20+ Art Ideas Using Just the Basics
By Alissa Marquess Zorn on May 7, 2013 (updated October 24, 2016)
Arts and crafts projects you can do with just the basics:
If you gather together a basic art kit you can do do a huge variety of fun projects and it won’t take so long to set up. Gather your basic arts and crafts supplies into one spot with a drop cloth and possibly an old shirt for a smock and start exploring some of these art projects.
Painting and Drawing:
- Read a story- ask your child to draw a character or scene from the book
- Draw three squares on a paper, help your child draw a comic.
- Play pass the drawing– great doodling fun for many ages
- Draw with crayons, then paint over the crayon drawing with water colors.
- Paint with water color then draw over the dried painting with markers.
- Gently heat crayons over a candle flame and let your child make dots and blops.
- Place flat objects on the table and do rubbings– try leafs, coins, fabric or string
- Write a secret message with white crayon, let your child paint or color with marker over it to discover the message.
- Paint water over a page and then draw with washable markers, alternatively, draw with washable markers and then paint over with water.
Glue, Tape and Decorate:
- Make a 3-D paper sculpture by taping or gluing pieces of folded or looped paper to a page.
- Dive into the recycle bin and create a junk sculpture. (A robot, a town or a spaceship are popular here.)
- Make a card for anyone for any occasion. Draw, glue on decorations, write down what your child would like to say.
- Decorate a shoe box or jewelry box to make a treasure keeper.
- Find some #6 Plastic in your recyclables and try making recycled shrinky dinks
- Try making a collage picture with ripped up pieces of construction paper. Draw a shape and fill it with bits of paper.
- Draw with glue on paper and allow to try, paint or color over the bumpy picture.
Cut and Fold
- Make crowns to decorate by taping a strip of paper into a circle.
- Fold a piece of paper a few times and experiment with cutting out shapes. Cut out snowflakes.
- Make Paper Dolls or a paper doll chain to decorate.
- Fold a paper airplane and give your child the coloring supplies to decorate it.
- Trace your child’s hand and your hand, cut each out and compare.
- Make a paper chain for decoration or to count down to a special day.
- Make a book and let your child dictate a story to you. Stories of events in your kids life or re-tellings of storybooks work well.
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Thanks for sharing these ideas! They seem like easy, fun activities my kids will enjoy this summer. Having a list like this to refer will be such a big help to me.
I do many creative things with my daughters, but I think that having a list like this is always good and useful when I’m too tired even to think!!! So thank you for sharing, Alissa!!! DanielaC.
Love this so much!
so often I hear parents say they never do art with their kids because it is too hard… it takes too long to set up… it’s too complicated… they need special stuff they don’t have…. And it frustrates me because art with kids doesn’t have to be difficult and your fab list is a perfect example of that!
Thanks Kate. Sometimes I find that I get wrapped up in thinking I have to prepare something elaborate for us to get creating, when in reality my kids just love these simple activities, and what they want is for me to spend that TIME with them, the activity can be simple so long as we’re happily together.
Great post! I think it is really important for kids (and parents!) to know what to do with basic supplies. This way they can have a jumping off point for coming up with their own creative projects. Pretty soon, they will learn that there are endless possibilities!