Summer break always sounds peaceful in theory, until the boredom starts showing up before breakfast, and you are suddenly expected to have endless ideas on demand. That is exactly why I put this together: these easy summer crafts for kids to keep themselves busy and learning.
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Why Summer Crafts Matter for Kids
Summer crafts are more than just a fun way to keep kids busy. They help children learn, grow, and stay engaged during the long summer break.
- They Boost Creativity and Confidence
Making something with their own hands helps kids express ideas, solve problems, and feel proud of what they create. - They Reduce Screen Time
Crafts provide a fun, hands-on alternative to phones, tablets, and TV, keeping kids focused and entertained. - They Develop Fine Motor Skills
Cutting, gluing, painting, and threading strengthen the small hand muscles children need for writing and other everyday tasks.
If you are also looking for non-craft ways to keep the kids busy this summer, check out this list of 100 easy summer activities for kids — both indoor and outdoor that pair perfectly with these crafts.
Easy Summer Crafts for Toddlers (Ages 1–3)
If you have a toddler, you already know that the craft itself is less important than the sensory experience of doing it. Toddlers want to touch, squish, smear, and explore. So these summer crafts are designed to be safe for toddlers, simple, and, honestly, a little messy, in the best way possible.
1. Summer Handprint Art
This one never gets old. Press your toddler’s hand into paint and create suns, sunflowers, butterflies, or even a handprint beach scene. Use bright yellows, oranges, and blues for that summer feel. Not only is this adorable, but it also makes the most precious keepsake you will treasure forever. Trust me on this one.
2. Paper Tearing Collage
Tearing paper is genuinely one of the best fine motor activities for little hands. Give your toddler some old magazines, colorful tissue paper, or even junk mail, and let them tear away. Then help them glue the pieces onto a piece of card to make a summer scene. Sun? Beach? Rainbow? Whatever they decide, it is art.
3. Sensory Bottles
Fill a clean plastic bottle with water, a little glitter glue, and some small summer-themed items like tiny shells, beads in ocean colors, or a few drops of food coloring. Seal the cap tightly with glue. Your toddler gets a beautiful “I spy” sensory bottle that they can shake and explore without making a mess. This is also wonderful for calming a cranky toddler, just saying.
For even more toddler-friendly ideas, I have a whole post on 25 easy toddler activities at home that moms can set up fast — perfect for when you need something quick.
You might also love these 25 easy sensory bin ideas for toddlers to go alongside the crafts.
Preschool Summer Crafts (Ages 3–5)
Preschoolers are at such a fun crafting age. They can follow simple directions, they love using scissors (with supervision), and their imagination is absolutely wide open. These easy summer crafts for kids in this age group are colorful, achievable, and will keep them busy for a good chunk of the morning.
4. Popsicle Stick Animals
Grab some wooden popsicle sticks, googly eyes, paint, and pipe cleaners. Preschoolers can make lions, giraffes, butterflies, ladybugs, you name it. This is one of those crafts where you lay out the supplies and just let them go. The results are always hilarious and always adorable. I have a full post on 35 easy popsicle stick crafts for kids if you want even more ideas.
5. Paper Plate Sun
Cut triangles out of yellow and orange paper and glue them around the edge of a paper plate. Paint the plate yellow, draw a smiley face, and boom, you have the most cheerful summer sun on the block. Hang it in the window and let it brighten up the whole room. It is simple, it is satisfying, and preschoolers feel so proud of this one.
6. Finger Painting Summer Scenes
Set up a big piece of white paper or cardboard, get out the finger paints, and let your preschooler paint a summer scene. A beach, a garden, an ice cream, a rainbow, whatever they want. Put an old shirt on them, cover the table, and just let them go for it. The mess washes off. The memories do not.
Related Reads:
- 25 Easy DIY Crafts and Activities for Kids
- 30 Indoor Activities for Toddlers When You Are Stuck at Home
Kindergarten Summer Crafts 5–6 Years
Kids around kindergarten age are growing in their ability to concentrate, follow steps, and create things with a plan in mind. These crafts are a little more structured than the toddler and preschool ones, but still very simple and very fun.
7. Color Sorting Crafts
This is a brilliant one because it is both a craft and a learning activity. Collect small pieces of paper, fabric scraps, buttons, or stickers in different colors. Have your child sort them into color groups and then glue them onto separate pieces of paper to create a color-themed collage. It teaches color recognition while also making something beautiful.
8. Cotton Ball Ice Cream Craft
Draw or print a simple ice cream cone shape on brown paper. Then let your child glue cotton balls on top to make the “scoops” of ice cream. They can paint the cotton balls different colors once dry to represent their favorite flavors. This is one of those summer crafts that always makes kids giggle because it looks good enough to eat.
9. Shape-Based Summer Art
Cut out shapes from construction paper: circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, and challenge your child to make a summer picture using only those shapes. A circle becomes the sun, a triangle becomes an ice cream cone or a boat sail, and rectangles become buildings or sandcastles. It is creative problem-solving most playfully.
Easy Summer Crafts for Kids Ages 6–8
This is one of my favorite age groups for crafts, because kids this age are old enough to work with a bit more independence, but still totally enthusiastic about making things. They also love having something to show off to family or friends, which is a great motivator.
10. DIY Bookmarks
Cut strips of cardstock about two inches wide and six inches long. Then let your kids go wild decorating them with markers, watercolors, stickers, and washi tape. They can make themed bookmarks, sunflowers, rainbows, ice cream, summer quotes, and then actually use them in their summer reading books. It is a craft that keeps giving.
11. Cupcake Liner Flowers
Flatten cupcake liners and layer two or three together to make flower petals. Attach a pipe cleaner stem and add a button or pompom center. Make a whole bunch, and you have a gorgeous bouquet that never wilts. These look so good displayed in a vase on the kitchen table, and the kids feel genuinely proud every time someone notices them.
12. Paper Chain Decorations
Cut strips of colored paper and loop them into chains, gluing or stapling each link. Make them in summer colors, yellow, orange, turquoise, pink, and use them to decorate a bedroom, string across a window, or wear as a crown or bracelet. Paper chains are genuinely one of those classic summer crafts for kids that never go out of style.
Also check out these 25 easy bottle art ideas for kids — they are perfect for this age group too.
Summer Crafts for Kids Ages 8–10
Kids in this age range are ready for crafts that require more steps, more patience, and a more finished, professional-looking result. They also love crafts they can share or give as gifts, which makes these especially fun to do with a friend or sibling.
13. Friendship Bracelets
Grab some embroidery floss in summer colors and look up a simple braiding pattern together. Friendship bracelets are one of those summer crafts for elementary kids that kids become genuinely obsessed with. One afternoon with a few strands of thread, and suddenly your child is making them for everyone in the family. Also, they feel so accomplished once they learn the pattern.
14. DIY Slime Projects
Slime is still having a major moment, and honestly, I get it. Making slime at home is part science experiment, part sensory play, part craft project. Use basic white school glue, a little baking soda, contact lens solution, and food coloring to make summer-themed slimes, think ocean blue, sunshine yellow, or watermelon pink and green swirled together. Kids this age can mostly make it independently, which is a bonus for you.
15. Painted Rock Art
Collect smooth rocks from outside or a craft store, wash them, and let them dry. Then paint them with acrylic paint in fun summer themes, ladybugs, emojis, little gardens, inspirational words, or characters from their favorite shows. Once dry, seal with Mod Podge. These also make wonderful little gifts for grandparents or teachers. Very sweet, very personal.
Summer Crafts for Kids Ages 10–12
Tweens can handle more complex projects, and they also care a lot more about the result looking good. These crafts are satisfying, creative, and just cool enough to hold the attention of a kid who thinks they are too old for “kiddie crafts.”
16. Scrapbook Your Summer Memories
This is one of the most meaningful summer crafts for this age. Print out photos from the summer, collect ticket stubs, leaves, and labels from fun places you visited, and arrange them in a blank journal or scrapbook with captions, stickers, and decorations. By the end of summer, your child will have a real keepsake they will actually want to look back at in years to come. This is also a wonderful, quiet activity for a rainy afternoon.
17. DIY Tote Bags
Get a plain canvas tote bag from the dollar store or craft shop. Use fabric markers or fabric paint to decorate it with summer designs, flowers, words, patterns, or a favorite quote. Let it dry completely and then seal it. Suddenly, your child has a unique, personalized bag they are actually proud to carry around. This is one of those DIY summer crafts for kids that genuinely feels like an adult-level project, which is exactly why tweens love it.
18. Bead Jewelry Crafts
Invest in a pack of mixed beads and some elastic cord or wire, and watch your tween get completely absorbed for hours. They can make necklaces, bracelets, anklets, and earrings (if they have pierced ears) in summer color palettes. Letter beads are especially popular right now for making name bracelets or affirmation jewelry. This is also a perfect activity to do with friends.
Summer Crafts for Teens 13+ Years
Okay, I know. Getting a teenager interested in crafts can feel like trying to convince a cat to take a bath. But here is the thing: teens actually love creative projects when those projects feel relevant, aesthetic, and like something they came up with themselves. The key is to pitch these as ways to personalize their space or stuff, not as “crafts.”
19. Aesthetic Room Decor DIY
Teens are obsessed with making their room look like a Pinterest board (and honestly, fair enough). Help them create their own wall art using watercolor, pressed flowers in photo frames, washi tape patterns on the wall, or DIY macrame wall hangings. You can find so much inspiration on my Pinterest boards — pop over and save your favorites. These room decor projects keep teens busy for hours, and the result actually improves their bedroom, so everybody wins.
20. Personalized Phone Cases
Buy a plain, clear phone case and let your teen go wild decorating the inside with pressed flowers, stickers, magazine cutouts, printed photos, or small drawings. Seal with clear resin or simply layer the items under the case. The result is a phone case that is completely one-of-a-kind and way more special than anything from the store. This is one of those easy summer crafts for kids that teens genuinely brag about to their friends.
21. Resin Art (Optional for Supervised Teens)
If your teen is responsible and you are comfortable supervising, resin art is genuinely beautiful and very on-trend right now. You can make coasters, bookmarks, jewelry, and keychains using epoxy resin, dried flowers, glitter, and pigment powders. Work in a well-ventilated area and follow safety instructions carefully. The results are stunning, and teens feel incredibly proud of how professional their pieces look.
Easy Summer Crafts for Kids at Home (No Special Tools Needed)
Not everyone has a craft room stocked with supplies, and that is perfectly fine. These summer crafts for kids use things at home that most families already have lying around. Seriously, check your recycling bin right now, I bet you have everything you need.
22. Toilet Paper Roll Crafts
Save your toilet paper rolls because they are one of the most versatile craft supplies out there. Paint them, cover them with paper, cut them, squish them, and turn them into binoculars, butterflies, little owls, cars, rockets, or summer flowers. There is an entire world of toilet paper roll crafts for every age, from toddler to tween. And the cost? Basically zero.
23. Paper Plate Crafts
Paper plates are craft magic. Turn them into suns, fish, crabs, watermelons, jellyfish, fans, masks, and clocks. Decorate with paint, markers, tissue paper, or torn magazine pages. A pack of paper plates from the dollar store gives you weeks of crafting material, and the projects suit every age group in this list.
24. Cardboard Box Creations
Save your Amazon boxes and cereal boxes! Large boxes become playhouses, puppet theaters, rockets, or cars. Smaller boxes become dollhouse furniture, storage containers, or gift boxes. Cardboard crafting is one of those activities that can genuinely last an entire afternoon, especially if you give kids free rein to build whatever they dream up. Add some paint and stickers, and you have something really impressive.
For even more at-home ideas, check out this huge list of 25 easy DIY crafts and activities for kids on the blog.
Budget-Friendly Summer Craft Ideas
Summer crafting does not have to cost a lot. In fact, some of the best summer crafts for kids are completely free or nearly free. Here are some of my favorite ways to keep the budget very reasonable while still doing really fun projects.
25. Recycled Materials Crafts
Before anything goes in the recycling bin, ask yourself: “Could a kid make something with this?” Old magazines become collage material. Egg cartons become caterpillars or flower pots. Plastic bottles become sensory bottles or bird feeders (check out our 25 easy bottle art ideas for kids for inspiration!). Glass jars become painted lanterns. The possibilities are genuinely endless once you start seeing your recycling as craft supplies.
26. Dollar Store DIY Ideas
Your local dollar store is honestly a goldmine for summer craft supplies. For just a few dollars, you can pick up foam sheets, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, pom poms, stickers, paint, brushes, plain canvas bags, wooden picture frames, and small pots. Plan a one-dollar store trip at the start of summer, spend about five to ten dollars, and you will have enough supplies to keep the kids busy for weeks.
27. Household Item Crafts
Salt, flour, and water make salt dough for sculpting. Old buttons and fabric scraps make collages. Kitchen sponges cut into shapes make great stamps. Coffee filters soaked in watercolor become beautiful tie-dye flowers. Pasta shapes can be painted and strung into necklaces or glued into frames. Your kitchen and junk drawer are secretly a craft store. You just have to look at them differently.
“Creativity is not about having the most supplies. It is about making the most of what you have.” And that is a lesson worth teaching our kids every single summer.
Easy Summer Nature Crafts for Kids
- Leaf Rubbing Art
- Painted Rock Animals
- Nature Collage Craft
- Stick Picture Frames
- Flower Pressing Art
- Pine Cone Creatures
- Bark Texture Rubbings
- Nature Suncatchers
- Twig Name Signs
- Flower Crown Craft
Easy Summer Paper Crafts for Kids
- Paper Plate Sun Craft
- Paper Plate Ice Cream Craft
- Paper Fan Craft
- Tissue Paper Flowers
- Construction Paper Butterflies
- Summer Paper Chains
- Paper Straw Rockets
- Folded Paper Boats
- Paper Rainbow Craft
- Watermelon Paper Collage
Easy Summer Recycled Crafts for Kids
- Cardboard Tube Binoculars
- Toilet Paper Roll Bees
- Cereal Box Picture Frames
- Plastic Bottle Planters
- Egg Carton Caterpillars
- Newspaper Flowers
- Bottle Cap Art
- Recycled Wind Chimes
- Tin Can Pencil Holders
- Cardboard City Craft
Easy Summer Ocean Crafts for Kids
- Paper Plate Jellyfish
- Handprint Fish Art
- Seashell Picture Frames
- Ocean Sensory Bottle
- Shark Puppet Craft
- Paper Crab Craft
- Octopus Toilet Roll Craft
- Sea Turtle Craft
- Under-the-Sea Collage
- Mermaid Tail Art
Easy Summer Animal Crafts for Kids
- Handprint Flamingos
- Paper Bag Lion Puppet
- Butterfly Clothespin Craft
- Bee Finger Puppets
- Owl Paper Craft
- Frog Paper Plate Craft
- Dragonfly Suncatcher
- Ladybug Rock Painting
- Paper Snake Craft
- Turtle Shell Mosaic
Easy Summer Outdoor Crafts for Kids
- Sidewalk Chalk Paint Art
- DIY Garden Markers
- Nature Paintbrush Craft
- Bubble Wand Craft
- Outdoor Leaf Printing
- Garden Wind Spinner
- Backyard Obstacle Signs
- Painted Stepping Stones
- DIY Kite Craft
- Outdoor Sun Catchers
Easy Summer Crafts for Preschoolers
- Sponge Painting Art
- Fingerprint Watermelon Craft
- Cotton Ball Cloud Craft
- Pom-Pom Caterpillar Craft
- Sticker Collage Activity
- Dot Marker Sun Craft
- Handprint Rainbow Art
- Simple Paper Flowers
- Q-Tip Painting Craft
- Shape Collage Art
Easy Summer Beach Crafts for Kids
- Sand Art Bottles
- Seashell Wind Chimes
- Beach Memory Jar
- Sandcastle Paper Craft
- Shell Necklace Craft
- Beach-Themed Sensory Bin
- Ocean Wave Painting
- Beach Treasure Frame
- Driftwood Art Project
- Sandpaper Starfish Craft
Easy Summer DIY Crafts for Kids
- Friendship Bracelets
- Beaded Keychains
- DIY Sunglasses Decoration
- Personalized Tote Bags
- Painted Flower Pots
- DIY Bookmarks
- Homemade Stamps
- Decorative Mason Jars
- DIY Pencil Toppers
- Painted Wooden Spoons
Easy Summer Arts and Crafts for Kids
- Rainbow Watercolor Painting
- Ice Cream Stick Photo Frame
- Summer Memory Scrapbook
Tips to Keep Kids Engaged All Summer
- Rotate Craft Activities
Don’t do everything at once. Switch between painting, building, sensory play, and jewelry crafts each week to keep things fresh and exciting. - Set a Weekly Craft Theme
Choose a theme like ocean, space, animals, or rainbow each week. It helps kids stay focused and more creative. - Create a Craft Box Station
Keep basic supplies in one easy-to-reach box so kids can start crafting anytime without waiting for setup.
And for the days when you want to take the fun outside your home, these cheap family summer outings that kids will love are the perfect complement to your at-home craft days.
A little note for the mamas: Summer is long and beautiful, but it is also genuinely tiring. If you are feeling stretched thin, you are not alone. I have a whole collection of ideas for 30 quick self-care ideas for moms to recharge without guilt. You cannot pour from an empty cup, friend. Take care of yourself, too.
Additionally, I would love for you to save this post for later, pin it to your summer activities board on Pinterest so you can come back to it anytime you need a fresh idea.
Happy crafting, mama. You have got this.
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