Keep Small Hands Busy With the Best Craft Kits and Gift Boxes for Kids
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Ready, set, craft! Get your child’s creativity flowing and streamline your art-supply shopping with a ready-made crafting kit. Complete with all the materials needed to make a host of creations at home, craft kits usually come with some combination of pom-poms, scissors, stickers, glitter, paper, Popsicle sticks, and more. Whether your child is looking to make pipe-cleaner animals, a handcrafted card, or a Popsicle-stick house, a kit’s got you covered. Guaranteed to inspire boys, girls, toddlers, and tweens, craft kits are the answer to restless minds and fingers. Browse our selection of the best options below.
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Brought to you by the oldest and most widely circulated art magazine in the world, ARTnews Recommends helps you make the choice that suits you best from products in hundreds of art and craft supply categories. Our offerings are based on intensive research, interviews with artists and craftspeople, and the accumulated experience of the site’s editors and writers. We provide trustworthy and helpful advice about materials to artists ranging from beginner to professional.
ARTNEWS RECOMMENDS
Crayola Colossal Creativity Tub
This thoughtfully assembled tub from Crayola gives kids a big variety of good-quality, complementary craft supplies to use. It comes with crayons, twistable colored pencils, markers, kid-friendly paints, paint brushes, modeling clay, Model Magic, construction paper, and sidewalk chalk sticks—and each medium comes organized in its own package. Young ones can stay busy for hours, both indoors and outdoors, as they make 2D and 3D works. Everything is suitable for artists ages five and up, and there’s more than enough to share among siblings or during playdates.
Crayola Colossal Creativity Tub
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Kid Made Modern Arts and Crafts Library
Designed for kids ages eight and up, this portable center for creativity provides scads of supplies for hours of crafting. These include close to 300 pipe cleaners, more than 100 googly eyes (adhesive and non-adhesive), lots of plastic jewels, and dozens of beads and felt pieces. Kids can exercise their imaginations and make all kinds of constructions or follow the included guidebook, which provides step-by-step instructions for projects. The high-quality materials will result in artful keepsakes that proud parents will want to show off.
Kid Made Modern Arts and Crafts Library
ANOTHER GOOD CHOICE
Crayola Inspiration Art Case
Kids will feel like grown-up artists with this kit, which comes with lots of coloring tools stored neatly in a stylish and sturdy briefcase. It features 64 crayons (more than our top pick), 20 short colored pencils, 40 washable markers, and 15 sheets of paper. The colors are rich, and the tools don’t wear down quickly. Suitable for kids ages five and up, this is an especially smart choice if you’re seeking an easily portable set to bring along while traveling.
Crayola Inspiration Art Case
TOP OF THE LINE
Faber-Castell Pottery Studio
Does your kid love clay? Consider purchasing this pottery studio in a box. It comes with a mini wheel powered by batteries and a foot pedal; while slower than regular-size wheels (and quite noisy), it’s capable of supporting all kinds of tiny pots. The set is designed for users eight and up, and there’s a slight learning curve to using this little wheel, but it offers a good introduction to the pottery process. Also included are three pounds of synthetic clay, 12 pans of paint, two paint brushes, sculpting tools, illustrated instructions, an apron, even a table cover to protect your furniture from this relatively messy craft.
Faber-Castell Pottery Studio
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Craft-tastic Artist’s Box
Intended for children ages 6 to 12, this set comes with prompts that draw young artists into the creative process. It’s stocked with fibrous and other textured material such as tissue paper, embroidery thread, chenille stems, feathers, and pompoms. Also included are seven “challenge cards” that guide kids to create a mobile, a sculpture, a self-portrait, and other projects by posing opened-ended questions like “How will you make it reflect you?” and “How will you attach things?” It’s a great choice if you’re seeking something that inspires kids and really pushes their imagination.
Craft-tastic Artist’s Box
Brought to you by the oldest and most widely circulated art magazine in the world, ARTnews Recommends helps you make the choice that suits you best from products in hundreds of art and craft supply categories. Our offerings are based on intensive research, interviews with artists and craftspeople, and the accumulated experience of the site’s editors and writers. We provide trustworthy and helpful advice about materials to artists ranging from beginner to professional.
1. Kid Made Modern My First Arts and Crafts Library
This all-in-one craft kit includes more 200 pieces, enough to encourage creativity without overwhelming young makers. Meant for ages 3 and up, it includes sticky-backed jewels, felt circles, fuzzy pipe cleaners, straws, googly eyes, wooden sticks, and much more. The quality of materials is impressive: all similar shapes are precisely measured and cut, and surfaces are smooth and uniform. Pieces also come in an abundance of colors. Note that there are no instructions included, which is ideal for those seeking open-ended play. Everything is neatly arranged in a convenient cardboard carrying case for organized storage and travel.
Kid Made Modern My First Arts and Crafts Library
2. Art with Smile Giant Art Case
If your kid is the type that likes some guidance, consider this supersized craft kit. It comes with a whopping 1,600-plus pieces, including beads, buttons, feathers, and more good-quality materials. There are plenty of supplies to make crafts like pipe cleaner animals and beaded bracelets, and the included booklet provides step-by-step illustrated instructions for about a dozen projects. This gives young artists a good jumping off point without overly dictating their direction.
Art with Smile Giant Art Case
3. Crayola Color Caddy
This is a wonderful kit for young artists who love to doodle and color. It includes some of Crayola’s most popular kid-friendly tools, including 24 crayons, 18 broad-line markers, and 18 colored pencils. The nontoxic supplies are high-quality, producing vibrant colors and fitting comfortably in small hands. You also get glitter glue sticks, a pair of scissors, and 15 sheets of paper. Our one critique is that the carrying case is made of cardboard, so it’s likely you’ll eventually need to replace it.
Crayola Color Caddy
4. Kraftic Arts & Crafts Supplies Center
With 20 drawers filled with materials, this kit is a deluxe product meant for ages 5 and up. The red plastic box keeps supplies well organized and contained. It includes tons of craft materials, including 50 pom poms, 10 colored pencils, 10 markers, feathers, felt pieces, and stickers. Make sure you have a designated spot for it: The box measures 15 by 7.5 by 6 inches and, unlike most of our other picks, is not designed to be portable. Still, this option makes kids feel as though they have their own crafting studio and provides plenty of inspiration for myriad creations. The drawers glide out with ease and are transparent so kids can quickly find what they need.
Kraftic Arts & Crafts Supplies Center
5. Essenson Modeling Clay Kit
This modeling clay kit is a great option for kids age 3 and up who like tactile sensory experiences. It comes with everything needed to make complex mini sculptures: 50 pats of modeling clay in mixable colors; kid-friendly clay tools, like a nonstick roller and several plastic sculpting implements; and even accessories to make keychains and spring-mounted toys. The clay is consistently soft and easy to mold, and it dries without cracking.
Essenson Modeling Clay Kit
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