22 totally awesome projects for kids
Selfie sticks
Snap yourself silly in selfies holding these crazy smiley sticks! To make a set, draw mouths on thick cardboard with pencil, then trace around your designs with black marker. With marker pens, colour lips red, tongues pink and a mad monster mouth in blue. Stick the mouths to skewers with tape and say cheese!
Daily dose
Organising your weekday outfits (uniforms, sports gear or after-school clothes) isn’t boring with this hanging store-it-all. Give each spot a letter for each weekday. Print letter on paper. Cut out then trace onto cardboard. Cut out inner part to create stencil. Stick in position and use fabric paint and a stipple brush to paint letter. Let dry then remove stencil.
Cosy corner
Want to chill out with a book or do your homework in your own comfy zone? With your parents’ help, use painter’s tape to mask up an interesting shape in the corner of your bedroom, then paint masked section in your favourite colour. Throw down a big floor cushion and a few snuggly pillows. Psst… don’t forget a reading lamp!
Painted paper pets
Bring your favourite storybook critters to life with cardboard, newspaper, masking tape, PVA and paint. Cut the main face shape from cardboard. To make raised eyes or nose, scrunch up balls of newspaper and tape in place. Tear strips of paper and brush both sides with PVA. Press paper on cardboard faces until covered completely. Let dry. Colour faces with water-based paint, then glue on cardboard whiskers or eyelashes. Hang your new buddies on the wall with self-adhesive picture-hanging strips.
Colour your way!
Bring instant wow to a chest with paint and Mum and Dad’s help! With drawers and knobs removed, prime first, then use Dulux Aquanamel Semi Gloss in matching shades to paint sides of drawers and knobs. Let dry and then reassemble.
Creative space
Painting, drawing, cutting, gluing… you name it, you can do it! Let creativity take over in this arty studio! Include a workbench (da bomb for standing tasks!) and a sitting zone for a long-haul craft sesh. Hang a string for an overhead art exhibition, peg up your masterpieces, then invite the family to your big opening night.
Take a seat, it's story time!
Ready your room for your school reads, picture books and paperbacks with this shweet bookshelf idea. Ask a grown-up to wall-hang a small shallow bookcase that’s been customised with painted rails to hold your books in place. Anchored low to the ground, say ‘hello’ to your own mini library of books you’re totally loving at the mo.
Prickly patch
Green up your room with a potted cactus… made from your rock collection! To make these Mexicano delights, prime and paint a terracotta pot in a bright colour and let dry. Fill pot with firmly-packed pebbles. Have a grown-up add a few dabs of hot glue to secure them in the pot. Paint a bunch of smooth pebbles in shades of green – add stripes, spots and flowers to make them look realistic. Let dry. Assemble painted rocks in cactus shapes using hot glue. Fill gaps with mini rocks – then rock on!
Stick it
Use a mix ‘n’ match of fun sticky shapes and characters (look for them in a newsagent or discount store) to decorate your lunch box, craft kit or travel case. You could write your name with sticky letters, too. It’s so cool!
All yours
If you’ve outgrown your bedroom a little and you’d love a new look, ask a parent to help you make these simple changes. For a more grown-up bedroom, try painting a wall and your chest of drawers in the same colour – like this dusty blue. Nice, hey? Adding wall-mounted storage will help sort out your stuff for school time, too.
Stack, stow and get organised!
Right before the school bell rings in the new year, take a trip to the stationery store to pick up a few bits and bobs. Choose inexpensive folders, notebooks and magazine files to keep your studies well organised and on track. Our tip? Label all your supplies so you never lose a thing!
Hello, cuties!
Make your desk home to a town of characters in cute little houses – made by you! Decorate small boxes with paper, pens, twigs or mag clippings, glue on a cardboard roof, then cut a hole in the front to make a fold-down door. Sit a pompom character in the doorway to keep you company while you do your arvo homework.
Living room raceway
Between finishing your homework and dinner being ready, squeeze in time to set up an awesome car track on your floor. Using washi tape (aka Japanese paper tape – buy it in rolls from art, stationery and discount stores), mask up a raceway, parking stations, highways, servos and side streets, then wheel your way around the hood. When you’re done cruisin’, just peel off the tape to keep Mum happy.
Let's play
Create a designated kids’ zone in a corner of your house using flatpack storage units for bench seats with cushions – stitched-up by you. Basket storage is ideal for toys, books and belongings, plus a bright wallpaper print and chalkboard table make it stacks of fun.
Emoji eats
Morning tea just went up a notch in the yum and fun scales with emoji cookies. Make these guys by decorating bickies or cupcakes with yellow-tinted store-bought frosting. Decorate the faces with a mix of lollies to suit each expression.
It’s a wink from us!
Hearts and hands
Get messy! To make this heartwork (see what we did there?), lightly pencil-draw a heart outline on thick white paper. Gather your bro, sis or pals and each pick a water-based paint colour. Taking turns, dip your finger in the paint and fill the heart with fingerprints. When done, each add a fingerprint below the heart and sign your name with a pen. Once dry, rub out pencil line then frame. Nice pressie!
Creatures that glow in the night
Lions and pandas and piggies, oh my! Have you seen those awesome battery-powered tea lights at discount shops? Well, here’s a way to make them even more cool… Cut a strip of coloured vellum paper (it’s the kinda see-through stuff you buy at art shops), tape it in a tube shape, then decorate by gluing on cardboard legs and faces of any animal you wish. The trick is to make all four animal legs nice and long so they become the legs of the lantern at the front and back.
Be a neat freak!
Organise your desk drawers with dividers to keep your stationery and other school stuff under control. You can buy drawer organisers (or cutlery trays) to do this, or use strips of foam core to customise your own dividers, using PVA and pins to hold your arrangement of dividers together. So handy!
Go pretty in pink...
… or any other colour you love, really! Redo your room for the new year – pick a colour and ask a parent to help decorate. Use painter’s tape and three shades of your chosen hue to mask and paint a wall in wide bands of fading colour. Hang paper pompoms from the ceiling to match (try a variety discount store for similar).
On display!
Make a place to show off your artistic talents throughout the year, hang b’day cards or other pics you love. Holler for a grown-up’s help: you’ll need two lengths of timber, a drill, white paint, a roll of twine and picture-hanging strips. Ask an adult to drill an even spread of holes in each length of timber, then paint them white. Let dry. Attach timber strips vertically to wall with picture-hanging strips, making sure they line up. Feed twine through each lined‑up hole, trim to size and knot to secure. Hang piccies on each line with mini timber pegs.
Slither and slide
Need a rad weekend project? Make this scaly snake from 10 cardboard rolls. Trim ends of rolls into points with scissors. Paint rolls orange. Let dry. On each one, paint a red diamond pattern and white and blue dots in the middle of the diamonds. When dry, join rolls by punching holes at the points where they connect, then tie together with pipe cleaners. Glue on googly eyes and a forked tongue ribbon.
Totally wild
Decorate your bedroom or playroom walls with a parade of animal silhouettes. Start with the tallest of the bunch – Mr Giraffe here – then line up a gang of your faves. To get started, enlarge an animal outline on a photocopier. Cut out shape, then trace onto the back of decorative paper (try wallpaper or gift wrap). Cut out and stick up with wallpaper paste or Blu Tack.
