DIY Crafts for Kids

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As a parent in the super information age of technology, how do you raise a well balanced kid? With all of the technology vying for your child’s time. Like YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, internet, gaming and so much more. Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against technology like the ones I listed. In fact I use some of them myself. Its just too much of a good thing turns in to a bad thing. I am using some DIY crafts for kids to try and balance out my kids time.

Solutions

It is a tricky situation to navigate. You don’t want to drag them away from the TV kicking and screaming. We want to entice them away with something that the young ones would enjoy. We will use my youngest for this post. He loves YouTube. He actually likes watching kids as they play. I don’t know about you but I don’t even pretend to understand that. Yes I am partly or dare I say completely to blame for allowing this fascination to even start. So it is now up to me to devise a way to lure him away in to more balanced and active extra curricular activities.

Active in Sports

One way is we encourage him to play sports. I am not one of these parents that like forcing their child to play. I actually suggest the sport and ask him if he is interested. This has brought him to the soccer field, The football field and the baseball field. Along with practices, games and home practice this keeps him active. Which makes us happy.  There are arts and crafts for kids to help.

DIY crafts for kids

My daughter is quite the artist. Although I am biased in that opinion. You can check out some of her work in these other posts here https://jfamilycrafters.com/crying-on-the-inside . My son is fascinated with her artwork and loves to give it a try right along side of her. Which made me come up with a few ideas for him to work on and even a way to display. This makes this DIY crafts for kid right up his alley to get him away from technology. Even if it is just for a little time. You know the saying baby steps? Well any time he is involved in non technology related activities is good time. We’ll work at it until he balances out his activity.

Items needed for this craft

• Acrylic paint
• Stretched canvas
• Paint Brushes
• Embroidery hoop
• blue painters tape

Painting

There is a great post about top art supplies for kids by the diynuts.  Check it out.

We decided to give painting a try with acrylic paints. Why acrylic paints you might ask? My answer is the mess and drying time. My daughter warned me that oil paints take longer to dry. Also the cleanup takes a lot longer and is quite a bit messier that the acrylics. That’s enough convincing for me. When you have less waiting and less mess I’m all in.

First you need to get some acrylic paint brushes. You can read here about which brushes work. https://www.art-is-fun.com/paintbrushes-for-acrylics/. Also you need to purchase acrylic paints.  Pick some up at most any craft or paint store. I’ve even bought some at Walmart. They are really inexpensive also, so you can pick up several colors with out breaking the bank. The last items needed to get started is a stretched canvas and some blue painters tape. There is one more item I used. I will reveal it towards the end. The last item isn’t required to be used but I used it because I thought it added a lot to the final piece and your kids will love it.

DIY abstract craft

This project my son worked Is sort of a cross between abstract and different geometrical shapes. This is where the blue painters tape comes in handy. Unless your young child is a prodigy, the tape is used to mask off the canvas in various sizes of various shapes. Let your child’s imagination run wild with the tape effect. It is their art project after all. Make sure you offer guidance in helping to make sure the tape is down all the way. The lines need to be crisp and clean when the tape is removed.

After the canvas is all taped off. Allow your child to go to town painting the various shapes. Painting them different colors or similar ones. It doesn’t matter. Let their inner artistic self soar and create. Remember that acrylics dry with in an hour and they tend to dry darker.

After letting the canvas dry well carefully remove the tape starting with the top layer until the bottom. After removing the tape make sure you spray a clear lacquer to protect your kids project You now can see the straight crisp lines that define the piece. It is definitely a fridge worthy art project. In fact I believe it is more than that. I wanted to showcase the piece in a way that would boost my sons self esteem and allow it to be seen by many. I used an embroidery hoop to act as a frame.

Framing your child’s DIY craft

When picking out your hoop make sure you get a size suitable to your canvas. You can even paint your hoop to contrast or match your child’s artwork. I chose black as it contrasted with the brighter colors of the painting. Next you need to either cut the canvas from the back to release it from its frame or remove the staples. After that you can insert the canvas in to the hoop. Make sure it is centered and start to tighten the outer hoop. Make sure the canvas is pulled tight and finish tightening it.

You now have a finished painting to admire for years. Your child will be happy and you will be happy. DIY crafts for kids could give us a famous artist. Try this out and let us know how it went. We would love to see a pic.