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750+ Quick & easy craft ideas

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Halloween crafts

Halloween

seasonal

easy craft

quick craft

household craft

art how to

Create fun, fantastic and freaky faces! Kids draw a monster on a paper plate and give it glue eyes with food coloring pupils. Then comes the fun part: one touch of a soapy cotton swab sends the color swirling outward as surface tension tugs it toward the edges. It's a Halloween science trick for ages 5–12 that takes less than 30 minutes, and every monster ends up with its own wild stare.

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Gather your materials.

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Draw a monster mouth on a paper plate.

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Make circles with glue for the eyes.

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Add drops of food coloring for the pupils.

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Dip a cotton swab in dish soap.

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Carefully touch the pupils with the cotton swab and watch as the eyes transform!

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Monster Eyes.

This spooky science trick is brought to you by "surface tension". Water molecules are tight-knit best friends that love to cling to one another, pulling tightly together at the surface to form a flexible, invisible "skin" called surface tension. When you drop food coloring onto water, or in this case glue, the lightweight dye floats gently on top of this stretched-out liquid shield. But the moment a drop of dish soap hits the surface, it acts like a molecular wrecking ball! Soap molecules have a hydrophilic (water-loving) head and a hydrophobic (water-repelling) tail, which rushes in to wedge itself between the water molecules, instantly shattering their strong bonds. As the surface tension collapses at the center, the remaining unbroken surface water snaps backward toward the edges of the bowl, dragging the food coloring along with it in a burst of swirling colors.

paper plates

glue

markers

food coloring

cotton swabs

dish soap

Monster Eyes

decorations

luminary

craft

homemade craft

useful craft project

indoor project

Use ping-pong balls to put your own creative spin on a simple light string. Go with simple glowing globes or add details with permanent markers for unique room decor.

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It is important to use LED lights because these do not get hot when used with the ping-pong balls.

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If you have multi-colored ping-pong balls, plan out a pattern for your light string before attaching your ping-pong balls to the LEDs. Make sure you have enough ping-pong balls for the project.

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Take a pair of scissors or an X-Acto knife and carefully puncture a hole into the ping-pong ball. Be very careful not to hurt yourself here! You may need to puncture the hole multiple times to get the hole large enough for the LED to go through. I used scissors to make an "X" slit. My holes were about 1/4-inch, which worked well for attaching and detaching the ping-pong balls. Repeat this step for all the ping-pong balls you plan to use.

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If you'd like, take a permanent marker and draw designs on your ping-pong balls. Let the marker ink dry before you touch them again to avoid smudges.&nbsp;

Draw away from the punctured hole as this portion of the ping-pong ball will be covered by the wires of the LED light string and may cover your designs.

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Once all your ping-pong balls have been punctured, take one ping-pong ball and push the LED light through the hole on the ping-pong ball to attach them to the light string.

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Repeat step 5 for all the ping-pong balls that will go on your LED light string. As mentioned before, I would suggest planning your pattern before attaching the ping-pong balls. I didn't do this and spent extra time taking the ping-pong balls on and off.

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You are done! Now you can show off your glowing light string.

ping-pong balls (enough for the number of lights, and a few extra)

led string light

scissors

permanent markers (e.g. sharpies)

Ping Pong Glow Lights

food play

3 material crafts

recycled craft materials

Quickly “age” paper with tea bags to create a beautiful worn-looking texture, then use it to create maps, journals, posters, and more.

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Heat up a cup of water in the microwave or in a pot. Add a tea bag and allow it to steep for at least 10 minutes.  

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Take your paper and tear around the edges to make it look worn.  

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Allow tea bag to cool enough so it is safe (and comfortable) to handle. Do not ring out too much tea from the bag, but enough so you do not over saturate the paper. Use the tea bag as a paint brush and cover the entire piece of paper.  

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If desired, allow the first coat to dry and repeat for a darker color.

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You can also create the tea paper on paper that has not been torn along the edges. Here the student is creating tea paper to use to make a old-fashioned circus poster!

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Once the paper is dry, use it to make a map.

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Or to create a poster that looks weathered by time.

1 tea bag

water

white paper (construction or computer paper)

Making Tea Paper for Maps, Journals and More

dolls

learning activity

Kids get the opportunity to hone their fine motor skills by cutting precisely to make paper doll chains. Make sure to grab lots of paper because after your kids make one they'll probably won't want to stop there!Help your little one build their creative confidence with <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store">KiwiCo's</a> <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/rainbow-air-dry-clay-project-kit/5612">Rainbow Air-Dry Clay</a>. This kid-friendly clay is soft, not sticky, so it’s easy to handle and shape into anything you can imagine.

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Cut an 8.5*11" piece of paper into 2 long strips (4.25*11" each).  Then fold one of these long strips in half twice, and then into thirds (a total of 4 folds).  

Draw half a doll on the folded edge of the paper. Be sure that the ends of the hands and feet touch this folded edge. 

Cut out the doll! Pull the chain apart and enjoy!

Paper

Scissors

Easy Paper Doll Chain

recycled

gift

handmade gifts

Christmas

Handmade Christmas Gifts & Cards

Christmas crafts

birthday

everyday materials

I love coming up with the perfect gift for everyone on my list. I put a lot of care into making sure the gifts are personal and thoughtful no matter the size. But for some reason, I have no patience for wrapping the gifts! Lucky for me, I came across a simple idea to make little gifts extra special, and best of all, I already had all the materials (and I bet you do too)! Yes - old toilet paper rolls can make for a perfect little gift. Give your wrapping paper and boxes a break, grab some recycled tubes and some ribbon and get wrapping.Looking for more ways to help your little one create handmade gifts? <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/animal-bath-bombs-project-kit/2784" target="_self">Animal Bath Bombs</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a> are the perfect way for your little crafter to dip their toes into bubbly bathtime chemistry!

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Carefully bend in the ends to create half-moon-shaped flaps.

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Open one end of the tube, slip in your gift, and fold it back up again. Decorate it with some festive ribbon or crepe paper to finish your mini gift box. It's the perfect size for small presents or stocking stuffers!

toilet paper tubes

ribbon

Gift Boxes from Cardboard Rolls

slime

sensory activity

It's so fun to get your hands dirty and play with squishy, slimy, ooze! Here's how my son and I made slime with cornstarch. Since my son's favorite is green, he decided neon green was the perfect shade for his cornstarch slime.Want more slimey science fun without the hassle of gathering materials? Explore the science of thermochromism with <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/color-changing-slime-project-kit/2948">Color Changing Slime</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store">KiwiCo Store</a>!

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We started by dumping a 1/4 cup of water into a turkey roasting pan. The tall sides of the roasting pan helped keep the water from flowing over the edges.

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My enthusiastic little slime chef also added 1/2 cup of cornstarch.

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He added three drops of food coloring (a little goes a long way!) to get the slime to a satisfactory shade of neon green.

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Now we're getting to the good stuff! My son loved mixing his concoction with his hands (although you can stir the mixture with a spoon if you'd like). 

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Ooze is fun to play with on its own, but of course my son wanted to add a toy into the mix! He had lots of fun slithering his rubber snake around in the cornstarch slime--and the snake created lots of cool textures and patterns. All in all, a fantastic (if a bit messy!) activity that my son really loved. Oh, and here's a tip: If your slime starts to harden, just add a bit of water to make it fluid again.

corn starch (1/2 cup)

water (1/4 cup)

food coloring (3 drops, green)

Make Slime With Cornstarch

nature crafts

nature walk

nature

leaves

painting

art project

fall

With fall around the corner and brisk air upon us, we decided to create nature-inspired paintbrushes! All you need are some leaves, twigs, twine, and your creativity.

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Take a walk outside and find different kinds of branches / leaves to make your paint brushes.

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Bundle the leaves to wrap around one end of a branch. 

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Hold the bundle of leaves and the branch with one hand, and wrap your string to secure the leaves onto the branch. 

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Securely tie the string with a double knot! We created an assortment of leaves with findings from different trees.

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Once you have made all your leaf paintbrushes, test them out with some paint! What kinds of textures do they create? Which type of brush is your favorite? 

branches

string / twine

paint

cup (for water)

watercolor paper

Leaf Paintbrushes

arts & crafts

Add these tassels to keychains, scarves, bags, garland – you name it!

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Wrap yarn around the pompom winder. The more you wrap, the fuller your tassel will be.

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If you don’t have a pompom winder, cut a piece of cardboard into a small rectangle. The length of your cardboard will be about the same as the length of your&nbsp;tassel so use that to determine sizing.

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Slide the yarn bundle off the winder. Then cut the yarn at one end.

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Cut a strand of yarn that’s about the length of your forearm.

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Lay the cut bundle of yarn on the strand you cut. Align the bundle so it’s centered.

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Tie the strand around the bundle of yarn.

100 at-home quick craft projects for kids

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