Our bright home crafting ideas come to life when the weather is bad. Using items that can mostly already be found at home, these activities are fun and easy. They don’t cost much and can keep children entertained for hours.
Activities with your child can help the bonding experience and create lifelong memories. Arts and crafts can help improve coordination, which benefits a child’s development. We’ve put together some of our favourite cool winter crafts (excuse the pun)!
Story crafting
● Create your own storybook – use a notebook to write a story with the people in your family as the characters. Will you be solving a mystery together, or go on a trip to the zoo to see the lions? The possibilities are endless. Where will your imagination take you?
Adventure crafting
● Indoor memory game treasure hunt – use pebbles, shells, buttons, or thimbles and decorate to make them look like people in your family. Use glitter glue, pieces of felt and coloured paper to make trousers or skirts. You could even colour the items in and draw on the faces using felt-tip pens. Hide around the house for the children to find. A great activity for a rainy day.
Arty crafting
● Create a Diorama – taking inspiration from your child’s favourite sea creatures, using an old cereal box, a few coloured pens or child-safe paints, you can create your own 3D underwater scene in a box. Cut off the front facing side of the box to make the base for your scene. Paint the inside walls of the box blue. Draw, paint and colour in seaweed shapes and animals, cut these out and hang from the top of the box with string – or stick them to the sides. Add pebbles or shells collected from seaside walks to bring your underwater ocean scene to life.
Recycled crafting
● DIY windchime – create a windchime for your garden or balcony using driftwood or a stick, old keys and colourful paints. It’s fun to bring materials you might have thrown away, or items you find in your own garden and turn them into something usable.
Paint the 5 keys and the wood in co-ordinating colourful sections and allow them to dry. Tie a piece of string to either end of the stick so you have a way to hang it. Attach string to each of the keys and hang them from the stick, making sure they are close enough together – you want them to chime in the wind. You don’t have to use keys – anything that will make a noise when the wind blows through it will work.
Nostalgia crafting for older children
● Create a family photo album – with photo albums a thing of the past, most children are unfamiliar with the concept of a photo book or scrapbook. Children of all ages, including teenagers, love to look at photos of their friends. Creating a book of memories is a great way to build relationships and family bonds. Print out digital photos, cut out and stick them into a book to build your own, or design your photobook online.
● Create a scrapbook – collect photos and tickets from activities you have enjoyed together and build a home scrapbook for all the family. You could decorate and theme each page – a summer holiday, Christmas, birthdays, or personal achievements. You might even include a page for the family pet.
Arts and crafts websites with affordable kits and tools for every budget:
● The Art and Craft Factory has a great selection of cheap and cheerful supplies.
● Find low-price crafts at Every Crafts A Pound.
● Stock up on supplies for your craft box at Little Crafty Bugs.
● Discover the range of low-cost crafting essentials at Craft Clearance.
If you liked these winter crafts for kids, we also have Christmas themed craft ideas too!
Providing a safe home for a foster child can change their life forever. If you’re considering welcoming a child in need into your family, please get in touch with the Compass Fostering team to learn about the process and the support we offer our carers.
