We used to make a lot of things from recycle material like card board boxes, diffrent sizes and colors bottle tops toilet paper rolls and egg boxes

Try collecting nature items to glue too (sticks, leaves) or collect pebble type rocks and use textasnto draw on them.
I agree – painting is fun but messy so other options are good too!

When your kids have grown up and moved out, you’ll miss times like these, even with all the mess. My advice is to enjoy it while it lasts, even the messes

I love drawing an outline of a tree and then going for a walk to collect leaves to stick to the drawing. We have made some beautiful trees.

I used to think like that too but have come to the realisation of late that they’re kids and this is what life is about at that age. If they want to make mess, let them but I do also get them to help me clean up afterwards!

I plan on googling and pinteresting the hell out of this because my girl is nearly two and I’m in the same quandry. We draw mainly with pencils, crayons and chalk (I’m too scared to start painting!). I make play dough and she loves that!

I went to Spotlight and bought a heap of stuff – coloured pom poms, googly eyes, wool, pom pom makers, pipe cleaners, craft glue, felt squares, large wooden beads, ribbons. So far we have threaded beads onto pipe cleaners, cut shapes out of felt and made a felt board.

I went to Woollies yesterday and bought some paper plates (they’re always making things with paper plates at daycare). I thought we could paint/ draw some masks to begin with.

Good luck! I’ll be reading the other suggestions with a keen eye!

You will be amazed at how much fun toddlers can have with egg cartons and pipe cleaners! Just use your imagination (or theirs)!

Fuzzy Felt is good as they can make pictures and be creative yet no mess!

collect recyclable objects and then build castles or robots with them.

Have you checked out the craft section on here? They have all sorts of wonderful things to make!

Home made play dough. You can pretend cook with it. I bought cheap garlic press, cookie cutters and play rolling pin. Also makes great ‘dirt’ for playing cars/trucks in. You drive through it or pick it up with machinery and put it in the dump trucks.

Thanks mummies!!!! So many ideas here! Kids should never be bored again! Lol

Paint outside on an easel, you can get a double sided one pretty cheap these days.
Play dough is a great stimulating activity and they can build all sorts of things. Add sticks and leaves, little people and they could play for ages with it.

Playdoh really keeps my ones busy, crayons, and building things out of boxes

Playdough is a good one or paper weaving.

Play Doh is always a winner in our house.

My little dude loves making pictures out of macaroni! We dye it n let it dry so he has different colours too

There are also plenty of good online sites that have craft projects and also the arts and crafts section on Mom’s has some good craft ideas; with a mix of messy and dry activities.

Make a pinata, blow up a large balloon, cover in newspaper strips and home made glue, flour, water & salt to the consistency of pancake mix – do 2 layers at a time and then let dry in the sun. Continue this until you reach 6 layers drying well between each 2 layers. Then paint and decorate. Fairies are good with tiara and wings or a Monster for a boy paint green with multiple eyes and add stringy legs and arms. Great hit for birthday parties or sleep overs.

have you checked out the craft section on this site? also following.