Tell Flora about keeping your LOs entertained during half term with arts & crafts - £200 JL prize draw NOW CLOSED

[KatieBMumsnet]

The folks at Flora want to know if Mumsnetters use arts and craft activities to keep their LOs entertained during school hols like half term.

Here's what Flora have to say, "Arts and crafts are a great way to keep the kids entertained during half term, but what do you do with the mini masterpieces your LOs have spent so long creating? Instead of covering the fridge, Flora are turning scribbly shapes into scrummy Sandwich Cutters. We'd love to hear about your favourite piece of artwork from your LO and how you use arts and crafts to keep your kids entertained."

With half term approaching, is arts and crafts something you and your DCs will be doing? If so, what art and craft activities do your DCs enjoy the most? Do they love finger painting? Or perhaps they prefer getting creative with beads?

If you could choose one piece of your DCs' art to hang on your fridge hall of fame, what would it be?

If you do have a fave piece of artwork from your LO, why not enter it into Flora’s Facebook competition for a chance to win a sandwich cutter in the shape of your DC's best piece of art!

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will receive a £200 John Lewis voucher.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

[ScienceRocks]

Is it wrong to love Hama beads when you're a grown up?

[ShakeAndVac]

I've got two young boys and they love anything crafty. I've got an idea to do autumn craft themed things with them in the half term holiday, such as making autumn collages with leaves and twigs etc.
Pine cone hunting is also a great thing to do too!

[rootypig]

We're lucky enough to live in perma-warm weather. Ergo - everything messy: outside. DD is in finger and foot painting territory at the moment, and not a lot more, it's basically messy play - but I'm really looking forward to revisiting childhood favourites - potato stamps, those pictures where you paint then black crayon all over and scratch out a silhouette . Mum used to make bread dough and then we would make all our own shapes and eat our rolls for lunch. Once or twice a holiday there would be an epic project, like tie dying in the bath, then we'd all collapse in exhaustion. Or puff painting t shirts, soooo 90s I really like making things that I could then use over and over, and be reminded of the happy time making it. And I definitely love a holiday theme - we used to make little Christmas keyrings out of Fimo for family, which we loved, we crafted baskets with ribbons for Christmas then filled them with homemade biscuits, cut out Halloween decorations for the windows....

Squee I am so excited about the future with DD!

[JedwardScissorhands]

I get lots of ideas from Pinterest. Agree half term will be all pumpkin carving and firework crafts

[Cathpot]

Two girls 8 and 6 we are still a very crafty house. Big cupboard full of bits, they can just about help themselves now. Never throw out shoeboxes, don't tend to buy kits but the odd pack of googley eyes goes a long way. Save old wrapping paper etc and invest in decent size bottle of pva. Paint and chalks outside if possible. Favourite thing recently was a swivel head scarecrow made from 2 empty milk bottles.

[poachedeggs]

I do art and craft because I feel I ought to. I hate it.

I have sequins, feathers, myriad pipe cleaners, fluffy bobbly things, and I hate it all.

In summer they are given chalk to draw on the path. Once it's covered they get water and paintbrushes to paint over it.

We do like more structured things, like kits which DS can now manage (he's 6), but DD is just 3 and incapable of doing much more than drawing over everything with crayons. She does make pictures but her attention span is zero.

[BadMissM]

Always have a big craft box, with lots of things inside it in smaller boxes (Flora tubs are ideal!). Buttons, pipecleaners, bits of ribbon, bits of material, glue, glitter, sand. Collect natural materials like pebbles and shells and small sticks when you are out and about to make pictures. get the DCs to help you, then the day out lengthens into two days activities when you make the picture of the day out. Pick up leaflets, too. Paints, chalks, crayons, pastels, can be used together. Collect any cooured paper you find, wrapping paper, ribbons, cards. At a certain age, begin with basic sewing too.... That way they are never bored, and you have constantly evolving resources. Plus when school orderes them to do something in one evening...you are never caught out!!!

[sealight123]

With us, I am afraid, it being half term is no different as me and my partner work full time and my little girl Livvy, goes to nursery and her nana's in the week but, our weekends and evenings are all about Arts and crafts, baking, family films on the sofa and running round the house pretending we are trains and rhinos (don't ask :P)

We already have a pretty nice stocked craft box, full of glitter and paper and lots and lots of paints. Her favourite is just simply getting out a huge piece of paper and doing messy paint footprints, handprints, finger paints and sponge shapes :)

Soon we'll move up to pompoms and googley eyes, as they were my favourite as a child :D

[sealight123]

Pumpkin carving is also amazing...anything for halloween is great...especially making the decorations :P

[RedBushedT]

We collect twigs and branches and wrap them up with string to make insect houses. That way, the children get to make something and it gets used in the garden. We have also made bird feeders out of pinecones, lard + birdseed. These are the types of arts and crafts I love!

[Goldenhandshake]

DD is almost 5 and adores arts and craft, we ahve a 'craft box' of patterned and coloured card, sugar paper, tissue papaer, glue, glitter, sequins, buttons etc.

She loves anything involving nature to bring itno her craft work, so she will collect any interesting pebbles or leaves or sticks, and then 'decorate them', we ahve a collection og brightly painted or glittered stones, some with buttons or google eyes stiuck on them, painted leaves and glittered dried flowers.

My favourite piece is a huge leaf DD found, she covered it in silver glitter glue and then we laminated it once dry, it looks so beautiful and we currently have it on the fridge but I am contemplating actually framing it against white card in a silver frame and hanging in the hallway, it's that pretty!

[Clawdy]

It's worth trying those squidgy bits of coloured polystyrene that need dampening to stick to paper. Less messy than glue,and makes a change. Most craft shops sell them.

[lagoonhaze]

I hate doing arts and crafts....faff to set up and pain to pack away. However the DCs love it! Best buy has to be paint pens by ELC. relatively mess free, fun but easy to pack away.

I need to get a big dollop of patience as I hate arts and crafts but think that seems from my mother never wanting to sit down with us. Something I don't want my DCs to look back on and think the same of me :-(

[DoctorGilbertson]

We'd love to hear about your favourite piece of artwork from your LO

I think for me the fab bit about looking at their artwork is realising what they can do now which previously they couldn't

and how you use arts and crafts to keep your kids entertained.

glitter glue. They are entertained for hours by the stuff. I think that it is the gently squeezing it all out that they like rather than the actual art. Also, did someone say kits? They are quite nice too but a bit expensive

With half term approaching, is arts and crafts something you and your DCs will be doing?

maybe

If so, what art and craft activities do your DCs enjoy the most?

see above. Creating mess is always a winner

Do they love finger painting?

not really, although they do paint with my mum

Or perhaps they prefer getting creative with beads?

again not really. Umm, I'm not doing very well here. Umm, they quite like building models with play dough

If you could choose one piece of your DCs' art to hang on your fridge hall of fame, what would it be?

oh it is all wonderful, but does usually go straight into the recycling

[GetKnitted]

we'll definitely be doing arts and crafts in the holidays, finger and potato printing for both of them, and maybe trying to teach my oldest ds to knit again (he is interested, not forcing him) :)

[DifferentNow]

My DC love Play-Doh and will happily play with it together for hours. They also regularly raid the paper recycling bin and make stuff using sticky tape, scissors and colouring pens. My favourite art work is when they draw pictures of our family.

[Aethelfleda]

We love Arts and Crafts, our craft basket turned into a drawer which turned into two huge boxes.... Painting, sculpture, craft beads, glueing, moulding.... They never get bored of it (except for the trampoline which they love when the weather's good!)

We often craft more on rainy days, but it's very mood dependant, and now my littlest is starting to join in too. I need an art gallery!

[ibbydibby]

Every so often I used to set them to work on a project, like draw a scene from your favourite summer holiday / draw and colour Christmas scene etc (depending on time of year obviously). One day I bought a cheap laminator, and we started laminating the "best" artwork. We now have a lovely set of table mats! Great fun especially at Christmas to look at. Boys are now 16 and 12 and not interested in arty things any more, so is lovely to have artworks (works of art?) to look back on..

[AndHarry]

DS is 3 and loves making things with pipe cleaners. It started out with making a tiny scarecrow and now we have a lion-scarer for the front garden, multiple dinosaur-scarers for his bedroom, a baby sister-scarer for his favourite toys... If I could keep one forever (and I probably will) it would be the baby sister-scarer because it's just so funny to watch him brandishing it at baby DD and see her puzzled expression before she tries to eat it :o

Over half term we'll be doing lots of autumn crafts: autumn montages with fallen leaves and conkers, leaf painting, conker varnishing and covering dried leaves with glitter. Collecting the leaves and conkers is the best bit!

[Spirael]

DD does tons of art and craft at nursery, we're presented with piles of pictures every week that she's been doing! Most of them go in the recycling bin...

At home we have a drawer full of crafty bits and we often get them out of a weekend afternoon and create something together. One thing DD and I are currently working on together is sewing and sticking some simple felt animals with a hanging loop that we can then give as presents to close family members to hang on their Christmas trees.

[Mamafratelli]

We'd love to hear about your favourite piece of artwork from your LO

My dd drew herself and her little brother holding hands. She then gave it to her daddy and asked him to take it to work so that he could still see them. That made me smile.

and how you use arts and crafts to keep your kids entertained.

I have a cupboard in the kitchen full of arts and craft material and bits of fabric etc. whenever the kiss are a bit antsy I sit them at the kitchen table and let them go wild.

With half term approaching, is arts and crafts something you and your DCs will be doing?

Yes. We will be using autumn leaves to make some pictures and also starting to make the grandparents christmas presents. (Personalised hand painted baubles and other crafty bits we haven't decided on yet)

If so, what art and craft activities do your DCs enjoy the most?

Anything that involved cutting and gluing but also more intricate crafts like beads and pottery

If you could choose one piece of your DCs' art to hang on your fridge hall of fame, what would it be?

We already have lots of art on our fridge but the picture where we painted dogs using the kids footprints is my favourite.

[roguepixie]

When DS was a little younger than he is now we would go to our local park and gather lots of large leaves that had fallen off the trees. We would bring them home and make collages, large leaf necklaces, shoes (!!), paint them and all sorts with them. Lots and lots of fun.

DS always enjoyed the more practical arts and crafts - the 3D stuff, more than the 2D activities.

I still have my DS's treasured art work - a tribal mask made out of a paper plate with lots and lots of stuff attached - hung up on the fridge.

[ScariestFairyByFar]

My dd is 2 and loves a bit of sticking and painting. She's also a big play doh fab.

[rupert23]

my son age 6 likes to make models out of the stuff in the recycling bin i usually have to help him at some point but he spends ages creating things and finds it great fun.

[Kveta]

I spend a lot of time on pinterest during night feeds, which gives me loads of ideas for arty and crafty stuff to do with two small children. I find that they both prefer more open ended activities - so I leave out some pens and paper, or some stickers and toilet roll inner tubes or the like. They are only 1 and 4 though, so I'm hoping they will be more excited by more focused activities as they get older!