Photo Credit: Zhao
YIPL Origami craft 2010
You want to craft with the family, but you don’t want the mess that comes with it.
To you, arts and crafts with your young kids conjures up an image of tiny painted hand prints all over your newly decorated dining room wall, crayon trodden into the beige carpet and glue stuck to the kitchen table. All of which are going to cost you time and money to sort out, every time you get the paint pots and brushes out. Surely it is easier to just not let the kids do arts and crafts at home, isn’t it?
However, creativity is an important thing to encourage in young children; not only will it keep them quiet and entertained for five minutes, it also aids in developing self-expression, offering opportunities to create something new whilst gaining confidence in their skills.
Kids will no doubt love getting messy, but this isn’t always practical. There are ways to avoid the mess, so don’t let that stop you picking up craft supplies from Craft Superstore and letting the kids get creative at home.
To avoid the mess you could set the kids up in the garden, leaving any spillages for the rain to wash away! Use stickers instead of glue or squeeze paints instead of pots – as well as taking the extra precaution of covering everything in plastic tablecloths, or using a tray, to protect your tables.
But if this still leaves you in fear that your house will look like a paint bomb has gone off in it, there are activities you can do as a family that are just as much fun, and won’t leave any mess at all!
Why not pick up some needles and colourful yarn and start knitting with your kids? Start off small and simple; blankets for their dolls, perhaps? Then as you both progress, think of all the money you will save on jumpers, hats and scarves in the winter! Easily cleared away afterwards, the kids get all the benefits of crafting, with none of the mess.
You could also stock up on a variety of different colours and designs of paper and try your hand at Origami. You and the kids can have great fun learning how to fold the paper to create different shapes, without having to cut, glue, stick or paint anything!
How about getting creative with modeling clay? It sounds messy, but not so with Model Magic, part of a large range of ‘no mess’ products from Crayola. The only limit is their imagination with this clay, which can be moulded into any shape they wish. However, unlike play dough it will not crumble or leave residue on the table. It will also harden over time, so creations can either be broken down to be rebuilt or kept to show off their creativity.
What if you could paint without the mess? Well, now you have the option to swap paintbrushes for paintbrush pens, this is easier than ever before. Paint is stored in the pen with a no drip formula, so it only makes it on to the paper and not the walls.
Take these mess-free craft ideas and let the kids express their creative side, without you having to clean up a huge mess each time they do.