Ever since asking hands on : as we grow readers what supplies you have on hand most of the time, I got a lot of requests to share with you what kids craft supplies I recommend for those of you starting out doing activities with your kids.
I have a lot of odds and ends in my craft supplies, from brands sending me random stuff to try, to me getting supplies here and there to try it for an activity or craft.
But there’s only a few craft supplies that I buy for the kids over and over again, that I make sure I have on hand in my craft cupboard.
What kids craft supplies are the most used and I buy over and over again?
The supplies below are linked to a product on Amazon that I recommend using my affiliate link. By clicking on the link it helps support hands on : as we grow as you purchase from Amazon, however its no additional cost to you. Thank you very much for the support!
One time purchases, or rarely have to restock (these last a long time!):
- A roll of butcher paper or art paper. Its usually about $30-$40 for a roll of butcher paper, but I just finally used my first roll up after using it for more than 3 years. It lasts a long time.
- Ribbon, yarn and other strings. I bought 4 bundles of yarn a couple years ago and have barely scratched the surface of them, but they come in handy a lot!
- A good pair of kid’s scissors. I think for any age kid, I believe George started cutting at 18 months. But definitely for those two and older. Let them cut, supervised, and you’ll be surprised at their ability!
- Paintbrushes
- Clear contact paper. I’ve probably bought a roll of contact paper 2 or 3 times in the last 3 or so years. Its great for beginner toddler crafts and art projects, but also great for window art! Always love contact paper!
I make sure to restock these craft supplies all the time:
- Painter’s tape and lots of it. I use it a lot. For fun activities (its great to get the kids moving) as well as creative art projects for tape resist!
- School glue
- Crayola washable paint: Hands down the best paint I’ve used for the kids. It has washed out of everything. I’ve never had troubles with staining anything.
- Scrapbook paper (both 12×12 and 8×10). I prefer scrapbook paper over any other kind of paper. Its stiff and lots of color options. I personally like the 12×12 size too.
- Construction paper
- Food coloring: I often make my own watercolors using water and food coloring. Or any type of paint, I just color it with food coloring. I most often use the small McCormick bottles, but sometimes when I need a lot, I use what we have at the bakery, Kroma Colors.
- Squirt/Spray bottles: My kids go for any activity when I include a spray bottle. Bonus is that it works on their fine motor skills too.
- Sidewalk chalk or chalk for the chalkboard.
- Markers or crayons: Again, we love Crayola, they wash out of anything!
Those are my most recommended supplies to have on hand and keep on hand to do probably 90% of the activities that we do.
I do tend to used a lot of items from around the house too though that don’t belong in my craft cupboard.
Toys around the house come in handy a lot (the kids love it when we incorporate toys into activities). But also supplies from my kitchen cupboards and pantry are reused all the time. I sometimes do grocery shopping with activities in mind!
Quick tip! Don’t go by this list of toys to do activities with your kids. Find the toys your kids are interested in and bring those into your activities! They’ll be excited!
Toys in the toy box we use for activities:
- Wooden blocks, we have both this set from Melissa and Doug that gets used a lot, as well as this set with smaller, colored blocks.
- Store-bought or homemade play dough
- All the boys’ trains, cars and trucks get used all the time
- A deck of playing cards is coming in handy a lot lately
- A chalkboard. I inherited ours, so I don’t have any recommendation for one. But it comes in handy a lot!
Stuff around the house I make sure to have some on hand for activities:
- Q-Tips (cotton swabs): I use them as paintbrushes sometimes.
- Cotton balls: These are a great alternative to pom poms.
- Scotch tape: I always need more! My kids like to just play with it by itself, but you always need it to hang up their artwork!
- Permanent markers (Sharpies): I tend to use these a lot myself as I get activities ready.
- Rice, Oatmeal, Salt, Flour: All come in handy for sensory activities or making our own paint.
- Baggies or Freezer Bags: Great for no mess painting or sensory activities.
- Lots of measuring cups and spoons. These are always handy for sensory tubs.
- Dish soap: Its just great to have on hand for clean up, but also can make foam or bubbles with it.
- Of course, we did through our recycling bin to upcycle whatever we can!
Then there are the craft supplies that are in my cupboard, but don’t get used all the time for our activities:
They do get used in some activities, so if you’re in a position to diversify and have the room to store these supplies, choose a few of these that suit what you’re looking to do with your kids!
- Pipe cleaners: we used them as a fine motor activity sometimes.
- Craft sticks: we made cool Christmas tree ornaments from them!
- Buttons: I can’t seem to keep my button stash stocked as much as I like with cute buttons. When I do have cute buttons on hand we use them up fast. We tend to use them instead of glitter or sequins.
- Pom poms: They’re great for simple embellishments for crafts, but most of all they’re a fun fine motor activity for toddlers.
- Glitter: I try to avoid glitter whenever possible, but its great to have it around to embellish the occasional craft.
- Glue sticks
- Golf tees: we use these to hammer into Styrofoam when we have it. However, this is the most common thing that hands on : as we grow readers do not have in their house! This is also something we wouldn’t have either if I didn’t buy them to do activities.
- Shaving Cream: its great for sensory play and making marbled prints.
- Googly eyes: they’re great to have on hand for the Halloween season to make monsters!
- Sequins: I actually dislike sequins almost as much as glitter. But again, they’re great to embellish crafts at time.
- Beads: I kind of loathe beads because they seem to roll everywhere whenever we get them out. But they’re great for beading and making simple jewelry. We have some letter ones that have added learning opportunities.
- Magnets: There are many magnetic activities I’ve found to do, but haven’t had much success with them with the magnets that we have. So these mostly sit in our cupboard. They came in handy for our interactive snowman though!
- Hot glue gun: This is more of a mom craft supply than a kids craft supply, but I’ve seen many crafts around where kids use them too (be sure to get a low temp one for the kids). We just haven’t yet. Soon!
- Clothespins: We’ve used them a number of times, its just not something I get out a lot. I love them for fine motor activities.
- Rubber bands: I finally bought a rubberband ball and its coming in handy, but haven’t had the chance to really use it yet. Our favorite way so far is a very simple activity to just wrap rubber bands around!
- Straws: We’ve used them for painting activities, but also love to blow pom poms around with them!
- Coffee filters: They’ve come in handy for numerous crafts, especially flowers. However, this is something I found most of you do not have (almost half of you) so we’ll be using it less and less, especially since we wouldn’t have them if I didn’t buy them for crafts either.
- Sponges: I just bought a pack of regular kitchen sponges that I have some of them cut up for painting projects. They get used over and over again.
- Stickers: I don’t ever seem to buy stickers for the kids, they get them for birthdays and holidays and whatnot. They come in handy for busy activities to do when they’re waiting for something.
- Tissue paper: I tend to save tissue paper from birthdays and put it in the craft cupboard. Its a great pair to contact paper for window crafts.
FYI: A shower curtain or old sheet comes in handy for messy play too.
That’s about it. I hope I didn’t miss anything, but if I did I’ll come back to add to our list of favorite kids craft supplies.
What is on your list for supplies that you use the most when doing activities or crafts with the kids?
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Dottie Johnson says
I love all the ideas you have. Iam looking forward to doing these activities with my class.Thank you.
destiny wilkie says
Toilet paper and paper towel rolls. My son loves those two items.
Melissa Gamino says
can I get a list to print please. the ads block the paragraphs and I can’t read the whole article when I try to print.
thanks
Tabitha Lightfoot says
Hi Melissa! Here is what is mentioned in the article. A roll of butcher paper, ribbon, yard and other strings, kids scissors, paintbrushes, contact paper, painters tape, school glue, Crayola washable paint, scrapbook paper (both 12×12 and 8×10), construction paper, food coloring, squirt/spray bottle, sidewalk chalk, markers, and crayons. Toys that get used a lot are wooden blocks, play dough (store bought or homemade), trains, cars and trucks, playing cards and a chalkboard. Stuff around the house include q-tips, cotton balls, scotch tape, permanent markers, rice, oatmeal, salt, flour, baggies, measuring cups and spoons, dish soap, recyclables. Here are some extras that are nice to have one hand: pipe cleaners, craft sticks, buttons, pom poms, glitter, glue sticks, golf tees, shaving cream, googly eyes, sequins, beads, magnets, hot glue gun, clothespins, rubber bands, straws, coffee filters, sponges, stickers, tissue paper, shower curtain or old sheet. I hope that helps!
Barbara Borden says
One of the most favorite things that my granddaughter (age 4) loves to do is “spin art”. I bought at Goodwill an old salad spinner. Cut off the little point in the bottom of the basket. Cut card stock into rounds that fit into the bottom of the spinner. She drops blobs of paint, assorted colors, right onto the paper, put the top of the spinner on and spin fast for a couple of seconds. Remove the lid, and see the creation! If all the paper is not covered with paint, we drop more pain on the top of the blank spots and spin again! She likes to add glitter too! I get the wet paper out by putting a folded out paper clip under 1 edge, lifting until I can get my fingers under it, then carefully lifting it out. I always let her pick her own colors, she is learning to blend colors nicely.
Rachel says
That is such a creative way to do spin art! I love it!
sumon says
Thank you. Great job. It will be very beneficial for me
Sau Myaw says
Thanks a lot for your craft material ideas. When God’s time for me to buy , l will collect all the lists and buy here as much as l can to run the pre-school, “Little America”. May God bless you greatly.
Sau Myaw says
Thanks a lot for the free present activity update plans fro 7 days. My future shared pre-school will be the “Little America” to let the customers feel and impressed greatly as if they are sending a pre-school from USA, your country! Thanks a lot for your supplies. When l am ready financially l will buy your one year bunddled lessons. Still l do not know what is like pre-schools in USA. If God wants and still l am alive, l will try to do like American pre-school with some part time American teachers here in Yangon mainly to show mercy to the orhpans and to the very poor children.
I will pray for you : to get many unexpected numbers of people to buy your materials.
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Mahboobeh says
Thanks a lot. They’re so useful.
Kathy says
Exciting!!!
Tori says
Rolls of wallpaper…Random, old stuff from charity shops is fine. Great for cutting into shapes for decorating or turn it over to use the plain side for drawing and painting… If you find a decent pattern you can also use it as wrapping paper!
Marie says
I cut up all of my cereal boxes and use that for paint projects, so we never run out of things to paint/draw on. I never thought of keeping the liners though, great idea! Love the list. Thank you.
nancy pianga says
I just love all those great ideas, i am definately trying them with my kids. Thank you Jaime.
Regards Nancy
Melinda says
Hi Lovely detailed list makes me go for more than we have. Never used clear contact paper or filter. Mostly shooping in euro stores to keep it low budget.
I’m home with a 4 and half year old boy (ADHD, Anxiety D, Autism) and almost 3 year old twins boy/girl. We do a lot of crafting and messy play but alone with 3 is hard. Daddy is doctor and messy play isn’t on his favorite list so he is out . Kids are crazy about activities and beeing 24/7 with them I get a bit bored and want to try new things. I tried to recycle a lot and buy second hand toys. My twinboy takes everything apart mostly damaging them and hard to buy so many new books and toys. I made some cardboard roads up and down on chairs but in seconds was in pieces as allways. Not sure what to do and it isn’t fair to others not to be able to play games made of cardboard. He has his kit of screws and bolts and he is happy if I make something and he can take it apart.
I’m happy and ready for the 7 day challenge.
Jessica Fitzgerald says
Thank you for all of the great ideas. I will have to try some.
debra guravage says
I am a retired child care person who donated all her stuff… Now i am currently a great grandmother of two toddlers with third great grandbaby on the way . Your ideas refresh my memory and help me get organized once again… Sure do miss all my stuff now but, I am slowly starting to rebuild my supplies. Thanks again for all you do!
Tassa says
At first glance, this weekly planner thing looks great. I’ve been doing the playgroups more or less for a while but this will encourage me to look further afield. Thanks :-)
Cher says
2 other things I remembered: 1- a package of good baby wipes. They clean not only hands but table tops etc.
2-the liners of cereal boxes. They make good mats under painting activities. If you do not eat boxed cereal, ask family and friends to save them for you. They can be folded and easily stored.
Cher says
The 1 thing I do not have is golf tees. I have all the other stuff plus. I am always checking yard sales for anything that can be part of an activity. The one thing that I did not see on your list is sticky velcro. this is one of my main supplies so that kids can repeat an activity over and over. These are paper activities that have clear contact on both sides to make them durable. They last through several children.
Sue says
I’m keeping my 2 1/2 yr. old granddaughter once a week for a Mother’s Day Out. I appreciate the list so much! I am also a retired elementary school teacher and unfortunately gave all my things away when I retired. Big mistake! So having this list is a big help.
Jamie Reimer says
I like to keep things simple and use what we got — so supplies are kept to a minimum :)
Deanna Coleman says
Thank you so much for this list :) I do have many of these supplies on hand already and am finally able to have my dream “Art Room” For the kids in our new home :) I am so excited to get it done and finished so we can start making art :)
Ruth says
I didn’t see cardboard, I think. Cardboard provides the structure for all our 3D projects and is used to keep paint off surfaces when painting cloth, for instance.
Bronwyn Joy says
Nice list! Something to come back to when buying presents for birthday parties as well – especially for kids that “already have everything”.
Jamie Reimer says
That’s such a great idea – a basket of supplies! How fun!
Ana says
What a fabulous list of supplies and materials! Seriously inspiring!
Jamie Reimer says
Thank you Ana!
amanda says
This is a great list Jamie. I have many of these items as well for our activities. I could not agree more with your about Crayola products…the paint in particular! I too have had great success in getting it out of anything in my come in contact with. Cheap vinyl table cloths come in handy for messy play too. J’s favorite sensory material is dry pinto or a bag of mixed dry beans. We use them for kitchen play, farm play, animal feed, and construction play. I usually leave them in a plastic tub for quick set up and a great activity when I am preparing lunch or dinner. Keep up the great work!
Jamie Reimer says
Thanks Amanda. Plastic tubs should be on this list actually! I use them all the time!!