10 New Kids Art Projects to Try in 2015

These creative kids craft ideas are brought to you by a guest contributor.

Most kids love to gather round the kitchen table to get their hands covered in glue and paint with arts and crafts activities. It can be more difficult to find original projects to try their little hands at. To keep on encouraging their creativity, here are some unusual arts activities for the New Year.

Melted Crayon Rocks

Wax-based crayons such as Crayola are the best for this fun, messy activity. All you need is some small smooth rocks and a selection of crayons in various bright colors. All you need to do is heat the rocks in a hot oven and carefully place them on the table (on place mats and foil to protect the surface). Now you can melt the crayons onto the rocks to produce brightly colored objects. Obviously, make sure the kids are supervised when dealing with the hot rocks.

Yarn Paintings

With only yarn, glue and paint you and your kids can enjoy this fun and tactile activity. Simply dip some short bits of yarn in glue and leave them to dry on some mat board overnight. You then have a textured canvas to paint as you wish. The result will be a painting with a difference.

Blow Paint Monsters

This is a project based on a kid’s art classic. Simply spoon some watered down paint on watercolor paper then blow the paint around with a straw. The weird and wonderful colorful shapes can be turned into monsters by adding googly eyes.

Toilet Roll Tube Characters

Decorate old toilet roll tubes with paper, tissue paper, paint and felt tips to make them into characters. Add feet and hats to make them look even more like little people.

Melted Crayon Finger Painting

This is another really fun activity using melted crayons. Simply melt the wax in an oven, ensure it is a safe temperature (you may have to let it harden slightly), and dip in and paint with your fingertips. The textured images that you get will look great on the fridge.

Snake Modelling

Using modelling clay create some slippery snakes. Let the clay dry and then paint the pattern of your choice.

Mondrian Collage

Introduce your little ones to the Dutch modernist painter by cutting out colorful shapes from colored paper and arranging them in a similar style to the paintings of the legendary De Stijl artist.

Watercolors with a hint of Lemon

Lemon juice bleaches watercolors. Paint some basic water color patterns then drip on some lemon juice and draw around the shapes.

Celery Flowers Stamps

This is a variation on the potato stamp theme. The chopped-off base of celery dipped in paint can faithfully represent a flower. Stamp on fabric for a nice floral pattern.

Button Tree

Draw a basic tree trunk with branches and then use buttons to decorate, gives a simple but lovely effect.

Which craft would you like to try?