Do your kids love messy crafts? Mine do! And Summer is a great time to get outside and get messy without worrying about cleaning up. So I decided to round up our favourite messy crafts…
12 Messy crafts for kids:
1. DIY chalk paint from corn flour
My friend (AKA SuperMum) recommended this recipe from Apartment Therapy for chalk paint to me and Chops and I had a ball painting our back yard fence. I could not convince Pickle to try it, but you can’t please everyone, can you?
2. Window painting with squeegees
I love this idea from Just Mommies. It looks SO much fun!
3. Mirror painting
This looks so pretty and In The Playroom‘s boys really enjoyed it.
4. Frozen paint ice cubes
What a COOL idea from Hands On As We Grow for a hot Summer day.
5. Squirt gun painting
Fancy some modern artwork? Get your kids outside with paint-filled pistols and try this messy craft from Blog Me Mom!
6. Painting with feet
I would be too nervous to try this idea from Our Little House in the Country indoors, but the feeling of squidgy paint between your toes is just fabulous.
7. Paint-filled water balloons
Time for Play used water colours, which were easy to wash off clothes, fences etc.
8.Masking tape canvas painting
This is one of our favourite messy crafts (and another of SuperMum’s ideas!) – here’s the tutorial.
9. Egg smoke bombs
I adore this idea from Growing a Jewelled Rose – what kid would not LOVE to give this a try?
10. Splat painting
Red Ted Art decorated a gift by splatting the paper with paint (and it looks great)!
11. Marbled paper with shaving foam
Kids Activities Blog shares this brilliant tutorial for all ages.
12. Tie-dye play silks
These play silks are just beautiful and The Artful Parent‘s step-by-step tutorial is super-detailed.
So that’s 12 messy crafts for you and your family to try this Summer!
Hi there, thanks so much for including our messy feet painting activity! Great list, we’ve tried a lot of these- so much fun! Thanks again 🙂
My pleasure! I am planning to try some more this weekend if it’s dry outside 🙂
Wow this is fab, love the look of the biscuits. x
They are really tasty Hannah!
My kids love BN biscuits after my parents-in-law brought some back from France. You’re a lot braving than me with your messy play but we did do den building yesterday (complete with secret code password).
Oooh, we love building dens too – I must use a password next time! 😉
All of this sounds like so much fun. I remember we used to use potaotes for painting with and mum would cut lots of shapes into them for us to use x
Yes I did that with my mum too Rachel – can’t beat a bit of potato printing… 😉
Fabulous post! We have painting with our feet on our bucket list for this summer. Thanks for sharing lots of great ideas.
Thanks Helen! 🙂
Let me know how you get on?
What a great roundup, thanks for sharing x
Thanks for stopping by & commenting!
Some awesome ideas for messy play!! As someone else said you are brave with your messy play!!
We’ve not tried them all yet Lucie! 😉
BUT I do love that making a mess outside doesn’t really seem to matter and we can all relax and enjoy the process…
Oh my I adore those biccies. Fab post
They were certainly a hit in our house! 😀
Thanks for visiting Jen.
Must admit that I am a bit of an avoider of messy play at home but I’m a huge fan of it elsewhere 😀 Also obviously a huge fan of biscuits 😉
Exactly Kate – who cares how much paint gets on your grass? Carpet, on the other hand, is a different matter!
I think we are all a fan of biscuits (especially happy ones) 😉
There are some really great ideas here, love the diy chalk paint, will be giving that a try.
It’s fab isn’t it? So many clever bloggers on the t’interwebs!
I love the idea of painting with feet, must add that to our list.
The long paper that you get in Amazon boxes is perfect for it Jenny!
Looking forward to giving these a go. I’ve pinned this post for later.
Thank you Adele! 😀
Some great ideas. We love outdoor messy play,especially painting with feet. Haven’t tried the raspberry BN biscuits but we are HUGE fans of the chocolate ones!
Thanks Rachel – give the raspberry a try! 😉
What a great round up – summer is absolutely the best time for messy crafts when they can be done outside!
Thank you – I totally agree! 😀
Great ideas! My son loves messy crafts and so do all the kids I know (well, there are always a few who don’t like to get dirty but majority of the kids love the dirt).
Thanks Joanna!
I think it’s also important to keep offering kids the opportunity to get messy, as they may change their reaction to it over time. My eldest HATED sand when he was about 18 months old, but now he can’t get enough of the stuff… 😉
What a great round up, definitely a bookmark for this one
Thank you! 🙂
Ooohhh…These look great! I think that we will be making paint splats soon 🙂 I shall return to borrow more of these wonderful ideas. Thank you. P.S. Love your blog design and fonts.
Thanks Bek – enjoy the splatting! 🙂
What a fab selection of messy play ideas. Lovely pictures too. Commenting for myself and on behalf of BritMums and thanking you for taking part
Thanks Kate! 🙂
Oh your pictures are stunning and the colours! Wow!
We don’t do messy play no – I know, naughty me.
But I do let him write with chalk on the patio and lots and lots of other fun activities but this post is very helpful. When our biscuits turned up we were away too much for me to get chance to collect them from the sorting office. I keep meaning to buy some.
xx
Thanks Liska – they are most definitely not all my photos (lots of very talented bloggers out there)!
I think everyone can enjoy messy play on their own terms – that’s why it’s great being out in the garden, as you know the rain will wash all the mess away… 😉
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