What basic arts and craft supplies do I need for dd's use at home?

[Earlybird]

I'm planning to make a trip to a crafts store later this week to stock/re-stock our 'at home' basic art supplies so that dd can 'get creative' when we're obliged to be inside due to weather.

Please help me make a list of everything a well-equipped children's home 'art box' should contain. Here are my (woefully inadequate) initial thoughts:

Water colour paints
Paint brushes - varying sizes
coloured paper
heavy card
hole punch
glue stick
scissors
pipe cleaners

Please can you add to my list? Thank you.

how old are your dc?what do they like doing??

scrap fabric
pva glue
pastels or chalks

can i ask why water colors ?

PVA glue - a big bottle - very useful for making papier mache & varnishing finished pieces, as it dries clear

lots of coloured crayons, felt tips

glitter

pack of plain, cheap printer paper - cheaper than buying a sketch pad

sticky backed coloured paper shapes

Also - a storage system she can use herself.

I have all our arts & crafts stuff in 15 stackable transparent Ikea boxes - easy to get out and put away.

Also have a small Ikea red plastic table and chair, and a couple of easels.

I wouldn't bother going to a craft shop - get PVA, printer paper, glitter and maybe sticky shapes as suggested

then keep a scrap box - cardboard boxes, scrap paper, magazines, newspaper, corks, matchboxes, fabric / ribbon scraps, tin foil (the stuff off easter eggs is especially good), yoghurt pots, feathers, polystyrene packing chips, anything

DD is 6, and appears to have a genuine creative streak. No idea where she got it from, and am vaguely hoping I will be nurturing her ability by providing her with basic supplies.

Is there something better/different than water colour paints that she should have at home? I really am creatively challenged, so appreciate even the most basic advice.

ready mixed poster paints are good

NB if you have a branch of The Works near you they often have crafty things very cheap

Maybe some chalk and lots of stickers.
Also used toilet roll tubes and some empty cereal boxes - can make loads with these!

Cut out pictures from catalogues (also childrens scissors) and use old christmas and birthday cards too.

prit stick and glue as mentioned.

if they are doing a really big picture, you can buy rolls of paper and use selotape to stick it to the floor while they draw (works best on wooden or tiled flors - not carpets!) We do this quite a lot and dd likes to draw round us or we draw round her and she 'fills' it in! Then when she's in bed, we just unstick it!

We also have a little table and chairs from ikea, but found that floor is best as most of it ends up there anyway!

Hope this helps.

staplers can be fun for making little envelopes etc.

and sellotape v useful for junk modelling

Hi there, if you are in the UK I wouldn't bother with a craft shop either. Bigger branches of Wilkos do good craft stuff (feathers, foam shapes, stick on eyes).

Though saying that, mine play the most with their own stapler and they also have their own sellotape dispenser (a heavy one like you'd have in an office)...that is the best thing I've ever bought I reckon.

Moved from the UK 6 months ago, so can only drool over the Baker Ross catalogue now.

I was imagining needing to get in industrial quantities of paper plates, as it seemed everything dd made at school last year began as a paper plate......crepe paper streamers too...

she could make lovely Easter bonnets out of paper doilies and crepe paper (we did something like this in 1963 when I was about 5 - they look lovely in the old school photo)

Pva glue get some plastic glue "paddles" - I use yoghurt pots to decant small amounts
A lidded water pot
Brushes with sponge ends (soak up paint so less likely to spray and drip)
Set of shaped stamps and sponges to print with
Self adhesive coloured shapes and foam shapes
Construction paper, some corrugated so it folds easily
Pompoms, 3d shapes, beads, shiny stars etc
Long sleeved aprons
Large rolls of paper (Ikea or galt)

The Works are good and cheap but they went into receivership recently.

These are great ideas.

Was also thinking of some coloured tape, some of those gold paper fasteners (not sure how to describe them), and some cellophane.

Other suggestions?

wool and coloured pipe cleaners for making little mobiles and pipe cleaner people. I let ds have bits of ribbon and scraps of leftover fabric too. Tinfoil is good too.
paperplates are great for painting and sticking things to, we made some nice Xmas decs out of them.
tissue paper is good too, shells, pine cones etc. As your dd is 6 perhaps beads and buttons might be good.
woolworths have a great and cheap arty range called WorthIt.

Doilies are lovely for children to draw on. Collect egg boxes to paint.

bumping for night crowd.....

floristry ribbon is great, easy to tear and curl, millions of uses. tesco have tons of craft stuff in atm.

If you're going to Ikea, get a few of their plain see through shower curtains. They're 89p each and make fantastic splash mats!

Do NOT get glitter!!

If you have to have it, buy glitter glue instead.

The Ikea paints are good, apart from the fact that the red is not red but pink - they're cheap (but small pots) and make lovely colours mixed. Ikea also do paper rolls.

Drinking straws - for blowing through to spread paint dollops or for making patterns with paint.

double sided tape is constantly used

My ds had an art trunk from WH smiths for Xmas-totally fantastic filled with loads of inyeresting bits and pieces, kind of like a big tool box. Brilliant as he just hauls it out and it's all in there so I don't have to hunt for anything. He loves all the drawers.

Dont know if you have a shop called 'The Works' near you. Its a cheap bookshop and theres usually one in most towns. Its gone into administration and everythin in the shops are on sale, paints, brushes, glue, stickers crafty items. All the craft stuff is dirt cheap.

EB had no idea it was you! and thought, as usual with your threads, ooh lovely question, I'll see what everyone's said.

Second the double-sided tape, endlessly used.

For the big roll of paper, get wallpaper lining paper - comes in varying weights - we use the middling kind for great mural type paintings.

Lots of felt tips in different thicknesses (if you have a child who knows to use them only on paper, which you have, I think!) - nothing so glorious as a set of 50 or even 100 finely varied shades - you can get nearly as much delight out of arranging them as you can using them.

Origami paper - can use for lots beyond just origami (does she do that? - that's an idea in itself) - usually the most gorgeous rich subtle colours.

And for quieter afternoons, my very current discovery for dd - needlepoint.