5 Awesome Homemade Art Projects to do with Babies

1. Plastic Bag Painting

This is one of the easiest ways to get your little one involved in making art, because it doesn’t require you to make anything from scratch. It’s the perfect way to get crafty with your kids when you’re not a super crafty mom.

Here’s how you do it: Squirt some paint (finger paint, acrylic paint, whatever) in various colors onto a piece of paper. Put the paper inside a reseal able plastic bag. Seal the bag and tape the paper to your kitchen floor. Why the kitchen? If it somehow manages to get out of the bag, the linoleum will be easiest to clean. Then, let your miniature Jackson Pollock have a blast squishing around the different paint colors until they lose interest.

Remove the paper from the bag and toss the bag. Once the page is dry, you can frame it for Grandma or put it on your wall. Pat yourself on the back; you just made art with your kids without a mess!

2. Pudding Paint

So this method is very messy, but at least it’s food. You won’t have to worry about locating the number for poison control or spend the whole time in a futile attempt to keep Junior from sticking his fingers in his mouth…or his hair.

Here’s how you do it: Make vanilla instant pudding and separate into several small bowls. Then dye each bowl a different color using food coloring. Give your kid a large piece of paper or, if you’re not interested in saving it, just tear off a piece of wax paper and let them go to town in the kitchen floor. The kitchen floor is really perfect for most art projects with little ones.

When finished, you’ll probably need to put your little Van Gogh in the tub, but at least it will be easy to clean up and totally safe to eat.

3. Ice Cube Painting

This can get messy. Since I’m not a fan of chasing ice cubes around my kitchen floor or digging them out from under the refrigerator, I prefer to use our ice cube paints in the tub.

Here’s how you do it: Color water with food coloring or fruit juices. Freeze the water in an ice cube tray. The cubes will make really interesting art as they melt. They’re perfect for very young children because, like the pudding paint, ice cube paints are safe to eat.

If your munchkin isn’t a fan of chasing them around the tub as she tries to make art (my kids laugh their heads off!), you can also fill the tub with warm water and let him play as the cubes melt into the water. It’s great bath time fun! There’s not much mess, but if there’s any, you’re already in the tub!

4. Edible Sidewalk Chalk

We had a lot of fun with this one the day we watched Disney’s Frozen movie. My son still calls it “Olaf paint.” This little art project will be perfect for your own Frozen-obsessed princesses!

Here’s how you do it: Mix ½ corn starch, ½ water, and a few drops of food coloring. Then pour into ice cube trays or Popsicle molds. We have found that Popsicle molds really work the best, because it gives the kids something to hold onto (the stick) as they try to draw with frozen chalk. One mixed and poured, you will freeze them just as you would Popsicles.

When they’re ready you can head outside and enjoy making art on the sidewalk in the sunshine!

5. Contact Paper Collage

If all the paint involved art projects really don’t appeal to you, you’ll love this easy art project. It’s another favorite for moms that aren’t very crafty, or (like most of us) are really short on time.

Here’s how you do it: Tape a square of contact paper (or any shape really) to the wall. Make sure that the sticky side of the paper is facing away from the wall! Peel off the protective backing and let your little one have fun sticking craft supplies (like sequins, shredded paper, and pom-poms) to the paper.

The only downside to this project is that I haven’t yet figured out a way to save this kind of art and usually end up tossing it in the trash after a day or two on the wall.