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Erika Malzberg
Craft Kits For Your Creative Genuis
If your child is like my daughter, she is all about projects. While it's always fun to create your own unique project, sometimes it's nice to use an all-inclusive craft kit for project time. The best craft kits I've found are those that are simple to use and allow for creativity (even if instructions are included!). This list includes more complicated craft kits that are fun to do with your child, as well as some more straight-forward kits your child can proudly use on her own.
19 Gift Ideas for boys and girls
Who like arts & crafts
Recommended for Age(s): 4 - 10
Beads and Pegboards Tub Iron-On 40 Designs
Be warned that littler kids may get frustrated by this activity. But bigger kids with focus and good hand-eye coordination will be completely engrossed. They just arrange the colorful beads in the frames, you iron, and voila! If you leave one of the top beads not fully melted, it's easy to slip a pipe cleaner or string through it to make a beautiful hand-made Christmas tree ornament too!
Alex Toys My First Sewing Kit
My daughter loves to feel like she is doing "grown-up work" -- but only when "grown-up work" is fun (no scrubbing toilets for her!). This starter sewing kit fits the bill perfectly: she gets to exercise her fine motor skills and winds up with yet more little friends for her stuffy collection!
MoMA My Museum
Love, love, love this! Looking at art by some of the "masters" inspired my daughter to create her own mini-masterpieces. She used the provided frames and prompts to create a whole collection which we proudly displayed on our living room walls cum art gallery! Hearing her discuss the warm colors she used and "dot style" as she played docent for her exhibit was priceless!
Sunprint Kit
Super fun to use the sun to do some experimental art. Just arrange your own still life with whatever objects you'd like and leave out in the sun to develop. Very cool results.
Melissa & Doug Butterfly Wooden Bead Set
Nice quality beads that are easy for little hands to work with. And holes are big enough for included laces. My daughter just needs me to knot one end and then she's off!
Decorate a Wooden Menorah Kit
For Hanukkah, this is a great kit. Wood pieces nicely soak up the paint to give rich color.
ALEX® Loop N Loom
My daughter needed a lot of help with this activity, but she really enjoyed working on it with me. And I really enjoyed my new potholders!
Make Your Own Sock Puppets Kit
These little critters may not be as fashionable as Miss Piggy, but they're still pretty darned cute! My daughter needed help with the puppet hair, but the rest she could do on her own.
Klutz Face Painting Book Kit
My daughter would happily cover her entire body with face paint! I hope she grows out of this before she's 18 years old and able to frequent tattoo parlors! But for right now, it's pretty cool! She loves to paint herself and me. And I'm getting pretty handy with the face paint too: bought this kti for her birthday and decorated all of her guests with rainbows, butterflies, unicorns, and more!
Totally Me! Make Your Own Fashion Headbands Kit
My daughter is slightly addicted to headbands! She doesn't even wear them that often, but she always wants to have more! With this kit, she can decorate them just the way she likes them -- as sparkly and fancy as can be!
Create Your Own Books
There are many "make your own book" kits out there, but I found these to be the best in terms of size and quality. The pages stay together and the stickers that are included are great prompts to help your child to write her own story.
Creativity For Kids Shrinky Dinks Fairy Garden
Shrinky dinks are one of those things that are as fun as I remember them from my own childhood! These fairy shrinky-dinks are very cute. Just color in and cook them up! When they're shrunk, you can make them into jewelry, or use them as miniature dolls to play with.
Orb Factory Sticky Mosaics: Jewelry Box
Take the mosaic project one-step further by decorating this cute jewelry box. My daughter was very proud of the end result and loves to store her treasures in this personalized box.
Orb Factory Sticky Mosaics: Fairies
I think I may like doing this as miuch as my daughter...if not more! It's very relaxing and great fun to stick the square jewel stickers onto the cardboard backing. Not messy, takes a lot of time, lovely finished products = perfect!
Melissa & Doug Wooden Princess Mirror - DYO
My daughter likes to look at the back of this beautiful mirror almost as much as she enjoys checking out herself on the reverse mirror side!
Melissa & Doug Wooden Princess MagnetsCreate-A-Craft
Fun to decorate to make your own sparkly princess magnets which are practical and pretty!
Alex Color A Funbrella Umbrella Kit
Cheer up any rainy day with this rainy day activity! It's right in the name: this isn't an umbrella; it's a funbrella!
Alex Cap It Off Jewelry
Want a bottle-cap hair tie or bracelet? My daughter would be happy to make you one with this kit! While she can't do the more complicated steps on her own, she loves the easy satisfaction of decorating the bottle-caps and seeing what she can make out of them.
Melissa & Doug Fashion Stencil Set
I can't say enough about this stencil kit! When we first got it, I had no idea what a hit this set would be with my daughter! We've made literally hundreds of stencil drawings which we cut out and play with as paper dolls. She never tires of playing with this and creating family after family.
