AIBU to ask for advice regarding which crafting activities to offer for fundraising event.

[Wecandothisthing]

Sorry, I know I'm being unreasonable posting this here, but needed traffic and wasn't sure where the best place to post was.

Following from some great advice from this forum (thank you) about fundraising for our school, I've organised a large fundraiser to be held in a local venue on Easter weekend.

Most aspects are sorted, but I was leaving buying/acquiring the materials for the "Easter Crafts" tables until closer to the time when more shops stocked Easter stuff.

Unfortunately, I had an unexpected bereavement recently and that set me back a lot in my planning, while I grieved and organised funeral arrangements.

I need ideas for some cheap/easy crafts that I can buy/acquire in bulk prior to the event. There needs to be crafts that are suitable for younger and older children and they need to be 'nice', so that the parents who pay entry for the event (£2) feel they got value.

The crafts tables will be manned by my relatives. I'm really not naturally creative and struggling to think of ideas that won't cost me a fortune (anything that's not donated is coming out of my own pocket) and that will look nice and be suitable for a range of kids to do.

The event is pretty big and we're expecting many children.

Thank you.

do they pay extra for the craft activities? Or do you need to include it in the cost?

If it's an extra fee you could offer Easter bonnets, you can usually get them at the pound shop and a pile of ribbons and flowers/spring creatures /whatever to stick on.

Otherwise
Card bookmarks with rubber stamps or stickers, and pens available for the more arty
Decorate a cupcake (always popular) or a hard-boiled egg
Some kind of simple sun catcher - if you're on a tight budget then cut acetate sheet to size (you can get a box of 100 A4 sheets for not very much £) and use sharpies or similar to decorate them.

Sorry for your loss

You can weave heart shaped Easter baskets very easily. Stuff with shredded paper and add a couple of chocolate eggs. These look quite effective. I’ve done this with children 7+.

Decorating egg shaped buiscuits.

Making palm crosses.

You can use beads and elastic to make little cross keyrings that are easy and effective.

Pinterest is your friend here

We went to a fundraising thing once where they had Easter baskets...just a flat pack card basket that you could stick stickers to and colour on. Fill with shredded paper and they gave you a few little choc eggs to put in. My daughter enjoyed it and she could do it on her own as not too complicated.

Easter crowns! Get some plain alice bands (the skinny ones) and a bag of felt pom poms, pipe cleaners and sheets of foam.

Then just glue everything together, a glue gun works best :)

You could do crowns too but they might be a bit ummm... insensitive.. given the back story of Easter!

Check out somewhere like Baker Ross online, they sell cheap craft stuff in bulk.

www.parenting.com/family-time/holidays/10-cute-easter-crafts-to-make-paper-plate?page=1

Get some of those polystyrene eggs and decorate them with sequins, feathers, felt tips.....

Egg blowing! God we used to love that! All you need is a box of eggs a bodkin (or several) and heaps of paint/glue/glitter/felt tips for decorating and possibly thin ribbon or twine to make a loop like on a bauble.
Rabbit ear headbands- Buy some thin craft foam sheets and cut into headband strips, attch two ears then decorate with bows/glitter etc. Easter gardens-dinner plate sized shallow trays. Add top soil, leaves, trigs, moss, make swings etc from twigs and string (v easy). Maybe buy some tiny fluffy chics and bunnies to add to the gardens. Plant a Spring (Summer) bulb/bulbs. Big tray of small plastic plant pots. Packets of easy grow bulbs (Tesco/Aldi), big bag of top soil/compost and ribbons, sequins, glitter etc to decorate the plant pots. Make or buy cocktail stick flags and write child/parent's name on it if they're making them as gifts. The Works has a craft shop and it literally sells EVERYTHING dirt cheap. Felt Easter brooches-brooch pins. Felt, PVA glue, stuff to decorate with.
Are you doing facepainting and temp tattoos?
Save your receipts because you shouldn't have to fund the sundries.
Make sure you have plenty of pairs of child friendly scissors.
Good luck!

No idea how i forgot this but slime. Easter slime!

pl.pinterest.com/pin/496029346446122918/?lp=true

You might get more responses posting on the Crafts section.

Do you have access to a printer? Maybe print some templates on card to colour in. Find some patterned egg shape templates, kids colour them in, cut out, two holes punched in the top and strung on coloured twine or a ribbon to make a garland.

Like this (but better!):

www.themaven.net/kidsactivities/celebrate/easter-crafts-for-kids-make-a-garland-fine-motor-skills-activity-APttNNj0Hkye8-cyBu1FUw

Templates such as these (WARNING: I haven't used any of these myself so be careful the templates sites are legit and you're not downloading anything harmful to your computer):

www.firstpalette.com/tool_box/printables/eastereggs.html

There are also templates for making small baskets but the gluing might be tricky for younger kids as you need (i) a good quality glue and (ii) to hold the flaps in place while it sets.

As a PP said, Baker Ross sell lots of craft materials. If neither you nor the people running the sessions have crafting experience it might be easiest to buy a load of prepared stuff that just needs assembling.

www.bakerross.co.uk/arts-and-crafts/craft-activities/easter--kits

Eg baskets www.bakerross.co.uk/coloured-baskets
but which will need things to decorate the outside and put inside, eg stickers, shredded paper, fluffy chicks, maybe small chocolate eggs (Aldi or Lidl?), so the cost per finished item will mount up.

Thank you for the ideas.

From your suggestions and some googling, I'm thinking we could do woven paper Easter baskets I thought My Nan and I could make the templates/cut out the sides and then give them to the kids with lots of strips of coloured paper to choose to weave. Then I've bulk bought an assortment of Easter stickers/feathers and there'll be glue sticks, scissors, felt tips (don't know how the venue would feel about paints).

We'll pre-make a load so that kids who are too little to weave can just decorate one.

Each kid can have 'Easter Grass', a yellow chick and some small choc eggs in their basket.

We could also use a strip of paper to make a circle to go round their heads, like a crown. But stick two card bunny ears on the front.

Do you think they sound reasonable? I'm picturing kids running round and having their pictures taken with DH the Easter Bunny with their faces painted, glitter tattoos on their arms, bunny ears crowns on their heads and holding little Easter baskets. With big smiles on their faces!

The crafts is included in the £2 entry, along with bouncy castle, kids disco, Easter Bunny, Peppa Pig, some games and a cold finger buffet.

Tombola, Face paints, Raffle, Guess the name of the Teddy, Pick a bottle, cake stall and silent auction all cost extra.

Do you think this sounds good?

I've got a company to price match up to £1000 so keen to make as much as possible. Our school is desperately in need of funds.

I'm a bit late to the game here but...
You could try Baker Ross. That's where I used to get all the stuff for the Brownies and still get stuff for my kids. The prices are good for the bulk buy packs.

www.bakerross.co.uk

These heart shaped baskets are very quick to make, and appear almost magical because once you've opened them up and filled them with mini-eggs or whatever, it's almost impossible to work out how they were made. I always loved them as a child. You don't even need to buy paper - pieces of left over wrapping paper do very well. Just contrast the two pieces to bring out the woven effect.
www.auntannie.com/Valentines/HeartBasket/

DS has just come home from a craft thing with a small polystyrene egg that he drew on with felt pen. Quick and easy if you need something less complicated - could use paper starts or glitter to decorate as well.

£2 entry for all that? I'd say that was a bargain! I'd be impressed at somewhere offering all that for that price.

Buy blank gingerbread things (there are probably egg ovals at this time of year) from a supermarket and decorate them with asst. sprinkles and those tubes of squeezy coloured icing? Also works for all other seasonal fetes!