Crafts are the perfect way to fill up a lazy summer afternoon. Here you’ll find 16 ideas to get your creative juices flowing. These range from super simple crafts for little kids to more complicated projects for teens, like homemade clay earrings. The best part is that most of these crafts use items you already have lying around the house, and any supplies you might need to purchase are inexpensive.
1. Sidewalk Chalk Paint
Try this one for a fun twist on sidewalk chalk that costs less than 50 cents to make. Use food dye to create any colors you can think of.
Get the Directions: Happiness is Homemade
2. Number Artist
This is a great project for a quiet afternoon indoors. Paint by numbers kits offer a relaxing, screen-free activity that kids and adults alike can enjoy. Each kit includes a pre-marked canvas, paints, and brushes – all you need to bring the artwork to life. For a more unique experience, you can try one of the personalized kits from Number Artist, which lets your child paint a custom image like a family photo or pet portrait. It’s a lovely way to create a keepsake and boost confidence through art.
Get the Directions: Number Artist
3. Pool Noodle Rocket Flinger
This craft will require a fair amount of adult supervision, but the end product will offer hours of fun. You can either purchase cheap pool noodles from the dollar store or save good-looking chunks of old, ratty ones you have at home.
Get the Directions: Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls
4. Spinning 3D Hot Air Balloon
Help your kids construct a 3D model of a hot air balloon with supplies you probably already have. All you need is colored paper, a toilet paper tube, scissors, glue and string. Put it outside and watch the colors spin.
Get the Directions: Crafty Morning
5. Paper Plate Elephant Puppet
Use paper plates and a long grey sock to create a puppet for the animal lover in your family. Little ones will need you to cut the hole with a craft knife and use the hot glue gun, but they can help with everything else.
Get the Directions: I Heart Crafty Things
6. Gelatine Flower Suncatcher
This craft is the perfect use for all those flowers your kiddos bring you home. Press or dry them and preserve them forever in this homemade suncatcher.
Get the Directions: Thimble and Twig
7. Fire-Breathing Dragon
Have any extra toilet paper tubes lying around? Turn them into an interactive fire-breathing dragon. Leftover tissue paper becomes the scorching flames in this fun craft idea.
Get the Directions: One Little Project
8. Craft Stick Flower Pots
Brighten up any room with these adorable craft stick flower pots. Upcycle old tin cans into a work of art using craft sticks, ribbon and rubber bands. You don’t even need hot glue.
Get the Directions: Typically Simple
9. Thumbprint Dandelions
These dandelions paintings will capture your kids’ fingerprints forever. All you need to do is print the template on cardstock, help your kids dip their fingers in their choice of paint and use them to paint the wisps of the dandelion.
Get the Directions: Glued to My Crafts
10. Personalized Tie Dye Beach Towels
If you’ve got a beach vacation coming up, this would be the perfect craft to build excitement for the big day. Add each family member’s name to their towel by putting down duct tape before the tie-dye process, and you’ll never hear a fight over whose towel is whose again.
Get the Directions: Kids Activities Blog
11. Summer Painted Planters
Here’s a cute take on the planter craft. Young kids can use paint to make their creations pop, while older kids can use paint and permanent markers to create something as unique as they are. Turning the pot into fruit like watermelon or pineapple will bring a sweet touch of summer.
Get the Directions: The Crafted Sparrow
12. Polymer Clay Earrings
This one is the most involved craft of the bunch and would be ideal for teenagers. You’ll need to buy quite a few supplies and the right work surface, but the results are well worth it, and your teen could even sell their creations — clay earrings are trendy right now.
Get the Directions: Sarah Maker
13. Squirt Gun Painting
Send the kids outside to work on this incredibly fun craft project with little to no guidance from you. Set watercolor paper on an easel or tack it to a tree, fill squirt guns with liquid watercolors and let them go to town on their artwork.
Get the Directions: Fireflies and Mud Pies
14. DIY Bubble Wands
These DIY bubble wands are better than anything you can pick up at the store. You’ll need to use the cutters to trim the wire to the right length, and little ones may require you to form the circle. However, kids of all ages will enjoy customizing their wands with beads.
Get the Directions: Natural Beach Living
15. DIY Fairy House
Is your family as obsessed with Bluey as ours? Your little ones might enjoy building their own fairy house or garden. Use trinkets from around the house like popsicle sticks, buttons and beads along with found materials from outside to create the perfect oasis.
Get the Directions: Living Well Mom
16. Marshmallow and Toothpick Buildings
Satisfy the crafter and little architects in your family. Set out a box of toothpicks and a bag of mini marshmallows and see what your kids create. Once they’re used to building with these elements, you can find challenges online for them to try at home.
Get the Directions: The Idea Room
Share Your Creations
Your kids’ artwork is precious, but if you find yourself quickly drowning under all those projects, you should encourage them to share their work. They could gift their art to friends and family. If they want to brighten a stranger’s day, donating beautiful crafts to people in nursing homes is also a great idea.