Crafting with daughter - help!

[Mum45678]

My almost 8yo DD loves making creations but it seems to cause no end of problems in our house. She will often rifle through the recycle / rubbish bins for things, or any draws she can open looking for stuff, often creating a mess along the way and taking things I need. She then wastes a ton of sticky tape or glue and usually abandons them within a day or so. Her 5yo sister will also want to create exactly the same thing which often results in a fight and arguing.

I don't have a problem with her being creative but I'm sick of her making a mess, taking things without asking and also being a bit wasteful. She loses interest if I try to do most structured activities (we had one of those craft box things but I stopped it after they just piled up unused).

At the end of my tether because I'm supposed to be WFH and I'm on my own with the two of them so I can't spend all day doing craft. Struggling to even get any schoolwork done as it is.

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions?

Yes, stop organising her crafting. She wants to use her imagination rather than create whatever toucan box tell her to. Give her a glue or sellotape "allowance" each day and a box full of cardboard and boxes. And she tidies up at the end

I like that allowance idea. Also have a separate craft box just filled with stuff that would have gone in the bin like yogurt tubs etc. If she raids the bin there must be consequences such as halting her cello tape allowance for the day. Follow through, every time.

when I was growing up, we had a big cardboard box in the garage full of junk modelling stuff.
Empty clean containers that we were allowed to build with - cereal boxes, nice shaped boxes eg tobelerone, small square boxes eg T bags and so on. A few loo rolls and the inside of kitchen rolls.

My kids had a set of plastic drawers.
top one had a pack of multi coloured tissue paper
next one had pens/scissors etc
next one had fun scrap bits - coloured foil from easter eggs, bits of ribbon, some buttons
last one had some shop bought stuff eg packets of coloured feathers

There was always a pritt stick (asda cheap one) a roll of cheap tape on a dispenser, and a bottle of PVA glue with a nozzle.

These drawers/boxes were free for us to take what we wanted. Anything else we had to ask.

I also had a plastic tablecloth. Clear plastic from The Range. They had to use this on the table before getting craft out. They had to celar up before dinner.

And my mum had a great trick. When the amount of junk/cardboard etc got too much, my mum would suggest a bonfire, and we could keep what we wanted and burn what we wanted. 99% got burnt!