Best arts and crafts bits your kids have actually used

[GoldStarAngel]

DS2, who will be 6, wants a box of arts and crafts stuff for christmas. I am going to buy a nice christmassy box or crate and just wondered what your best arts and crafts bits and bobs have been. We have loads around the house for him and his siblings but he wants a box of stuff just for him. I was thinking googly eyes and pom poms etc but wondered what bits you have that actually get used. I will include things like a sellotape dispenser and blu tac which tbh is what he really loves.

I avoided googly eyes etc as they're just more crap...quality stuff but that's suitable for a 6 year old includes the following

Squares of coloured felt - good for making all kinds of things including finger puppets and hanging ornaments

Lots of coloured paper

Fimo - you need to supervise heavily as it's not cheap but it gives great results.

Beads in all shapes and sizes....

Strings

Craft glue

Glitter

Ink pads and good stamps...not the crappy kind but the good sort that last.

The best thing you can do is teach him how to make things with Papier Mache.

Oh and decorative hole punches and a staple gun, plus split pins for making moving parts on things.

Mine are old now but Hama beads were great and take a long time to do with concentration (= quiet time yay).

My grandchildren like tissue paper, foam stickers, ordinary stickers, stampers. We bought children's scissors. The six year old has just got into Sharpies, scented felts and different coloured pens, gel pens and proper sketching pencils etc. She watches tutorials on learning to draw on YouTube. We don't allow glitter, only glitter glue. Look up some projects you think he might like on YouTube.

Lots of lollypop sticks.
A hot glue gun (cool version)
Lots of glue sticks for the above.
A large cutting mat for them to do the hot glueing on not your table!
Glitter
String
Nails
Hammer
Drill
Screws

A bag of plaster of Paris and a set of dinosaur moulds from the Natural History Museum.

Plus paints and brushes to paint them.

I still have some of them, nearly 30 years later!

Tissue paper and origami paper. You can make tissue paper flowers and butterflies, and use the origami paper for other things as well as origami.

A big vinyl tablecloth to cover the table is useful.

A basic watercolour set and brushes. There are some good books for very simple painting.

I actually gave my granddaughters my first little die cutting machine and some simple shapes in cutting dies. They enjoyed using it.

Stamps and some decent washable ink stamping pads.

An assortment of cardstock. Maybe some pre folded cards and envelopes so she can make cards for friends and family.

Pipe cleaners are useful to wrap around things and make stems.

Glitter glue in different colours
Good glue that actually sticks things together

Glitter glue, cocktail sticks, string, bits of ribbon, masking tape. Sellotape and blu tack, as you've said are the most popular here too.

Squares of felt and some basic sewing stuff has gone down well with my two.

Polymer clay is good - there are cheaper unbranded sets that work just as well as fimo.

My dc have enjoyed scrapbooks and card making with some decent quality patterned card (you can get packs at hobbycraft) and punches. There are some good stamps available, but my dc much prefer the ones aimed at adults.

Definitely recommend air dry clay, link below.. it's really light, different colours, kids can make anything out of them and you just leave it to dry. It's not heavy like clay, feels abit foamy. We have gotten through boxes of the stuff and my son has made so many things. He even went to an after school club that solely used air dry clay. He loves it that much and I don't think it's expensive for what it is (make sure you put the lids back on firmly otherwise it will dry out) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colors-Modeling-Project-No-Sticky-Non-Toxic/dp/B07G2WLWDF/ref=mpssa113?crid=28JA3RZGB4FUI&dchild=1&keywords=air+dry+clay&qid=1631014829&sprefix=air+dry&sr=8-3

Glue gun and packs of lolly sticks. You can get both glue sticks for the glue gun and lolly sticks in poundland.

3D printer pens are fun too.

Obv both of these not suitable for little ones!

I know they're the work of the plastic devil but mine went though a long spell of making things from hama beads. I have a load of coasters as a result!

Mine love:

• zip up case with several brushes in
• watercolour pads of paper, sugar paper and coloured card
• watercolour colouring pads (tiger)
• refillable watercolour brush (eg kitpas)
• pencils that can be watercolour too (we have some lovely proper ones and some stabilo woody 3-in-1 which are great and work on glass, too)
• stabilo cappi felt tips
• tissue, felt, pipe cleaners etc
• they also love felt balls and those foil shapes that you can stick on with glue, but they’re more annoying to tidy up..

They have a paint caddy with pain sticks, poster paint, rollers, brushes from a couple of years ago and more recently each got a proper carry art case/easel all in one which has the nice paper, brushes etc inside and a djeco gouache paint set as well as charcoal pencils and paper. They love it

Set of paints and paintbrushes
A couple of blank canvases
A good quality sketch book. We just bought some nice hard backed ones with decent quality paper from tiger (or flying tiger I think it’s called).
A set of pencils… colours and graphite with a good sharpener and rubber
Polymer clay and a little tool kit
Some card, white and coloured
Glitter, good glue, bits like wooden spoons and lolly sticks, tissue paper, some string, thickish string like a white string ball… can do loads with it like the art where you pull the paint covered string out of folded paper, pasta jewellery (reminds me of motherland 🤣), pin board art (if you make him a little pin board), google eyes, feathers etc.

Always coloured furry pipecleaners. They're brilliant for loads of things (threading beads & pasta, curling around a pencil to make springy legs or antennae for creatures, or stems for tissue paper flowers).
More importantly they're DRY and GLUE FREE!

Fimo. Though knock off Ebay bought stuff is just as good. DD7 is mad for the stuff and it's so versatile.

Oh and tie dye, the huge set from The Works is great, and surprisingly unmessy if you provide a washing up bowl or similar for all dying to take place in.

Paint sticks- they're like pritt sticks but paint. We've had hours of fun with them. Baker Ross do some nice paint pens, in fact go to Baker Ross, they have loads of stuff and there's usually an offer code about.

Old copies of National Geographic from charity shops. My grandchildren spend hours cutting out the pictures and glueing them onto cards, boxes, varnishing them, best value ever and endless topics of conversation and wonder.

I bought dd1 a craft tower when she was 7; it had four pullout drawers and I’m then I filled it with

Top: felt tips, crayons, paint pens, pencils, pencil crayons, stamps

2nd: washi tape, magnetic tape, stickers of all types, labels, pritt sticks, air dry clay, pva glue, craft scissors, glitter glue, foam stickers

3rd: polystyrene balls, Pom poms, lollipop sticks, pipe cleaners, foil shapes, felt, old toilet roll tubes, foam sheets, string, ribbon, tissue paper

4th: coloured and white card, printer paper, coloured paper, pre folded cards and envelopes, sugar paper, cut outs of people/animals made of card and some canvas’s

It went down really well!

In fact I might make dd2 one for Christmas!

Mine love lollipop sticks with hot glue, and felt. And big cardboard boxes - in fact, DD (who's 11) has asked for loads of cardboard boxes for Christmas, to build Hogwarts with. She wants four dormitories, a common room, and corridors. I'm actually quite excited about it

Bless your wee DS, wanting his own set. My DS asked for his very own set of colouring stuff in a case last year when he was 8, because he hates when colours get messy. He keeps them all in the box in the original order, and only takes one out at a time. We have to ask permission to borrow them, and again, it's one in (and in the right place), one out. He might keep his clothes all over the floor and his shoes in the garden, but it gives me such warm fuzzies to know that there's tidiness in him somewhere

I've seen craft subscription boxes aimed at children.

Black paper for firework pictures and the like.🤷

Cardstock inj nice colours
Glue gun (cool one as said above)
Bits to stick on with glue (googly eyes would be great, like you said)
Lolly sticks
Glitter pens
Ours also love insulation tape (they make dragons out of it)