Let's do a craft, mama

My 2-year-old gets really excited about crafts.

And I mean REALLY excited.

arts-and-crafts

Lately, she greets me every morning and says, "Let's do a craft in the office."

So - after eating breakfast and getting dressed and checking e-mail - we begin crafting.

I try to be creative and think up new crafts: spiders out of pipe cleaners, puppets out of paper plates and popsicle sticks, houses out of cardboard boxes, collages with magazine cut-outs, etc.

But sometimes I could use a little extra inspiration.

So you can imagine her squeals (and she can really squeal, let me tell you) of delight and my excitement when these boxes arrived on our doorstep:

Big Fun Crafts creativity for little kids Make Your Own Sock Puppets

She wanted to open them right then and there - and I agreed.

The Big Fun Crafts kit ($24.99) has provided hours of entertainment since that day. It includes over 300 pieces - pipe cleaners, colored cotton balls, feathers, wiggly eyes, even a pair of mini scissors. I wish there would have been an accompanying book with a few "suggested craft ideas" for this mama's tired mind, but it was super fun nevertheless.

The Make Your Own Sock Puppets kit ($17.99) was equally diverting and ideal if you have a friend or sibling who wants to join in since the kit contains three socks to "dress up."

Both kits are made by Creativity for Kids, a company that offers a full line-up of craft kits and art supplies for kids - everything from a Make Your Own Alphabet Book kit to a Finger Painting Set to a Travel Easel. The kits are fantastic for every-day use, but they'd also make a great birthday gift. Or, you could set up a "craft station" at your child' next birthday party and let the attendees go crazy (just be careful with the scissors - you never know what might happen).

YOUR TURN: Do you do crafts with your kids? Which ones are your favorite?

WIN IT! One winner will receive a Big Fun Crafts kit ($24.99) and a Make Your Own Sock Puppets kit ($17.99). To enter, leave any topic-related comment on this post prior to Sunday, August 9th at midnight (Don’t forget to follow the rules…all generic comments like “Enter me!,” “Love it,” and “Cool stuff!” will be disqualified.).

*UPDATE* The winner is #126 R Hicks. Congratulations!

Leave a Reply to keyomi Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

140 comments on “Let's do a craft, mama”

  1. My grandson just turned 2 a month ago and we've not done much in the way with crafts yet but I think this would be a good starting point for him. Thanks for the chance!

  2. My sons like to glue macaroni onto paper, so we are currently learning letters that way! Does that count as a craft? I am sure they would love these kits!

  3. crafts.. I almost dislike that word sometimes.. lol... I love making this with wee man but sometimes we don't have everything OR my ideas are "we did that two weeks ago"... His favorite lately is making puppets!!! Been using old socks and dressing them up to put on shows... it's tons of fun

  4. we love making crafts especially at christmas time we use the Styrofoam balls and glitter to make christmas ornaments it is so much fun :)

  5. My little one is too young for crafts, but my niece and i like to make frames with seashells on it that we find from the beach.

  6. My little one is the Queen of fingerpaints and good lord can she be messy. But that's the price for creativity!

  7. The boys love painting and playdough.My girls like to make jewelry and sew.I have been looking for more crafts to do while homeschooling next year.Thanks!

  8. I love to do fun crafts with my son. He would LOVE these kits :-) He always wants to make stuff with play-doh. He is 3 1/2. I love to do "holiday" inspired crafts. I keep everything he makes! My favorite to date is the t-shirt stamping kit I bought at the DIA (here in Detroit). I had him and my 4 year old nephew one night for a sleepover and we made really cool t-shirts. I would love to have these kits for our next project :-)

  9. This is great. I used to do crafts all the time growing up. I couldn't get enough of it. I even followed a magazine's idea for making a piggy paint out of an old play-doh cup...or whatever you call it.

  10. Aww my daughter gets all excited to do crafts as well. We home school so this would make a great art project. thanks for the great giveaways.

  11. This kit would be great for preschoolers on up to school agers. I know my 7 and 9 year olds would love this. Thank you

  12. My 2 year old loves to draw right now! So anytime she can, we do. Right now, because it is summer, we try and save it for rainy days.

  13. My kids like to play with play-dough and color a lot. I agree with you, those type of general craft toys should definately come with suggestions. Was surprised it did not. But my kids would have loads of fun it anyway. They also have some sock dolls that would go great with this too.

  14. I baby sit 2 two year olds and have a 5 month old. When babysitting, I LOVE to introduce the kids to new crafts. We love to paint and bake especially. Just the other day we had a lot of fun making play doh and playing with that.

  15. I am terrible at crafting with my son. I just never can think of things to do, so one of these kits would be great! I must start going to the FamilyFun website for some ideas.

  16. my girls love crafts. Right now they are into painting kits they received as gifts. We also make dough a lot (koolaid is great for coloring and scenting it)

  17. I do occasional crafts with my kids, it has to be very organized though and they will go crazy and nothing productive will come out of the session. Though even then they still have fun. My almost 4 year old asks daily to do them. Since we just moved into our new house my husband, an artist and graphic designer has his own room where he is setting up a workplace for crafts. I looked at the creativity for kids website and they do have a lot, I would buy the aprons and plastic table covers. They have a lot of interesting crafts too, they two you are giving away and I thought the tote bags sounded cute and fun and the number and letter books. I didn't see much available for the 2 year old age group, I am suremy two year old would have fun anyway but I was hoping they had something that would give me a hint as to what would be more age appropriate for her as well. Last time we did crafts we use paper plats and feathers, googley eyes and cut out felt pieces along with paint and pipe cleaners to make animal masks. They had a lot of fun. So I am sure they would love these. I will have to keep an eye on this site for christmas because their birthday party is a week away but I wouldn't mind getting them some crafty things for Christmas and maybe if they have seasonal Christmas crafts a little before Christmas. One we do for Christmas is red and green construction paper, maybe decorate with some sparkles and cut them into strips and glue the ends together to make rings and chain them together, 25 of them for the 25 days from the beginning of December to Christmas and every night have the girls take turns removing one chain as a physical representation to how close Christmas is getting. It is one I did as a child growing up with my mother and I love to do it now with my kids.

  18. My kids love crafts too! We do anything and everything that doesn't require too much direction, they just like to mess around with stuff.

  19. These would be great to keep my grandaughter busy. Always looking for new things to keep her occupied and challenged. Please count me in. Thanks!!

  20. I love open-ended art experiences with children best, but sometimes it's fun to do a craft as well. There is so much learning in artistic play.

  21. My kids LOVE to do crafts. Working full time I don't have much time or energy to come up with ideas. This would be great!

  22. I am glad to see lots of moms with boys who love crafts...but,at least at age 3, my boy isn't one of them. He colors some and likes to use PlayDoh and likes to paint, but anything more creative than that, doesn't happen at our house.
    Perhaps it reflects mom's lack of creativity!

  23. I am always looking for crafts for Mikayla to do. I normally use those as a distraction so I can get something done, Mikayla is not watching TV and having fun. It is hard to find good craft items in this too small town. This month we have a babysitter coming to the house and I have been trying to find crafts for them to do. I love coming home to find pictures they painted, tissue paper art or paper bag puppets they made that day. Mikayla has a blast.

  24. My daughter and I love to do crafts together, this would be a wonderful prize to win. Thanks for the chance!

  25. My family has always loved doing crafts of any sorts, a great place to find ideas is the family fun magazine which is awesome! Or there website has alot of info too. We do themed crafts depending on the month and what holiday is near.

  26. My daughter is obsessed with crafts. In fact, she is now obsessed with making crafts out of trash in order to recycle/reuse and save the earth. Awesome, right? We like making cool little bowls out of tissue paper, anything sparkly, and some watered down glue. You paste the paper in layers onto another bowl and once it's thick enough and dry, you pull it off and there ya go!

  27. You mean she doesn't call it HER office anymore?? ;)

    My kids love painting! Me...not so much. It's a lot of clean up work for me later. But they love it so much...

  28. I like to make crafts that my kids can play with afterwards. I don't like it to be just a piece of paper with stuff on it. I like arts and crafts to be interactive after the project is finished.

  29. Yes I do crafts with my kiddos. They love play doo and moon sand. One fun craft with boys is to use a paper plate, cut the center out, and staple a paper bag to it so it is hanging down. Then go on a walk and the use the plate as a stering wheel and hunt for treasures that they put in there bag!

  30. You know, the puppet kit would be great for us because the two older children would love to make them and put on a show, and the toddler would love to watch the show. I see the makings for a great family night with this type of kit.

  31. i love doing crafts and art with my nephews and niece. i love being creative and love the look on their faces while i teach them things! :) nothing bonds you better than fun creative time with 'em :)

  32. We do crafts together, especially on vacation. I buy some kits for us to take with us, so the kids are never bored in a hotel.

  33. We haven't done too many crafts together yet beyond finger painting and coloring. I'd love to win so we can get started doing something new and exciting! :-)

  34. My daughter also loves crafts, but I have a hard time coming up with ones that she can do more than our usual coloring and painting and a few others. I really should get out the scissors and glue more often, you're inspiring me!

  35. I'm right there with you! My daughter (6) could do crafts 24/7. I love that she is so creative. She creates huge artwork out of anything and everything she can get her hands on: guitars out of cereal boxes and rubberbands? check. Pipecleaner forests filled with pipecleaner animals? check. Cities made of play-doh and popsicle sticks? check. Unfortunately, she was given a mom who is not so imaginative. I run out of ideas so quickly. She does great on her own but these kits would give us so many new ideas. And I need all the help I can get :)

  36. My sons love to do crafts and I encourage any form of art expression- it's so fun to see what they come up with!

    My favorite crafts are the foam crafts as they are easy for the kids to work with, but recently we've been making some magnets and other things out of scraps, which has been great fun, too.

    Thanks for the chance to win- we are running low on craft supplies and the kits would be fabulous to have!

    czakcass AT yahoo.com
    Jamie

  37. I love crafts with all my kids.

    My favorite distraction thing for them is shaving cream/whipped cream (for the littler kids).

    Shaving cream is a fast way to *clean a table and *make designs in.

    The more they rub the more it disappears and you can start over. Tons of fun for kids that won't eat the shaving cream.

  38. I love crafts as well and can't wait to do them with my daughter when she is old enough. I love that the kit provides some inspiration. This looks like so much fun I might enjoy it as much as the little one does. Thanks!

  39. Oh my - we do all kinds of crafts. Whatever we feel like at the moment, if it's cutting paper and making things, gluing things together, painting, play doe, etc. We just have fun. We don't have anything we love in particular, but the kids do love play-doe I guess! Thanks.

  40. This would be great to use along with our homeschooling activities. Our daughter loves to craft, draw, and make things out of paper.

  41. Firstly, how cute is that picture? You can see that she loves crafts.

    At my house we do a lot of "color color color!" with crayons. I also made my daughter play dough and just bought contact paper to stick things in. Very fun.

  42. When my children were younger I did by those prepackaged crafts and they were very entertaining. I also bought craft "stuff" (some bought and recycled)and had a steady supply for them to use anytime to create whatever they wanted.

  43. We do crafts often. I love to hear my children say, " We can make something out of this."
    This week, my kids are walking around on walking stilts, they made out of empty food cans and old rope.

  44. My son's are really into making things out of whatever they can find. Each have their own craft box. They make phones out of cups and strings. Just last week, my 6 yr old got the idea to make a race track out of a big piece of cardboard. He spent most of the day painting the track, gluing on ramps, road sighs from an old track. I was really impressed with it. The neighbor boys came over and ask him where he got it.

  45. Not yet, but I hope we will soon! I love crafts too (although, I lost my 'squeel' somewhere around 10th grade). :)

  46. I can't wait to do crafts with Dawson! Kind of part of my homeschooling post on the other post, I intend to use crafts as a way to learn. I'm especially excited about making bird feeders out of pine cones, peanut butter and sesame seeds. I think a typical way of learning that I'm going to implement will be something along the lines of, let's go outside and see what we see. Then whatever happens to catch his interest, I will take him to the library or let him look up stuff on the internet to learn more about that thing. Then progress from there by figuring out science experiments or crafts to do with that item. Although during his earlier years, it will be about what colors things are, counting them and stuff like that. Probably start with Sesame Street and continue on with whatever themes they present for the rest of the day. I'm excited about teaching him. I just need to figure out how to make him sit still!

  47. My kids love these kind of kits! In fact, my two girls know how to use a sewing machine, so they make all sorts of things even without having a kit. :)

  48. My son is getting to the age where crafts are going to become a big part of our daily activity. I think making puppets would be a great way to start our craft hour. He will truely enjoy it as well, as he loves when I make stuffed animals talk to him. I can only imagine how it's going to be when the homemade craft talks back. :D

  49. my son has just recently started showing an interest in crafts. So far he only "colors". I love this give away, it seems to make it easier for moms to be creative with their kiddos.

  50. I love crafts but my two boys aren't always thrilled to do crafts. They did however get excited about making pom-pom caterpillars on clothespins with googly eyes. Not sure what it was about that particular craft but they loved it and made a ton of them.

  51. My daughter loves to make things. The best thing about it is that she loves to make things for OTHER people. We make crafts/drawings/books/presents for her friends, our neighbors, family members, the deli lady...you name it, Analise wants to give the people she knows something. We have noticed that this, along with compassion, is one of her strong gifts so we try to foster that in her and let her use it as much as possible! It is so fun to watch them create and get excited about it!

  52. We do a lot of painting and coloring in our house. My kids enjoy doing crafts (maybe not to the extent that yours does) but I have a lot of trouble coming up with ideas on crafts to do. I confess that I have been known to order crafts off of Oriental Trading Company just because I can't think of anything else to do! I think these craft kids would be great - thanks for the entry!

  53. My daughter loves doing crafts. She would adore these sets and I would love to put them away for Christmas for her!

  54. A small group of moms and I switch off hosting each other each week. We have a luncheon for the children
    and another for us moms! There is usually a craft planned each week; especially, if the weather is not very cooperative. We could use some new ideas!
    Thanks so much!
    Cindi

  55. We do alot of crafts w/ the kids. Most of the time it's over my sister's house because she's better at crafts and more creative them I am. the kids love it!

  56. I have always done crafts with little ones, those I've babysat for or my friends kids who love to come craft with me. I was so proud the day the girls I used to nanny for agreed to turn off the television and do a craft instead! This would make a great gift for them.

  57. We do arts and crafts every day. We paint, draw, color, sculpt, glue, etc... We just did a project making cardboard puppets from cardboard toilet paper rolls. I know my boys would LOVE to make sock puppets!

  58. my granddaughter just loves to do all kinds of crafts...she is always asking me to buy her different kinds...thanks for the great giveaway

  59. I think you must mean she asks to do a craft in HER office!! Haha. I love seeing stuff like this, so much better for kids that the TV ALL.DAY.LONG. Although I do love Sesame Street and will happily let Max watch that (I think there are so learning points) most of that other stuff is horrible. I sure hope when he gets a little older he still loves playing outside and doing fun crafts!

  60. My little kidlets really enjoy making cards and matching envelopes for family and friends. We use all kinds of different decorations ~~ dried flowers & leaves, buttons, macaroni, fabric, ribbon, whatever we can find! Thank you for the contest!
    [email protected]

  61. We have a pretty big craft cabinet. One of my favorites is making stained glass type pictures usuing tissue paper and clear contact paper.

  62. They make so many craft kits now that there is something to appeal to every child. Craft kits are a boon to a parents sanity on rainy days when the kiddos are stuck indoors.

  63. My kids have a real crafting bug. It's so bad, the two elder ones have their own tape. I kid you not; I went and bought each of them their very own 1400-inch-long roll of tape. And it's almost gone less than a month later. This kids cut, color, and tape on a daily basis. Imagine their glee if Mama won the Big Fun Crafts kit!

    Of course, seeing a sock puppet show from the three-year-old would be incredibly amusing, too...

  64. The kids especially love model majic. We have made everything from magnets to napkin rings. Jewelry is another big hit.

  65. We have one of those rolling chests that has multiple deep drawers that we keep TONS of craft supplies in so we do it all...finger painting, watercolors, crayons, markers, craft kits, stamps, playdoh, etc. One of my recent fondest memories is when my daughter had some girls spend the night and they spend over an hour making people out of craft sticks and then making clothes for their stick people by cutting out construction paper, etc.

    Thanks.

  66. Hmmm, I'm not much of a crafty mama, but my kids do love to do projects at the table. I'd love to present this to them!

  67. My son loved making panaramas and anything out of clay. I should have owned stock in model clay

  68. A gal after my own heart! Have you ever checked out the blogs One Pretty Thing and The Crafty Crow? They're pretty great for inspiration.
    I think that sock puppet kit would be my fave. I love making sock puppets.

  69. Fun!! We don't do nearly as many crafts as we should. We color, sometimes we finger paint or play with play-doh, etc., but I think Princess is probably a little too little for a lot of crafts (she JUST turned 2). Maybe in a couple months we'll do more.

  70. My girls, but especially the older one, LOVE doing crafts. They don't squeal with quite the pitch or volume that yours does, but the eyeballs get big and jumping definitely occurs. :) I'm in the same boat, though; sometimes I'm pretty creative with the ideas, and other times I'm pretty dry and need some help. Also, sometimes we don't have the materials we need for the crafts we want to do. This would be the perfect thing to help out on all those fronts. Thanks!

  71. Oh crafts. Can I admit something about crafts? I don't do them often. Eeeeek, I know. If I had a kit handy I likely would, but for whatever reason I'm just not that creative when it comes to making things by hand. I can take a great picture, write a good blog post, but make me creative with my hands and it doesn't happen. I hope it doesn't scare my kids for life ;)

    And on a side note, your daughters smile and excitement in the picture made me so happy!

    Nell

  72. I felt a little guilty when I read that your daughter is an "old pro" with scissors and glue. Mine is about 6 months younger and has never touched either. I usually shy away from craft (or anything else) that will require a big cleanup afterward. However, I know that with a little practice and experience she won't make such a mess. And I know she'd have a fun time with projects like these. Maybe I'll start with pipe cleaners. They sound pretty harmless!

  73. My tot loves to make cards for her cousins and grandparents with simple markers, crayons and construction paper! We'd love these kits to add variety!!

  74. My kids just love making crafts and these are such adorable ideas. The sock puppets are adorable. Not only do the kids get to make these, but I can see them playing with these for quite something thereafter. The Big Fun Crafts Kit would be so wonderful too. There's so many projects that the kids could make with this kit.
    Thanks so much.

  75. We love crafts of all kinds! Especially those that deal with paint! :)
    Thanks,
    Megret
    musesofmegret (at) gmail (dot) com

  76. My son is still in his 2 yr old destruction phase. However, he does really love sock puppets and by next summer hopefully his attention span will be a little longer for these kinds of projects. I have already started a small craft kit for him with some crayons, markers and clay that we occasionally pull out when we want to really get messy. This is a wonderful giveaway! Thanks for the chance to win!

  77. With four boys, crafts are kind of hit and miss. My 4 year old does like to use the art easel he got for Christmas last year. He paints with brushes and also draws with colored pencils. But I have found that, in general, my boys don't want to spend a whole lot of time being crafty. I have all of the supplies available for when the inspiration might hit, and that seems to work for us!

  78. We have a gigantic tub full of all sorts of craft materials. We like to pull out the glitter glue, pom poms, googly eyes, confetti and the like and just glue everything onto a piece of paper, creating whatever picture we think of using what we have.

  79. I run a daycare so crafts are always a fun thing to keep kids occupied. I have them make and decorate birthday cards for their parents. We make Halloween decorations every year and also some Christmas ornament projects.

  80. We are just learning to use safety scissors, so I have to do all the work, but we do make animals with construction paper and googly eyes. We have also done pipe cleaner projects.

  81. My daughter is still a little too young to do crafts with me, but I can't wait until she is old enough. I have always enjoyed crafting and I'm sure she will love it too. Thanks for the chance to win!

  82. It is a bit difficult to do crafts with my crew given that they are 4, 2,2, & 2, but we try to do something fun and crafty at least 3 times a week. It is always fun, crazy, and messy, but that seems to be what attracts them to crafts in the first place.

  83. I don't do a ton of organized crafts with the kids. I usually give them the supplies and see what they come up with. Usually just some crayons, stickers, etc. My kids LOVE to use my leftovers from scrapbooking. I give them my old stickers and paper scraps and some tape runner or glue sticks and they have a blast (my version of recycling right?)

  84. Sabrina LOVES to do crafty projects but it has gotten so much harder since Tessa has become mobile. I am still working on making it work with a mobile little one wanting to grab everything so for now we do a lot of coloring.

  85. We love to do crafts but I'm constantly in need of help trying to come up with what to do for craft time!

  86. I can't wait to do crafts with Lily. She is really interested in my pens as I try to write something we have a wresting match so I'm sure crafting will start soon.

  87. My children all love doing crafts. I do however need to be better about setting aside time to do them.

    My favorites are gifts for others and holiday crafts.

  88. My girls love to be crafty. My oldest went through a time of not being able to throw away trash - scraps of paper or straws - because she would want to make something, anything with them.

  89. We love crafts... My 2 yr old LOVES to Do sand art. So we buy the Sand at Michael's and we pour them into 20 Oz pop bottles. She gets a kick out of it and It's bright and Colorful so It keeps her busy For A LONG time!!

  90. We love crafting around here too. The blog world is filled with wonderful crafting mamas, and I find lots of our inspiration there. "The Crafty Crow" and "No Time for Flashcards" are two of my favorite spots to find tons of ideas.

  91. My son wants to craft everyday as soon as he wakes up too! He loves sending what he makes to his grandparents. He is always making his socks into "people"

  92. Elizabeth is too little for crafts (other than the footprints on ceramic keepsake variety...) but I love to do some with her older cousin!

    Painting is always popular, as are colouring pages (off the internet!). We also have a sewing craft that's a big hit. It came as a pre-made kit (that I did when I was a kid actually). The cards have holes in them and the large blunt needle is easy to pull in and out. It basically does connect the dots, but with thread. We've been working on making our own cards using pictures off the Internet (what else!) printed onto card stock and then punching out holes.

    I've heard that drawing a village on a shower curtain can be loads of fun too - I'm dying to try it!

  93. My son loves to paint, finger paint, build things with play-doh. We haven't done a lot of crafts per se, but he'd probably love those too!

MetropolitanMama - See The World, One City at a Time
©2024 Metropolitan Mama - All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram