Quick Craft Box

Recently I saw an article that reminded me that crafting with children isn’t really something that needs to be super planned out, completely structured, or undertaken with a specific project in mind.  Crafting with kids should be about spontenaety and creativity, no matter what form it takes.

Here’s what I mean…

Put a couple of kids together with a bunch of craft supplies and they will come up with all kinds of creative ideas on their own!

For parents and caregivers, that means that we don’t always need to work so hard to come up with particular craft projects and ideas for our children… and that’s where the quick craft box comes in.

This is how we’ve done it:

1.  Recycle containers to keep smaller craft supplies in.  For example, a plastic coffee can (those blue Maxwell House ones) makes a great container for longer objects like markers, scissors, pencils, etc.  Smaller lidded containers could hold buttons, beads, etc.  Loose crayons can find a home in a smaller box or medium sized container.

2.  Construction paper can be kept in file folders or plastic portfolio folders.

3.  Zip loc bags are great containers for a variety of things including glue, scraps, yarn, pipe cleaners, etc.

Here’s a short list of some of the things that you’d find in our quick craft box:

• Crayons, markers, colored pencils.
• Scissors — my kids are old enough to be responsible
• White glue and glue sticks
• Stickers and stamps
• Fun foam sheets and shapes
• Yarn, ribbon scraps, string, pipe cleaners
• Felt and felt scraps
• Buttons, beads, perlers, misc. embellishments
• Craft sticks, paper clips, clothes pins
• Cheap paper plates, bowls, and cups
• Lots of construction paper in various sizes
• Scrap wrapping paper
• Recycled items (have their own box) like tubes, tubs, jugs, bottles, etc.
• Coloring books
• Mad Libs
• Various Project books and printables

Here’s some things I would keep under lock and key (away from the kids) unless you’re supervising their craft time:

• Paint
• Water colors
• Glitter
• Specialty glue (glues other than Elmer’s and glue sticks)
• Scissors (unless your kids are old enough that you don’t have to worry about them cutting stuff they shouldn’t — hair, clothes, furniture)

You get the idea here.

We take all these kinds of things and put them together into a large craft box (which has evolved over the years to be a couple of boxes).  Whenever it’s time for a project or some free crafting time, we drag out the box and get busy.

The best part about having a craft box is that we can get out the craft box and I can turn the kids loose to create whatever they want without having a specific project in mind. It takes the pressure off of me to find them a specific project and gives them time to be independently creative without any particular direction from me.

They come up with all kinds of projects that I would never have thought of on my own!  It’s awesome!

Here’s some great activity books that you might want to consider adding to your craft box:

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