Crafty party ideas for kids


Family
25/07/2018
Being creative is a lovely way to entertain children for birthdays, family gatherings and holiday afternoons with friends. Get everyone together for these craft ideas and have do-it-yourself fun.

Getting started


  1. Set aside a ‘create space’ in your home or garden where the children can be messy, away from sofas, carpets and the party food.
  2. Put a couple of tables together and cover this with newspaper.
  3. Use big bowls and pots to put out a choice of pens, brushes etc in the middle of the table. Choose pots with a wide base so they don’t topple easily when lots of children are grabbing from them at the same time.

TIP Make your ‘create space’ look bright by tying colourful balloons to the table corners.


Craft Activities


  1. Organise two or three crafty tasks to stimulate the imagination and creativity of children. For example: folding origami animals, building a cardboard castle, making a necklace. See our step by step ideas for hair accessories, castle and windmill, below.
  2. Start with a simple idea, then propose a more complex one, which will keep them busy and entertained for a long time. If there is still interest, organise one more task.
  3. For each of your creative ideas, make a simple example for them to be inspired by. Put these in the middle of the table for them to follow.

TIP Place buckets of water and soap next to the table, so that the children can wash their hands. Don’t forget the towels.


Crafty idea: cardboard castle


You will need:

Cardboard boxes
Toilet roll or kitchen roll tubes
Glue
Scissors
Grey, black and brown paint
Green paper

To make:

  1. Using pictures of a real castle, such as Warwick Castle, for inspiration, plan how you will put the boxes and tubes together to make a keep and towers, using the green paper as a ‘grass’ base. You can put the towers next to the boxes, or further apart, connecting them with ‘walls’ of carboard.
  2. Cut rectangles out of the top of each section, to make castle-style crenellations.
  3. Use the glue to stick all the towers and walls together, using tape or glue to secure the castle to the green paper.
  4. When the glue is dry, carefully paint the whole castle grey, then outline the stones in black. Don’t forget to add windows and arrow slits.
  5. Paint an arch shape black, ready for the drawbridge.
  6. Cut a piece of cardboard into an arch shape, paint it brown then add vertical lines in black to make it look like planks of wood. Glue this flat on the green paper at the base of the black arch you painted, making it look like the drawbridge is down.

TIP For more inspiration, why not visit Warwick Castle? We have lots of exclusive savings and offers at www.supersavvyme.co.uk/tag/warwick-castle


Crafty idea: kids hair accessories


You will need:

Coloured hair clips
Ribbons
Glitter glue
Scissors
Glue

To make:

  1. Set out a tray with different little beads, glitters etc for the children to choose from.
  2. Show the children how to add just enough glue to the clip to carefully decorate as they like.
  3. Write each child’s name on a piece of paper where they can put their clips to dry, before taking them home.

TIP A muffin baking tray is a brilliant sorter for beads etc when you want to put them out in the middle of the table for the children to choose from.


Crafty idea: Paper windmill


You will need:

Thick paper
Ruler
Pencil and eraser
Scissors
Large plastic or paper drinking straws
Paper fasteners

To make:

  1. Cut the paper into squares.
  2. Draw a pencil line diagonally between two opposite corners. Repeat for the other two corners, to create a cross.
  3. Cut along the lines from each corner up to about two centimeters from the centre.
  4. Make two small holes at one end of each drinking straw and feed a paper fastener through so its two pointed ‘wings’ come out the other side.
  5. Fold the four corners of the paper into the centre and attach the ends by making a small hole in all four points and feeding the paper fastener tips through this, then fold them out to keep the windmill shape in place.
  6. Make sure this is still a little loose so the windmill turns when you blow it.
  7. Finish off with a pretty sticker in the centre to cover the fastener tips.

TIP Use paper that’s a different colour or pattern on each side to make a prettier windmill.