I still have my second grade art box. The neon pink plastic case has graduated from Crayolas to oils, crossed international borders, and never stopped inspiring me toward new artistic endeavors. My little girl now has one of her very own too.
[Tweet “Stock your child’s art box with brilliant supplies he’ll love!”]
Toddlers love getting messy, discovering colors, and creating hands-on art projects. Be an original this year. Let Great Aunt Doris take care of little Susie’s socks and hair bows.
Check out this toddler art gift guide and present the child in your life a set of art supplies. Be prepared to hold the “Most Rocking Aunt/Cousin/Grandma” title… at least until someone brings out the cookie jar.
Pick up a tackle box, Caboodle, or any other organizational box & stock it with art supplies. Here’s a list of my toddler’s current faves that are sure to be a hit!
Basic Supplies:
- Butcher paper, thick drawing pad, watercolor pad, or canvas
- Contact paper
- Apron
- Brushes
- Sponges
Messy Fun Stuff:
- Finger paint
- Oil pastels These work great for watercolor resist!
- Stamp pad
- Stampers
- Stickers
- Glitter
- Glue and glue sticks
- Sidewalk chalk
- Window crayons Even I love these!
- Face paint crayons
Which art supplies are the favorites in your house? Please share in the comments below.
If you’re more of the DIYer who loves creating art supplies from scratch, then I recommend you check out this book from your local library to stock your child’s art box with all kinds of fun homemade paints and art supplies!
Follow my Tot School and Preschool Ideas board on Pinterest for more engaging art activities for kids!
We love art supplies! I would be happy to get this for my toddler for sure 🙂
Isn’t it so much fun to bust out the paints and get your hands messy? I’m a very tactile learner and really enjoy art play with my little girl. So glad to have you stop by tonight, Branson. Cheers to creative toddler fun!
My son LOVES art. Right now his favorite items are a sketch pad with colored pencils and acrylic paint and canvases. He just turned 8 and got a TON of supplies for his birthday. He also just bought himself some clay and clay tools with a gift certificate.
It sounds like your son would fit in perfectly at our house. I completely forgot play dough on my list, but we use it every day. (Currently my little girl requests we mold Dora and her pals.) When I was about your son’s age I had a kids potting wheel and clay and LOVED it! What fun it must be to watch your son create. Thank you for stopping by and offering more tool ideas for the art kit.
That is such a cute idea. My little guy would love something like this. Thanks for the Christmas idea! I’d love it if you linked up with our weekly link up party and shared!
http://www.mylifeoftravelsandadventures.com/2013/11/awesome-things-tuesday-week-1.html
Isn’t it fun watching our little ones get creative? They use art supplies and things around the house in such unusual ways that I’d never consider. Hope your little guy has a wonderful holiday. Thank you for visiting, Krystal! See you soon.
This is SO cool, and SO weird because I was literally googling a craft list for toddlers today! Thanks for sharing at The Blogger’s Digest, I’m pinning this bad boy and will feature it next week 😀
Happy dancing over here, lady. I’m so glad you found the art kit useful. We have so much fun making projects from all the materials inside. One of my favorite things about requesting art supplies for my little girl at birthdays is that they get used up– no trying to find new shelf space to accommodate toys. Love it!
This would make a fantastic Christmas gifts for kids. I could assemble a bunch of them for my nieces and nephews.
What a great idea! Our son isn’t big enough to use this yet, but I am definitely pinning it for the future, and for future nieces and nephews! Thanks for the idea!
Love this idea!
Thank you, Alexis! My little girl and most of her friends love creating things with paints, glitter, and any art supplies they can get their little hands on. Seemed like a perfect gift idea to share with you all!
Love this idea! It’s such a great way to customize a gift for a little boy or girl. Thanks for sharing!
Stopping by from the Live, Laugh, Rowe link party!
Perfect timing… On Mondays, all of our homeschoolers come with us to the next town over… Daddy is in school, Mommy works night shift Sunday night and so big sister and brother in law (they are 21 and 25) help by watching the kidlets while Mommy gets a nap before everyone has dance class. We’ve been talking about putting together some craft and coloring caddies for them to use over there… keep it contained but make it easy for them to entertain the kiddos.
my daughter still loves getting art supplies, and she is no toddler anymore 🙂
Me too! Art supplies are so much fun. I can go to town with a pack of sidewalk chalk, and just the other day at the mall spent about 20 minutes chalking the art wall there beside my toddler 🙂 Thanks for visiting today, Heather.
This is such a neat idea! I have a few nieces who would absolutely love this!
Awesome! It’s an easy way to please kids and parents. Kids love creating and parents love finding new ways to entertain kids throughout the day so that they have a few spare minutes…or is that just me 😉 Thank you for stopping by, Leigh Ann!
Pretty sure it’s not just you! You at least have me on your side. 🙂
Great idea! We have a few extra boxes around the house that my older kids used in elementary school, I think I could use one of those to make one of these boxes for my youngest. Or maybe even for my niece, hmmm 🙂 Thanks for sharing your idea, it’s got my brain turning now for who I can make one for, lol! I’d love if you’d come link some of your creativity over at our Lovely Ladies link party, live on Wednesdays. Come check it out if you’d like, we’d love to have you over 🙂 http://bit.ly/1atfsuh
-Molly from Just a Little Creativity
Molly, I’m happy you found some gift inspiration here today. Those pencil boxes from elementary do seem to have a good long life, don’t they? With a swipe or two using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser they almost good as new. Thank you for stopping by this morning.
I absolutely love this idea! I pinned it and will be attaining the supplies for a Christmas gift for Sofia. It’s such a good idea, and she loves to color and draw, so she’ll love it. Thanks for sharing Jelli!
Great post. We love art supplied! 🙂
Thanks, Jenni! So glad you stopped by this week. I can’t wait to click over to your post about Christmas crafts for the little ones. Have a super weekend.
looks like a LOT of fun!
I STILL love fresh, new art supplies – SO MUCH. When I started letting my one year old play with them, I had to let go of my OCD 🙂
What a great gift idea!
Roxanne, I’m the same way! When the first crayon breaks or a marker goes topless and dries up, it bothers me much more than the kids. If you love the supplies, then I’m sure that you and your kids will spend hours of quality time together creating art. Enjoy!
What a great idea. My little one loves to draw, paint, color, you name it. We have several pieces that she has made on display in our home. It builds pride and self-esteem when we let her know how much we love and appreciate the many different things she makes for us.
Sounds like you’re wonderfully supportive parents, Renee. We don’t have curtains in two of our windows- we hang kids art there instead! They create so much of it that it provides a beautiful “curtain” for us with no need to hang anything else. Thank you so much for stopping by.
Jelli – these are great! We often ask for art/craft supplies for birthday, Christmas, and any other reason the grandparents find to gift m the grand kids. I’ll have to send them this for some more clear cut ideas.
Marissa
Aw, thanks, Marissa. I share posts all the time with the grandparents to steer them on the right gift-giving course. In fact, I recently emailed my mother this post about making a doorway playhouse. Too much fun! Thank you for taking a second to stop by this week.
Thanks for the reminder that art supplies make great gifts!
You betcha, Leslie. We love gifting art supplies to all our kids’ friends…that and books! Parents like them because they get used up and don’t have to deal with storing them for years to come and kids just plain enjoy creating. Thank you for taking a moment out of your day to visit.
What a great art kit! My girls love arts and crafts. Their kits are filled with all the stuff you have listed plus feathers, pom poms, pipe cleaners, yarn, jewels, buttons and more. They love getting messy and creating. I have never heard of window crayons. I’ll have to look for those.
Feathers and pom poms, what great additions! I think I need to get my kids a bigger box so we can really stock up…or have the grandparents stock it up at birthday time 🙂 Thanks for the suggestions!!! Window crayons are great because they’re opaque like crayons but wipe off really easily. They show up better on windows than any window or dry erase marker we’ve tried. Hope you like them as much as we do!
Great post! Brought back many happy memories of crafting together with my little ones 🙂
I have an almost 20-month-old who is just starting to get into art — she often asks to paint with her dot paints — and I think she would really enjoy something like this! It’s so much fun to watch her get creative and use her little hands to make art 🙂 Thanks for sharing, stopping by from SITS!
That’s a great age to begin exploring crafty activities. Your daughter would have tons of fun with this paint. I think mine was about 2 in these photos and my son around 9 months when he first tried painting.