19 Crafts for Toddlers: Safe, Easy & Fun Craft Ideas for Toddlers

• Age Range: 1+
• Supplies Needed: cream of tartar, flour, salt, vegetable oil, food coloring
• Messiness Level: 2
• Time Range: <1 hour

If you have flour, salt, vegetable oil, water, food coloring and, uh, cream of tartar (less likely, we know, but it’s crucial for giving the dough its elasticity), you can make your own play dough with nothing but stuff from your kitchen. You’ll have to prepare the dough, since it requires some cooking on the stove, but your kids can get in on coloring it: I Heart Naptime blogger Jamielyn Nye recommends placing each dough ball into resealable bags with a few drops of gel food coloring. Seal them up, then let your toddler knead the color into the ball, watching it transform.

• Age Range: 1+
• Supplies Needed: flour, salt, paint
• Messiness Level: 3
• Time Range: <1 hour

No cream of tartar? Pivot! Oh, and capture this moment in time when your kids’ hands are the size of your palm—and potentially turn them into ornaments for a Christmas craft the grandparents will “aww” over. All you need is flour, salt and water, which makes this one of the most low-maintenance crafts for toddlers on the list.

• Age Range: 1+
• Supplies Needed: potatoes, paint, paint brush, paring knife
• Messiness Level: 2
• Time Range: <1 hour

Potato stamps are classic rainy-day fun, though they’ll require a little work on your part: Slice potatoes in half and use a paring knife to cut out the shapes your kids request. (And if your child demands Elsa’s face? Best of luck to you, friend.) Your toddler can brush on paint, using the stamps to his or her heart’s content.

• Age Range: 3+
• Supplies Needed: canvas, salt, watercolor paint, mod podge, paint brush, vinyl letter stickers
• Messiness Level: 3
• Time Range: <1 hour

This craft from OneLittleProject.com works on so many levels: Your kids can work on identifying letters as you spell out words using vinyl letter stickers, they get to relish in the fun of covering a canvas with Mod Podge, salt and watercolor paint, and the end result is something you actually wouldn’t mind hanging up on your wall.

• Age Range: 1+
• Supplies Needed: broccoli, craft paper, paint
• Messiness Level: 3
• Time Range: <1 hour

Those little florets make for great brushes. Cover a table in craft paper, dab a little paint in a saucer and let your kids see what designs they can make. If you need help getting them started, draw a tree trunk and have them stamp the florets onto the paper, forming the leaves on top. The end result is a pretty impressive fall craft for kids that even a baby can accomplish.

• Age Range: 2+
• Supplies Needed: kid-safe knife, cookie cutters, fresh produce
• Messiness Level: 2
• Time Range: <1 hour

Mindy Zald, aka theplatedzoo, has gained a cult following on Instagram for the ways she turns fruit and vegetables into frogs, pigs and even Seussian characters. Scroll through her feed—or watch this video of the animals coming together—to get inspired. Then use cookie cutters and a kid-safe plastic knife to cut out shapes, challenging your toddler to help you dream up a few creatures of your own.

• Age Range: 2+
• Supplies Needed: assorted craft supplies (pom poms, pipe cleaners, washi tape, etc.), popsicle sticks, glue
• Messiness Level:
• Time Range: <1 hour

Let your kids’ creativity run wild as they color Popsicle sticks and glue them together (OK, you’ll handle the gluing, lest your dining-room table gain some colorful new additions). Here’s a chance to clear out old craft supplies, like extra pom-poms, pipe cleaners and odd bits of washi tape. Who knows what they’ll need to give that critter its spiky tail or speckles?

• Age Range: 2+
• Supplies Needed: dried pasta, yarn or twine, paint (optional)
• Messiness Level: 1
• Time Range: no limit

What, macaroni necklaces aren’t chic?! Don’t tell that to your toddler. It’s a classic for a reason, and whether you let them use markers or paint to color their “beads” or just plop down some uncooked noodles and yarn, your little ones can hone their fine motor skills as they practice threading. (Just make sure to keep a close eye on your tot, lest they try to consume the uncooked pasta.)

• Age Range: 1+
• Supplies Needed: food coloring, yogurt
• Messiness Level: 3
• Time Range: no limit

Of all the crafts for toddlers, this one is particularly fun for 2-year-olds—and the mess is minimal if they’re still small enough to stay wrangled in a high chair. Add a few drops of food coloring to containers of Greek yogurt, mixing them up to create different shades of “paint.” Spoon a little directly onto the high chair’s tray, letting them use that as their canvas. Once they’re done, snap a pic of their masterpiece, then wash it away. Done. And if you’re not into food coloring, you can always try mixing in pureed baby food. Best of all, because this paint is actually edible, the only thing you need to worry about is mess, not safety.

• Age Range: 2+
• Supplies Needed: cardboard boxes, markers, stickers, crayons
• Messiness Level: 1
• Time Range: no limit

What kid doesn’t love making a box fort? If you have a large box, cut out a door and windows, then hand your kids stickers, crayons and markers so they can design the castle of their dreams. If you only have medium-sized boxes, cut out eye and mouth holes and re-create The Masked Singer at home. The big reveal won’t be too shocking, but then again, neither was the Monster in Season 1.

• Age Range: 3+
• Supplies Needed: glue, shoebox, magazines, miscellaneous toys
• Messiness Level: 1
• Time Range: >1 hour

Those magazines you keep meaning to KonMari out of your home have a new purpose. Help your kids cut out plants, furniture and other pictures they like—with close supervision this is a great opportunity for them to improve their fine motor skills with safety scissors—then glue them to the inside of a shoebox. Challenge them to scour their rooms for doll furniture and little character toys to live there (finally, a home for all those Little People!).

• Age Range: 1+
• Supplies Needed: pine cone, peanut butter, bird seed, thread
• Messiness Level: 2
• Time Range: <1 hour

I love this one as an Earth Day craft—and what it lacks in aesthetics it makes up for in sensory experimentation and just plain fun: Let your kid slather a pine cone in peanut butter, then roll it in bird seed. Hang it from a tree with some thread and you’re all set for some quality bird-watching. Which means you’ll also need to…

• Age Range: 2+
• Supplies Needed: toilet paper tubes, paint, thread or tape
• Messiness Level: 2
• Time Range: <1 hour

With two old toilet paper rolls, some paint and thread, they can have their very own pretend pair of binoculars. Let your kids decorate them however they want (for less mess, swap the paint for a ton of stickers), then tie or tape the two tubes side by side. This incredibly easy activity encourages young children to get curious about the world around them.

• Age Range: 1+
• Supplies Needed: shaving cream, food coloring
• Messiness Level: 2
• Time Range: <1 hour

Grab a muffin tray, squeeze a little shaving cream into each cup and add a drop of food coloring to each one. Mix them up and you’ve got an instant palette for your budding Van Gogh to paint the bathtub walls with…and, given the canvas, clean-up couldn’t be easier.

• Age Range: 3+
• Supplies Needed: nature findings (acorns, twigs, plants, soil), glitter, pot
• Messiness Level: 2
• Time Range: >1 hour

You may need to take a trip to Home Depot, Lowe’s or your local nursery for this one, but it’s worth it. Have your child choose a small planter—or an old mug or bowl, like in the photo above—and pick out plants to fill it. Then use dollhouse furniture, acorns and twigs, or small toys to create the fairy’s getaway, sprinkling the whole thing with a little pixie dust (aka glitter) to encourage Tinker Bell to visit. While the assembly of the fairy garden will require a fair amount of help from a grown-up, this craft is a perfect opportunity to send a toddler off on a backyard scavenger hunt—a hands-on activity that features nature and stirs the imagination.

• Age Range: 2+
• Supplies Needed: beads, pom poms and/or buttons; markers and paper
• Messiness Level: 2
• Time Range: <1 hour

Here’s an easy way to help your toddler learn colors, courtesy of KiwiCo: Use markers to draw a rainbow on paper, then present your toddler with pom-poms, beads and buttons to match to the colors on the rainbow and then glue on. (Remember to watch closely since choking hazards are involved, and take advantage of the opportunity to teach your tot what does and does not go in one’s mouth.) You can also use this rainbow craft for kids as a chance to discuss the texture of each object used: Is it soft? Hard? Smooth? Fluffy?

• Age Range: 3+
• Supplies Needed: beads, pipe cleaners, straws
• Messiness Level: 1
• Time Range: <1 hour

With some pony beads, pipe cleaners and straws, your little ones can create a bouquet of colorful faux flowers (while unwittingly improving their fine motor skills). Plus, this pipe cleaner craft requires little more than some threading and twisting, so it’s totally mess-free and very toddler-friendly.

• Age Range: 2+
• Supplies Needed: cornstarch, food coloring
• Messiness Level: 3
• Time Range: <1 hour

Kids’ obsession with slime isn’t going anywhere, so you might as well introduce them to the OG from your childhood: oobleck. Made with cornstarch, water and food coloring, the non-Newtonian fluid serves as a mini physics class in and of itself. Watch your toddler freak out at the way you can dip your hand into it, like a liquid, and squeeze it, like a solid. It’s sensory learning that never gets old.