Share your craft ideas for young kids to win £100 worth of Elmer books and goodies!

[UrsulaMumsnet]

Explore the touch-and-feel world of Elmer and his colourful friends in this bright, fun first concepts playbook. Perfect for parents and babies to enjoy together, this book is jam-packed with stimulating colours and touch-and-feel areas to really engage little ones. Elmer's Touch and Feel World is a great introduction to learning through play and, of course, to everyone's favourite patchwork elephant.

Join in the celebrations on Saturday 28th May and attend one of over 1000 Elmer Day events happening at bookshops and libraries across the country! For more information visit the website

Elmer's Touch and Feel World publishes in May priced £8.99

Share your craft ideas for young kids to be in with a chance of winning a selection of fabulous Elmer books and goodies worth £100, including Elmer plush toy, lunchbox, tabard, tote bag, sound book and more!

Elmer the patchwork elephant is a popular picture book character created by David McKee. Andersen Press has published 23 original Elmer picture books since the first Elmer story in 1989, as part of a character brand publishing programme that now includes a range of novelty and board books. Elmer’s iconic look and playful character have made him a firm international favourite in millions of households

This discussion is sponsored by Andersen Press and will end 20 May

We covered two 2l pop bottles in tin foil, turned them upside down and stuck orange flames coming out. Stuck it to DC back, instant jet pack!

I was going to say bubble painting but mindful beat me to it.
Generally anything messy is enjoyed, so long as you prepare then the mess is contained and its all fun.
DD loves stickers just now, a tip I was told many years ago helps: put the stickers on the back of her hands/arms, much easier for little ones than trying to peel them off the sheets!

Laminate their pictures and let them use it as a placemat.

Stick people - a stick plus eyes and whatever they can find as clothes (grass, reeds, sweety wrappers etc)

Paint in the garden and give them a set of pegs and let them find things to paint with eg : a flower, a daisy, bunch of grass, a rock, pinecone etc - attach to peg, dip in paint and print.

Cardboard box - let them make it whatever they want - a TV, a car, a boat, aeroplane. My 5 year old absolutely LOVES doing this and it takes her ages

Toy vehicles through paint and over large piece of paper . Can make rainbows and swirls or just draw with wild abandon.

We like to make things out of old cardboard boxes and then painting them. It will usually keep them quiet for a while.

Do crafts outside if the weather is nice, easier to clean up!

Fimo is a fun alternative to playdoh because they can keep their creations when they are finished

If ever i get a lot of bubble wrap i join it up and lay it along the hallway ,my 2 little monkeys love crawling over it and making it go off pop ,great fun !!

I have made an outside blackboard which my daughter loves drawing on. She likes drawing on the fence too!

Having an endless supply of odd socks in my house, we make things with them:

• phone covers with toddler socks- add felt shapes, gems, etc.
• hand puppets- add googly eyes, wool hair, cardboard teeth
• animals and monsters- fill with uncooked rice and decorating.
• hats, tube tops or skirts for barbies or slightly bigger dolls- old baby socks, cut the toes off, turn up and decorate
• fairy wings or mini fishing nets- use trouser socks (same material as thin tights) and stretch over pipe cleaners bent into the right shape.

Then you sent the remnants off for recycling!

So simple but my 2 year old loves painting old tissue boxes and kitchen roll tubes. I'm not particularly crafty myself so I love nice easy ideas like this and just let her be creative!

We have just used some off cuts of wallpaper backing paper to do symmetrical butterfly painting. We then used them to make a mobile.

1. Painting is always a hit (though rather messy - with brushes, object stamping, finger painting, etc.
2. Creating character figures and props with play-doh / plastercine, set against a background, and re-enacting stories
3. And since the sunshine has finally returned, design egg-shaped characters, with cress seeds planted in soaked cotton wool at the top (the character's head) --> then watch as the hair grows over the coming days.

:)

Make your own playdough and flavour it with peppermint, strawberry of whatever you prefer. Our favourite is using coloured sticks to make a hedgehog. Or you can put it in the oven and make your own beads, buttons, the list is endless.

Make crowns out of paper plates,just cut into plate push the pieces up to form crown,paint,decorate etc.
Pasta jewellery again can be painted,pop on some wool and tie up.
Vegetable printing is always a winner with us.

pom pom animals is good one, pom poms ,googly eyes, pipe cleaner legs,and wool for hair, or collecting rocks, then painting them for the garden, great fun x

For the toddler she enjoys sticking random coloured bits of paper onto other bits of paper to make a collage. Or we do some junk modelling with cardboard boxes and copious amounts of tape - then decorating the results.

Another vote for outside painting. This always works although mine do end up painting each other pretty quickly. Squirt of different poster paints and a huge piece of cardboard. Easy although bathing required after!

I gave my son a spare note book and encourage him to cut objects out of old magazine and put it in alphabetically order. He really enjoys this game

Really simple but using old birthday or Christmas cards (or even postcards if anyone still sends them to you ).

Cut into interesting shapes like a jigsaw (older kids can help) or more simply for younger ones (diagonal/or across on half).

Then put into a bag/turn upside down and they can match up/memory game depending on age. I'd there's a couple of kids turn into a race by mixing pieces in a pile at end of room so they run and pick up a piece and cons back to add to picture. They really enjoy it!

Draw a simple shape on a piece of A4 paper eg flower or butterfly or Elmer! Put this into poly pocket. Using the outline as a guide paint it liberally with PVA glue (on the outside of poly pocket) then cover with squares of tissue paper making sure that there are no gaps! Paint PVA over top again and leave to dry completely. When dry, the tissue paper will peel off the poly pocketi cleanly! Attach a ribbon to the tissue picture and hang in the light!

We made Elmer out of the top half of a 4pt milk carton, covering it with small squares of coloured tissue paper. The handle becomes the trunk.

Our most recent crafting session was to turn a cardboard box into a rainbow rocket. Using paints, glitter, stickers, chopped up paper, fabric and anything else that took the toddlers fancy.

The rule in our house is that if to you don't need a change of clothes after you've finished, you weren't doing it properly!

We do all sorts of crafts but the kids really love an Argos catalogue for cutting and sticking.

We like playing with chalk outside, we have some big pavement chalk and go and draw all over the driveway, it helps 3yo dd understand letters when we do them big, we can create underwater scenes, rainbows, trees, anything. The bonus is when it rains we can then start again once it's dried up and there's no real mess either.

We have craft boxes (one toddler friendly, one not) which my eldest loves and will go off and make things. We also tape plastic sheets from the pound shop to the floor, use old lining paper left from decorating and do finger painting which often turns into full body painting
Using lining paper instead of sheets or buying rolls of drawing paper was s great discovery, so much better for painting on