I am ridiculously excited about ds's craft box!

[Mittensonkittens]

I have made a big box of all things craft and ds is going to love it! I think it may well end up being most used of all his gifts. I've filled it with all sorts of sequins, stickers, papers and pipe cleaners. And some bits of paper for collage. I'm very excited. I don't think I can contain my self for another five and a half weeks.

I've stuck it all in a large shoebox but don't know whether to invest in a proper craft box.

I sell wooden decorated boxes as part of my business, I have done a few craft ones in the run up to christmas, mainly treasure chest ones.

Why not buy him a plain one that he can customise himself with all his new crafty bits. Amazon and ebay both stock them for less than £20 and he would have great fun making it his own.

(it's not me that sells plain ones btw in case you think I'm advertising )

Oh that's a brilliant idea! I will have a look now.

I've also bought DS some craft bits! Can't wait for the mess for him to play with them!

failing that you can get big plastic draw container unit thingy.. that prob wasnt helpfull. but i do think it needs something other then a shoe box,

I really love the idea of buying a box for him to decorate himself.

I'm doing something like this for DD (almost 5) for her birthday, which is just after Christmas, and am ridiculously excited too. I've decided to invest in one of those metal lunch boxes (like www.paperchase.co.uk/invt/00514127/ this one) for putting them all in. I've also found a few small tins, the kind you'd use for pins or buttons or jewellery, to put different bits in. And I've hit on the rather clever idea, though I say so myself, of covering some old match boxes with pretty paper and using those for tiny bits like googly eyes.

Some other stuff I've put in that your son might like too, are scraps of felt, fabric and wool, feathers (which you can buy a packet of on Amazon), some sellotape and a Pritt stick. I'm also going to put in some things she already has like scissors.

I'm doing the same for DD2, she loves building models and all things crafty. I'm getting her her own tape dispenser, Pritt stick, glue and all the various crafty bits. I was just going to get a large plastic box for her to keep it all in.

The works sells these in all sorts of patterns, you'd probably get one to suit your ds

Sounds great mittens!

I meant to do one last year but never got around to it, but this year we discovered a load of empty boxes (those Really Useful Box things) I'd squirrelled away so I decided we can use them for crafty bits. I've got a long list of 'raw material' type things and I'm excited about finding loads of cool stuff. I'm going heavy on the textile side as DD loves making dresses for dolls - we've got a few cloth shops around so I'll be scouring them for remnants, ribbons, buttons etc.

They do like craft 'kits' so we do get them occasionally (and they are also getting more Hama beads, and possibly some Shrinkles, they are awesome!) but I think now they (particularly 6yo) are more creative themselves, a huge supply of stuff to cut and stick will serve them really well. I'm not expecting it to be a 'wow' present on the day but I know it will be well used throughout the year!

Tape dispenser an excellent idea too, thanks sweet kitty! They'd love having their own one and it'd save them bugging coming to me every five minutes asking me to find the end of the Sellotape!

Some lovely ideas. :-)

I have so far:
Lots and lots and lots of stickers
Pipe cleaners
Pom poms
Self adhesive jewels
Tissue paper
Scissors
Glue
Glitter glue
Patterned paper
Card shapes
Sequins

Some long gold tinsel like stuff
Watercolours
Felt pens
Crayons

Quite a lot actually! Might add some tape too.

I think ds might do a happy dance when he sees it. All his pocket money is going in the craft department at the moment!

I always find yogurt pots quite useful - glue, paint, beads etc can go in them. We use them for colour mixing. Might pop a few of those in too.

I need a second mortgage for the amount of Sellotape DD2s uses on her creations.

The only downside is they never want to recycle anything so their bedrooms are full of rubbish models

blackberry quality street / roses type sweet wrappers are great for little ones, also tin foil and bottle tops.

I bought DS a Mister Maker box, and he absolutely loved it. He didnt always follow the 'makes' and did his own thing but as I got the thing discounted the contents were value for money (tis a bit overpriced full price).

I also got him cellotape dispenser from Aldi, (think £2.99) its a desk top weighted type and he was over the moon with it as he does lots of crafts. One thing that went down well was a box of tin foil squares from the pound wall (he had been pinching bits off our tin foil)

Masking tape seems to go down well with junk modelling. I think the little ones find it a bit easier than sellotape to handle. For fabric you could use any baby clothes which aren't worth passing on.

For freebie ribbon - cut the hanging ribbon out of clothes (if you don't use them) and look for spare buttons in clothes. A small sample of kids wallpaper will usually add some characters - paint colour cards are nice to cut up for collage too. If you have a range they have good clearance sections at times - with random craft supplies reduced.