has many unique and easy crafts that you and the kids can do together. There are crafts for every holiday. The site has a picture of every craft and detailed instructions on how to make it. Their site also has craft gift ideas, such as personalized greeting cards to send to friends and family.

DLTK offers printables for their crafts that makes them easier. The site also gives an age-rating on every craft so that you know if it is appropriate for you child. Another site that offers great craft ideas for kids is Enchanted Learning. This site divides kids’ crafts up into categories, and features everything from holiday to Native American crafts.

Guidelines for starting up a craft with kids:

• Give yourself more than enough time to do the craft. Prepare for setup, cleanup, and assume that the craft will take longer than you expect.
• Assume the kids will make a mess — and plan for it! Use old newspaper, a tarp, or an old table cloth to protect your furniture from the mess.
• Make sure to select an activity that is age appropriate — otherwise, your child will get frustrated or bored.
• Provide close supervision to make sure no one is eating glue!
• Store craft supplies in recycled plastic bins, old shoe boxes, etc. You don’t have to spend a fortune on craft supplies. The dollar store and discount art supply stores provide plenty. Also, you can use items in your home: old clothes, ribbons, cute print out paper, cardboard, etc.
• Let your kid express their creative side and craft well and often!!

For more detailed tips, check out Families Online Crafting Tips.

Craft away!