Our five favourite rainy-day craft ideas for kids

1. Toilet roll tube animals

Almost anything can be turned into a craft project, and many throwaway items in your home have the potential to become something amazing by arty kids! Egg boxes can be turned into monsters, empty bottles make great watering cans, and even toilet roll tubes can become brilliant works of art.

To make your own toilet roll tube animals, you’ll need:

• Cardboard toilet roll tubes
• Coloured paper or card
• Coloured pencils, pens or crayons
• Scissors
• Glue
• Googly eyes, pipe cleaners and other assorted decorations

Start by wrapping the tube in coloured paper or card, helping the kids with cutting out and glueing, or paint your tube. Then let your imagination run riot! Whether the kids want to recreate their favourite animal, make a toilet roll version of themselves, or make a crazy alien design, the only limit to the creativity is the depth of your craft supplies.

Try cutting a strip of cardboard to create an elephant’s trunk, or use pipe cleaners to make insect (or alien) antenna. You could even keep some kitchen paper tubes and make some snakes or crocodiles, complete with pointy teeth and googly eyes!

2. Finger painting

Finger painting is easy, inexpensive, and a lot of fun! It’s a fantastic rainy-day hobby for younger kids to express themselves and improve their motor skills – plus, you’ll get some new additions to put on the front of the fridge afterwards.

All you need for finger painting is some paper or cardboard, a selection of acrylic paint, and a disposable cover for your table.

Encourage them to create paintings of whatever they like, whether it’s a portrait of the family pet, a picture of the garden, or even a self-portrait. Chances are you’ll get a vivid mess of colours in return, but don’t worry – you can call it modern art.

If there’s one thing kids seem to love, it’s getting their hands dirty. Finger painting gives them the opportunity to get a bit mucky while being creative at the same time – just be sure to have some warm soapy water handy for when they’ve finished their masterpieces.

3. Holiday scrap book

Who doesn’t love a summer holiday? Make your getaway memories last forever by getting the kids to put together a holiday scrap book. It’s a brilliant way of reliving the good times, getting creative, and keeping the little ones busy on a rainy day.

While you’re away, keep hold of things like ticket stubs for attractions, postcards, and any other small tokens from your holiday. Keep them safe for a rainy day, then enjoy putting together a memento with the little ones.

Grab yourself an empty scrapbook and stick in your collection of memories. Get the kids to write a description next to each item with coloured pencils, and decorate each page with stickers, glitter, or anything else they see fit.

This would also be a great opportunity to get some photos printed and put them in a photo album. There’s still something very special about physical copies of your favourite snaps – you could even pop some in a photo frame to have it on show all the time.

4. Make your own seasonal decorations

Get ahead on the next celebration by getting the kids to create some decorations! Whether Christmas is round the corner, you’re stocking up for Easter, or Halloween is lurking, having some homemade decorations is a great way of putting your own spin on the season.

There’s plenty of purpose-made ‘make your own’ kits available on wilko.com, or why not get creative with what you have?

If you’re looking for some great ideas for seasonal arts & crafts, we’ve got articles on Halloween, Christmas, and Easter crafts to get you started.

5. Try something new!

Arts & crafts is so much more than pencils and paint. A rainy day stuck indoors if the perfect chance to try out a new artform – both for you and the kids!

If the idea of letting your kids loose with paint fills you with dread, fear not – mediums like oil pastels will help them get creative without the risk of colourful splashes on the wallpaper.

Colouring books are a sure-fire hit with kids and toddlers. Simply browse our collection, pick up some coloured pencils, and the little ones can do the rest while you sit back and enjoy the silence – at least for a little bit.

Paper crafts like origami are a satisfying way of creating some 3D masterpieces, and these can easily double-up as homemade decorations when they’re done!

There’s also cross stitch for the slightly older kids, and loads of make-your-own arts & crafts sets including candle-making, painting by numbers, stained glass and loads more.