The Best Arts & Crafts Supplies for Kids

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As a homeschooling family, we make sure to incorporate arts and crafts into our daily schedule. Doing art activities allows your kids to be creative while expressing themselves through all sorts of artistic media. Milana takes art classes, both in person and virtually on Outschool, every week and it’s one of her favorite subjects.

Since Milana was a toddler, we’ve always had an art area set up in our home with lots of different, mostly open ended supplies where she could create anything and everything she could imagine. We also have lots of art kits that while they aren’t really open ended, provide lots of entertainment and creativity. Here are some of our must have arts and crafts supplies and art kits for kids.

If you’re looking for the best art desk for the toddler through 5 year old stage, we loved this KidKraft one. Now that Milana is older, she uses this Carolina Craft Table from Pottery Barn. Looking for ready to make craft kits? Scroll to the bottom of this post! And click here if you’d like some other indoor entertainment ideas aside from crafts.

Must Have Art & Craft Supplies for Kids

Coloring Tools

From markers and crayons to chalk and colored pencils, these items are must haves in any art supply closet.

For little ones, I highly recommend dot markers, they are one of the best toddler art supplies we have owned. They are easy to hold and use and toddlers love creating masterpieces with them.

Crayons are also a must, and a nice big box of Crayola crayons will be just fine. For younger kids, triangular crayons are a good bet since they can’t roll away.

If you have an older child that is taking art classes, you will need some good quality basic supplies. Pencils, art chalk, sharpies and good quality colored pencils are a must for your typical non paint class.

Paper Products

There are so many different types of paper to choose from and each project will use something different. Let your kids explore with different media and find a style of art that best suits them. Here are some of the paper products we currently have in our art area.

Colored Cardstock
Construction Paper
Regular Copy Paper
Scrapbook Paper
Watercolor Paper
Sketch Pad
Blank Canvases
Tissue Paper

Paint Supplies

Painting is great for kids of all ages! Experimenting with paint was one of the first things Milana did as a toddler, using chunky brushes and toddler appropriate paint.

Toddler Paint Supplies

Chunky Paintbrushes
Spill Proof Paint Brush Cups
Variety of Paint Sponges and Brushes
Washable Paint

Paint Supplies for Older Kids

Variety of Paint Brushes
Tempera Paint
Watercolor Paint
Oil Paint for the more experienced painters.

Art & Craft Supplies Every Little Artist Needs

Here’s a list of supplies we always have in our art closet. We organize our art supplies in jars that are easy for kids to handle.

Pom Poms A must in any art supply kit.
Pipe Cleaners These are fun to make bead bracelets with!
Assorted Buttons Lots of possibilities here! Milana recently learned to sew so she’s been sewing her buttons onto things.
Feathers Another fun, open ended item.
Washi Tape Huge hit here! There are so many designs to choose from.
Googly Eyes We have these in many different sizes.
Beads You can buy just a mixed bag of these, but Milana loves this color coordinated set.
Glue Nothing beats good old Elmer’s!
Popsicle Sticks Your kids can create so many things with this simple item!
Glitter Glue We tried quite a few and Crayola has been the best.
Stickers We love puffy stickers and always have a big supply on hand.
Clothes Pins How cute are these?
Kid Safe Scissors They cut well through paper and other supplies, but are safe for little fingers.
Crafting Scissors We got these years ago and they are still a hit!
Foam Cut Outs Lots of creativity options here!
Craft Rolls Sure you can use toilet paper rolls, but these are much studier and cleaner!

Recycled Supplies

In our area, there is a place called the Child Creativity Lab, where kids can go and create anything they can imagine using recycled materials. This is one of our favorite places to visit and Milana has crated quite a few things over the years! As a result, we now have a large supply of every day items that can be repurposed into crafts next to her art desk. Here are some supplies you should save and not toss, really the possibilities are endless!

• Egg cartons
• Lids
• Yogurt containers
• Sour cream containers
• Lego pieces
• Bead necklaces
• String
• Bottle caps
• Buttons
• Plastic bottles
• Small boxes
• Tissue boxes
• Fabric pieces
• Paper straws
• Paper towel rolls
• Corks
• Catalogs and magazines
• And much more!

Best Craft Kits for Kids of All Ages

Sometimes kids want to do a project that has a specific idea or theme in mind, and this is when craft kits come in handy. Over the years, we have tried countless kits and have our personal favorites. Here are some of them.

Toddler and Preschooler Craft Kits

Bead Jewelry Kit This was one of the first jewelry kits Milana got and a great introduction for little ones.
Rock Pet Painting Set This is another fun kit for little ones.
Paper Plate Animals Great introduction for little ones who may need ideas on how to use supplies.
Paper Bag Puppets Another fun and easy kit for little ones.

Craft Kits for Older Kits

We have a closet full of kits and have done a ton of them in recent weeks. I won’t list all the ones we have/have done, but I did ask Milana for her favorites and here they are.

Kid Made Modern Kits

Kid Made Modern is one of our top brands for art supply and crafting kits. There are so many possibilities to choose from! Here are our favorites:

Ice Cream Craft Kit This is such a cute kit! While it’s a kit, the kids can still design their ice cream to resemble whatever they want.
Trading Card Kit Another hit! Kids can design their own trading cards, the possibilities are endless.
Arts and Crafts Library Don’t want to buy all the supplies individually? This is one of the best and most complete sets we have found.
Butterfly Bungalow Kit This was another kit that our entire family enjoyed.

Plush Crafts This was a huge hit in our house! So huge that I ordered a few more animals to make in the future.
Green Kid Crafts Want a monthly craft kit shipped to your house? This is one we have tried and liked!
My First Sewing Kit Milana got this for Christmas last year and loved it. She can now sew basic things and has been making all sorts of things from her fabric stash.
Giant Art Jar A big jar, filled with lots of crafting supplies.
Weaving Kit This is a lot of fun for older kids!
Window Art Kit Have your kids design these and then hang up in your windows for everyone to see!
Y’Art Kit This is best for older kids as it requires lots of coordination but is super fun!
Slime Kit Parents hate it, kids love it. This kit comes with everything your child needs to make slime.

Now that you have a fully stocked art closet, get to crafting! What are some of your child’s favorite things to make? Tell us in the comments below!