Crafting With Children

The dreaded summer holidays are upon us, over 6 weeks to fill and somehow keep the kids amused!  I thought a few crafty projects and details of blogs where you can get more idea might help.

Younger Children

Although they may not be the cheapest The Early Learning Centre have a great range of craft kits and supplies.  Kits include making finger puppets, card making, and for those children who want to sew just like mum the pictured sew and lace cards (my son’s favourite). Most of their kits are suitable for children between the ages of 2-8.

A few other places you can get kids craft supplies and kits, at a good price are The Works, Home Bargains and your local pound shop/discount store.

Useful blogs

Of course many of us like to use the supplies we already have to hand, toilet rolls, scrap paper, plastic pots etc and there are a multitude of free tutorials on the internet, I’ve posted a few useful links below:

http://www.redtedart.com/kids-crafts/

http://childhood101.com/playopedia/

http://www.makeandtakes.com/kids-crafts

http://whipup.net/category/kids-crafts-2/

http://totallytutorials.blogspot.com/search/label/children (some of the projects are to make with kids, others to make for kids)

http://www.netmums.com/h/n/THINGS/arts_and_crafts/

http://www.dltk-kids.com/

Kits

There are some great sewing craft kits on the market (aimed at older children – normally 8 plus).  Sew Brilliant offer a range of kits for 8 plus for making cushions, pencil cases (pictured) and a keying.

Sewbox have some of the Stitch Club (they seem to have closed down so you can’t buy direct) kids sewing project kits on their sale, most are almost half price.  Their kits are aimed at age 7 plus.

Kotori Kits have a range of kits which you can make for or with children, items like the girl flower necklace kit, and the Russian Doll purse kit would be easy enough for an older child to make.

Argos offer craft kits for children, their My First Crafts range are currently on offer with up to 1/3 off selected kits.  Their kits include funny bean bags, animated animals and fishy danglers.

Felt Folk have some adorable peg doll kits which are suitable for ages 5 plus including the pictured Fairytale kit. 

Abakhan Fabrics have several craft kits for kids as well as supplies including starter stitching kits for children over the age of 4.

E-zines & Magazines

The 2 e-zines below are full of ideas for kids crafts and can be downloaded from the links below:

http://action-pack.com/

http://www.redtedart.com/2011/07/01/collaborative-ebook-make-it-easy-11-easy-tutorials/

Popular Crafts have a kids craft special edition out at the moment.  The details can be found here.

Classes

Many of the sewing teachers on our directory run classes for children over the summer, and some during term time too.  Most require the children to be at least 7-8 years old.  Links to some of them are below and you can check for ones local to you by using the directory (choose your area and select sewing courses.)

London:  Sew Over It , Little Hands Designs and School of Frock.

Kent:  Sew Brilliant and Seams So Easy

Chichester:  The Textile Space

Cumbria:  Cool Crafting

Middlesex:  Emma Morrison

Have great fun creating and crafting with your children, and do feel free to upload pics of what they've made into our Facebook page.