Anyone care to swap summer holiday craft project ideas for young children?

[YunoYurbubson]

I have a 2yo and a 4yo. We are doing a lot of crafty projects this summer. Wondered what everyone else was up to?

What we've done so far...

Made tea light lanterns by sticking torn up tissue paper to glass jars with pva glue.

Handmade paper.

Wax scratch drawings.

Stuck things to decorate cheap photo frames.

Made a memo board.

Stuck shells to old boxes to make beautiful treasure boxes.

Decorated some big shells.

Made necklaces.

Made pet rocks.

Cut felt shapes to make pictures (homemade fuzzy felt).

Washing line pictures (cut clothes out of a catalogue to hang on a line drawn between two drinking straws).

Butterfly splodge and fold paintings.

We've done a couple of kit projects.

We're saving drinking bottles to make skittles.

And we're keeping a scrapbook of our summer projects.

We're all really enjoying ourselves. Care to inspire us with your ideas?

we're making a bird out of a big pine cone and feathers!

That sounds fun! We don't have pine cones here. Maybe we could make something out of seed pods.

I know we're not the only ones getting covered in glue and glitter every day.

C'mon!

Tell me what you've been making!

ooh we also made a helicopter picture, I cut out an X from card for the blades and attached it with a split pin so they spin round.

we also made a fishing rod with a magnet on the end so I've cut out cardboard shapes and attached paperclips to them so DD can go 'fishing'!

Summer hasn't started here yet but last year I begged old washing machine boxes from curry's and made them dens, which they decorated with the contents of the cardboard recycling bag and turned into rockets etc.

'sewing' with thick felt with holes punched in and shoelaces.

This afternoon we have made pictures with ripped up coloured sugar paper (why is it called sugar paper?) and white paper.

How about printing with fruit and veg? Okra cut in half makes pretty lacy patterns.

I got together with some other Mums and sprogs (all rising 3) and we combined our dressing up kit (took a bit of sorting afterwards!) but we had a fun afternoon with some silly photos.

a roll of double sided tape is a must and we make magic wands out of straws and cut out shapes and decorate with sequins and ribbons, plastic leftover food trays to make boats with a straw and blob of blutack for sail etc stick eyes ears and mouth onto balloons to make balloon people, hats and tiaras.

Rockets from old carboard tubes - then "launch" in garden/park for added exercise.

Big sheet of paper taped to floor them drew roads, rivers etc and built buildings out of blocks to make a town which we drove toy cars around.

Paper crowns with feathers stuck on, bracelets made from strip of foam - stick bits on and them cut hole at each end and tie with ribbon, decorated gingerbread men, pressed flowers.

last week DS worked hard making me a cotton reel holder with a piece of wood, a drill, dowels and a hammer.

I might put a pic on my profile of it...

One summer (in our old house) DS made a marble run gong from upstairs down the staircase to the ground floor out of cardboard tubes, old bottles, and drainpipes. It was brilliant and he worked on it for weeks and weeks. All attached to the walls. When we moved I just took it all down and replastered and painted the wall.

What about making 'Faberge Eggs' from those little plastic pudding pots?

Two stood on top of each other make a sort of egg shape and there's all sorts you can do. Spray paint works best to paint them I've found and piercing holes in and then getting the kids to string ribbon through up and down diagonally keeps them busy for a while! Permanent marker is good for drawing on the paint.

Finger puppets (copydex cause my sewing sucks!)

You could have a sunflower growing competition and decorate plant pots to grow them in.

Local shows round us have kids classes, my faves are Vegetable Animal and Miniature Garden.

And one to keep for Christmas hols is making Christmas trees from large pine cones - stringing bits of ribbon and sticking beads on as baubles and stuff.

I could go on for ages!