Buying Kids Craft Supplies
At littlecraftybugs we understand that choosing craft supplies for children can be a little daunting to the less experienced craft shopper. To help you out, we have included lots of suggestions here of the most useful children’s craft supplies, together with some helpful links to our shop.
The list below is a summary of the information you will find on this page, you can click on any of the links to view these items.
- Choosing children’s craft supplies for home crafting
- Kids craft supplies for rainy days
- Choosing craft supplies for kids groups
- Pipe Cleaners for children’s crafts
- Googly Eyes – a kids craft essential
- Pom Poms for kids crafts
- Foamies, foam sheets and foam shapes
Choosing Children’s Craft Supplies for Home Crafting
We are frequently asked to recommend the essential supplies for a children's craft box, whether to keep and use at home or to make a gift set for a crafty child.
To guide you in the right direction, we have included a list of our recommended craft supplies for kids below.
- Beads ~ great for threading and also gluing to kids collages and cards.
- Card ~ ideal for children’s collages and to cut shapes from.
- Card blanks ~ it's so easy for children to make greetings cards, from first scribbles to the more complex cards that older kids will make.
- Eyes~ we probably sell the largest range of wobbly eyes on the web - take a crafty look...
- Feathers ~ an absolute essential for children's crafts, including collages, masks, crowns and much more.
- Felt ~ kids love chopping this up, why not add some old fabric scraps from your sewing box too?
- Foam shapes ~ available in all shapes, sizes and colours - themed packs, geometric packs, sticky backed packs... this list is almost endless.
- Foam sheets - great for using as collage backgrounds and also for chopping up to make shapes for cards, collages and many more kids craft projects.
- Glitter ~ the perennial of children's craft supplies - not just for Christmas craft times!
- Glue ~ you may wish to keep glue sticks and PVA in your kid's craft box but it's also a good idea to have some high tack or fast tack glue for larger items or 3D crafts, such as our crafty bugs.
- Paper ~ from drawing to paper chains - there are so, so many opportunities for kids to use paper when crafting. Construction paper is ideal as it's slightly more robust.
- Pipe cleaners ~ great for adding to kids collages, pom pom bugs and for beading activities.
- Pom poms ~ all kids love pom poms - they are offered in all sizes and colours, with lots of mixed packs for a general craft box.
- Scissors ~ standard kids scissors, pattern cut scissors, left handed scissors... They all have their place in a group craft box.
- Straws ~ great for chopping up and adding to collages, cards and 3D models.
- Tissue paper ~ kids love using this in its flat form but also screwed up into balls – a really versatile craft supply for kids.
- Wooden sticks ~ great for puppet making, bookmarks etc.
- Wool ~ perfect to use for hair, threading, collages, weaving and much more.
What to avoid?
- Paint! Unless you have lots of patience and somewhere that kids can paint without risk of damaging floor coverings and furniture - we just think it's best to avoid paint! There are so many crafts that children can make without the need to so drastically increase your stress levels!
That's all - nothing else!
Kids Craft Supplies for Rainy Days
We offer a number of collections of children's craft supplies for both home and rainy day craft sessions. We pack these with a view to supplying a broad range of best quality children’s craft supplies, which will all work together, at the best possible price.
You may like to use some of the suggestions above to pack your own rainy day craft set, why not theme it? You could perhaps use under the sea themed craft supplies, pirate themed craft supplies or princess themed craft supplies.
Our unique littlecraftyboxes make perfect gift selections of themed craft supplies and they’re unique to us.
Choosing Craft Supplies for Kids Groups
All of the items in our shops are listed with the largest packs first and the smallest packs last, to make browsing easier for craft supplies and kits for children’s groups. If you are looking for craft supplies for smaller groups or home crafting, you can simply choose to list the smallest packs first.
We have included some links below, which you may find helpful when buying craft supplies for kids groups.
- Card sheets in bulk packs ~ ideal for children’s collage craft sessions and also as the base for many, many other children’s crafts.
- Card blanks in bulk packs for kids groups.
- Feathers ~ an absolute essential for children's crafts, available in jumbo bags and mid-sized bags for kids group crafts.
- Felt ~ kids will love chopping up our jumbo value packs of craft felt.
- Foam sheets – many bulk packs in mixed and single colours for kids group crafts.
- Glitter ~ the perennial of children's craft supplies, our jumbo pots will be ideal for kids groups.
- Glitter glue ~ much easier for kids to use than standard glitter and a lot less mess...
- Glue ~ you may wish to keep glue sticks and PVA in your kid's craft box but it's also a good idea to have some high tack or fast tack glue for larger items or 3D crafts, such as our crafty bugs.
- Paper ~ from drawing to paper chains - there are so, so many opportunities for kids to use paper when crafting. Construction paper is ideal as it's slightly more robust.
- Plastic beads ~ our bulk packs of plastic beads and pony beads are ideal for many kids threading and beading craft projects.
- Scissors ~ we sell a terrific range of best quality scissors for kids groups.
- Stickers ~ our range of craft stickers for kids groups is probably the largest in the UK. These can be used in so many ways including mask making, collages, box decorating and crown making.
- Tissue paper ~ kids love using this in its flat form but also screwed up into balls – a really popular kids craft supply and available in packs of all colours, sizes and pack sizes.
- Wooden sticks ~ the essential kids craft supply for puppet making, bookmarks and many other children’s crafts.
Pipe Cleaners for Children’s Crafts
Pipe cleaners, otherwise called chenille stems and chenille sticks have many uses in the world of kids crafts. The wired core of these makes them very versatile for use on 3D crafts but also when used flat in collages etc.
Standard pipe cleaners are 300mm long and have a width of 6mm. However, extra long pipe cleaners and more chunky pipe cleaners are also available.
The pipe cleaners are sold in some great colour mixes and also single colour packs, including red, green, yellow, orange and black, together with more unusual pipe cleaner colours such as beige and vivid pink.
Tinsel or glitter pipe cleaners are always popular for children’s Christmas crafts but can also be used throughout the year – perhaps blue tinsel pipecleaners in kids under the sea themed crafts and green tinsel pipecleaners as flower stems.
Popular children’s craft themes for using pipecleaners and pom poms are multicultural crafts and animal themed crafts. To make browsing for these items easier for you, we have a section in our pom pom and pipecleaner shop dedicated to these two themes.
What children’s crafts can you make with pipecleaners? Unfortunately, we don’t have enough space here to do this question full justice as the opportunities are only really limited by imagination, whether ours as adults or the crafters themselves. Suffice to say though that they are fantastic when making pencil toppers, monster making crafts, pom poms bugs, bead threading, Christmas ornaments, peg dolly making and much more.
We strongly recommend either using a tacky or fast tack glue for crafts where pipecleaners are going to be expected to stay in an “unnatural” position and also where a quick result is required. This tacky glue really is our best selling glue for kids crafts; it is far tackier than PVA from the outset and will be relatively dry within 10-15 minutes from application, compared to the hours it takes for normal PVA to dry.
Googly Eyes – The Kids Craft Essential
At littlecraftybugs, we probably sell the widest range of wobbly eyes in the UK. In fact, we sell so many googly eyes that we have a section of our shop dedicated to them.
No matter whether you call them wobbly eyes, googly eyes or wiggle eyes, they’re all the same and they’re all googly!
Googly eyes range in size from a micro 3mm and 5mm wobbly eye to a jumbo 25mm, 30mm and some even larger. The most popular sizes are 7mm and 10mm but mixed packs also work well in children’s freestyle craft activities.
Standard googly eyes are black and white and round but they are also available as oval shaped and in different colours, including glow in the dark wobbly eyes.
The wobbly eyes can either be paste-on to use with adhesives or self adhesive. The self adhesive googly eyes are either stuck to a backing sheet or have individual peel off backings. Additionally, we also sell sew-on wobbly eyes for fabric crafts, puppets etc.
Pom Poms for Kids Crafts
Pom-poms are a key ingredient for many children’s crafts, especially pom-pom bug making crafts.
Acrylic pom poms are sold in many, many sizes, colours and designs, you will find everything you will want in our pom-pom and pipecleaner shop.
Pom-poms range in size from the smallest 5mm, which are the size of peppercorns, to giant poms, which can be up to 76mm.
Crafty ideas for pom-poms
- Noses
- Crown decorating
- Clown faces
- Pencil toppers
- Pom pom craft bugs
Craft pom poms are sold in some great colour mixes and also single colour packs, including red, green, yellow, orange and black, together with more unusual craft pom-pom colours such as beige, vivid pink and even multicoloured or rainbow colours.
Tinsel or glitter pom-poms have far more uses that just kids Christmas crafts, they can also be used throughout the year – perhaps green tinsel pom-poms on monster pom pom bugs, red tinsel pom poms for Comic Relief or red nose crafts and silver tinsel pom poms on box decorating projects.
We strongly recommend either using a tacky or fast tack glue for pom-pom based crafts and bug making projects where a quick result is required. This tacky glue really is our best selling glue for kids crafts; it is far tackier than PVA from the outset and will be relatively dry within 10-15 minutes from application, compared to the hours it takes for normal PVA to dry.
Foamies, Foam Sheets & Foam Shapes
What can we say about craft foamies? We could write a book for you about the uses of craft foam in children’s craft projects – the opportunities are almost endless.
“Foamies” is essentially a trade name for craft foam, which is supplied as foam sheets, flat foam shapes and also some 3D foam shapes, all designed for kids craft projects.
Most foam sheets are supplied as A4 size, although this is also available as a smaller A5 size and a larger A3 size. The table below will give you an indication of the comparative sizes of the sheets.
-
Metric name
Size in mm
Size in inches
148 x 210
5.83 x 8.27
Half of A4
210 x 297
8.27 x 11.69
297 x 420
11.69 x 16.54
Double A4
Foam sheets are supplied as a standard 2mm thick foam, which can be easily cut with kids craft scissors. It’s also sold as super thick 6mm foam, which is used where a more substantial base is required – please be aware that this thicker foam is far more difficult to cut, in view of its depth.
Most foam sheets are the same on both sides, although some is supplied with a self adhesive peel and stick backing. As the foam and the self adhesive backing are cut together, this makes adhesion much easier in kids crafts. This does come at a small cost though, as this is slightly more expensive that standard foam for kids crafts.
Increasingly foam sheets are available patterned and also glittered, which add a really different twist to children’s craft projects.
Many items in our range of children’s craft foam are available in bulk packs for group crafts. These bulk packs are supplied in both single and mixed colours.
We strongly recommend either using a tacky or fast tack glue for foamie crafts and other kids crafts where a quick result is required. These tacky glues really are our best selling glue for kids’ crafts; it is far tackier than PVA from the outset and will be relatively dry within 10-15 minutes from application, compared to the hours it takes for normal PVA to dry.
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