Crafting With Kids: Ideas For New Parents

It's not always easy coming up with fun things to do with the kids — especially when you have older kids as well as little ones. One craft that kids of all ages will have fun with is creating window clings. You can buy a few rolls of clear plastic window cling material from a company that sells products like clear vinyl window graphics and some window cling paints and have the kids go crazy. Here, you'll find a few tips to inspire some ideas and get you all started.

Choose the Size

It's a good idea to know how large of sheets you want to give each of the kids. Will you have them do a sheet large enough to cover an entire window, or will you just make small individual creations that you'll cut out?

Figure out how much you'll want or need and then compare the prices for the available products.

Get the Paints

You can find paint kits for window clings at your local arts and crafts store or online — lots of times, you'll be able to find the products that you'll need where you buy the roll of clear window cling.

Choose Quality Brushes

When working with this type of paint, you'll want to use good brushes. This is because the cheap brushes will leave deep brush marks, and pieces of the brush can fall off into the paint. Choose various sizes so that the kids will be able to do detail work as well as paint large areas without it taking forever.

Get Stencils

If you or your kids don't like free-hand painting, you can use stencils to make it easier. Just make sure to use a bit of tape on each corner of the stencil so that it doesn't shift around while it's being painted.

Stamp It Up

Stamps can also be used. Just put a bit of paint in a dish, press the stamp into it just like you would an ink pad, and press carefully on the plastic. Just know that it will slide easily with the paint on it, so press down, not forward.

Follow the Drying Time Instructions

The paint will take some time to completely dry — especially when there is a lot of paint on the plastic. Leave them to sit where they are until they have completely dried — this might mean you have dinner in the living room, but it will ensure that the art isn't messed up.

This can be a lot of fun, and you can do it for every holiday. Each year, have the kids all create window clings to decorate for the holidays and you'll have lots of fun things to look back on over the years.