Spring Crafts with Kids

March is Youth Art and National Craft Month, and it is fun and easy to get kids involved and excited about art through making crafts at home. I love making crafts with my kids that we can also use in decorating our home. Some of my favorite paintings on the walls are pictures my kids have painted and we have framed them together. They are not just art, but memories. My children also have a different kind of appreciation for art in general when we have an appreciation for art at home - for any art, whether it's done by a famous artist, or a budding home artist. We also take the kids to art museums every now and then, and we are lucky to live close to New York City and be able to show them what the city has to offer. But you don't need world renown museums to teach children about art and appreciation for the arts. Making crafts at home is a great step to get started, and teaching them to appreciate anything handmade is a great value to teach our children. Of course doing crafts at home teaches many other skills as well.

If you haven't done much crafting at home with your children before, this soup can vase is a fun and super easy one to start. We made several flower vases and pencil holders from empty soup cans. Most likely you have all of the supplies at home and this is an easy craft that any skill level can accomplish. All you need is a soup can, paper, scissors and glue. We made these two pencil holders from an old calendar picture, and added a heart shaped sticker. You can also use scrap booking paper, wrapping paper, stationary paper, maps, or even pictures cut from magazines. My kids also like drawing pictures and then using them.   

I also collected additional craft ideas to do with you children from some of my favorite bloggers, and included a few of my own too. 

1. If you have a girly girl, she will love making these homemade headbands from Savoring The Thyme.

2.  The coffee filter pom pom flowers are so much fun to make and they make great center pieces or hanging decorations for almost any room. Read the coffee filter pom pom tutorial with lots of photos at Skimbaco Home. 
3. Tonya Staab is one of my absolute favorite craft bloggers and her ideas are always so bright. And I love how complicated and amazing they look, but are actually fairly simple for anyone to do. Tonya's spring flowers made of straws would be great for spring time parties.
4. Pinwheels are fun to make and fun to play with - but have you ever thought of using them in home decorating? Check out  the pinwheel garland for a fireplace mantle at Hoosier Homemade. 
5. I like recycling everything, and I love how Lisa from Crazy Adventures in Parenting turned old crayons into new ones, check out her crayon tutorial. 
6. If you need some tips and advice to make the soup can vases like above, you can read my tutorial at Skimbaco Home. 
7. You probably have already realized that doing crafts at home doesn't necessarily mean buying a lot of expensive craft supplies, but you can do a lot with supplies you can get from the grocery store or ones you already have at home. You can find "craft supplies" even from your pantry -  don't you just love the pasta craft from Naturally Educational?
8. Kim, the Crafty Mama of Four, used recycled pasta jars and tissue paper to create this tea candle holder. It's a great gift idea too, or great to do several of them for parties. 
9. Like I said before, framing my kids' artwork is my favorite way to decorate my home. You can find several different ideas how to use your kid's art at Parentella. I think the idea of using embroidery hoops to frame your child's art is genius and I can't wait to see how Aparna's wall will look after she has been collecting her son's art throughout the year and framed them with the hoops.