30 Spring Crafts for Kids That Are Simple, Fun, and Sweet

By Jill Riley

Spring is here, and it’s time to get out the craft supplies to celebrate. Spring crafts for kids are a great way to connect with kids of all ages.

I love setting up a craft table on the back porch. That way, we get to enjoy the beautiful weather and a bit of creativity.

These spring craft ideas include gardens, animals, flowers, rain, bugs, and butterfly creations. Add a few creative art pieces to your kindergarten, preschool, or toddler springtime activities plan.

On another note: crafty fun might be the perfect reason to take a break from spring cleaning.

Spring Crafts Perfect for Gardeners

Many of us think of gardening when springtime starts to show its face. These crafts are a great way to excite your kids about the garden. While they are simple enough for the kids to enjoy, you might join in! You can always pair these spring crafts with a gardening joke or two.

1. DIY Seed Paper

Make seed paper hearts using the seeds you’re about to plant to add something extra. All you need is tissue paper, scissors, and a dab of glue.

2. Flower Pot Dessert

Celebrate spring with an art project everyone can eat. Fill a pot (cleaned thoroughly) with chocolate pudding and crunched-up chocolate cookies. Stick an artificial flower in the “dirt” and add a couple of gummy worms to the top layer.

3. Terrarium Necklace

A mini terrarium necklace screams spring craft for kids! It brings nature right to your heart, and it’s unique. You’ll need mini glass jars, seeds, dirt, and twine.

4. Garden Markers

Rock garden markers are a great way to ensure you know where your vegetables will sprout. Paint rocks using acrylic paint and thin paintbrushes. Write out the name of each item planted in your garden, or paint a picture instead. Make sure to add a varnish to protect your creation.

5. Build a Bird Feeder

Get fancy by setting up a space with wood scraps and nails so the kids can create a bird feeder from scratch. Or stop at your local craft store and pick up a premade birdfeeder to paint. Either way, your little one will have fun filling it with birdseed and watching birds all spring. We once had a bird family build a nest in our feeder. That year brought us sweet spring memories.

Rain Crafts for a Rainy Day

April showers bring… lots of inside days! I’m a mom who likes to play outside, and, when the opportunity presents itself, will indulge my kids (and my inner child) in a spot of puddle splashing. After drying off inside, these rain and rainbow crafts are perfect spring crafts on a rainy day.

6. Umbrella Craft

This craft includes things you most likely have on hand. Cut a paper plate into the shape of an umbrella top; use pipe cleaners or yarn for the handle and cotton swab tips for the raindrops (you can soak them in blue food coloring). Your little artist can arrange the pieces on construction paper, glue them, and color them however they want.

7. Rainbow Collage

Draw the outline of a rainbow on a white piece of paper (or have your kids do it themselves). Next, set out construction paper (use all the rainbow colors), scissors, and glue. Let your kids cut colored pieces and attach them to the rainbow.

8. Rainy Rainbow Canvas

This one you have to see to believe. It would be a perfect Mother’s Day gift. Start by gluing crayons in rainbow order at the top of a canvas. Warm the canvas in the oven or with a high-heat hair dryer. When the crayons melt, they drip down the rainbow melted crayon. Add a picture of your little one holding an umbrella when the canvas cools, and the crayon wax is set.

9. Umbrella Props

Using toilet paper rolls, some paper, and yarn, make an umbrella craft that you can use to protect your kids’ favorite little dolls from a pretend rain storm.

10. Gravity Painting

Mix science and art with a bit of rain cloud gravity painting. You’ll need cardstock, liquid watercolors, eye droppers, cotton balls, and glue. You’ll also need something to prop the paper up with so the watercolors can run down the page.

Flower Crafts Any Gardener Will Love

It’s hard to think about spring crafts for kids and not think about flowers. These flower crafts and a few spring jokes will surely make your whole family smile.

11. Tissue Paper Tulips

Spend time working with your little crafters to tear up tissue paper into tiny scraps. Cut the shape of a simple tulip out of contact paper. Tear off one side of the contact paper backing and have your kids place the tissue paper pieces onto the sticky side. Once finished, you can stick it straight to the window.

12. Paint With Flowers

Collect a few flowers while walking or buy some from the store. Set up a creative space with paint and paper. Let your little ones paint with flowers.

13. Flower Stamps

Use toilet paper rolls to make flower stamps. All you need to do is cut strips of different sizes in the top 1/3 of a toilet paper roll. Next, fold back the cut pieces to create a flower-like design. Dip the stamp in paint, then stamp it onto paper.

14. Adorable Fake Flowers

If you can get your hands on spring-colored cupcake liners, you can make the cutest cupcake flowers. You’ll need glue, paper straws, or pipe cleaners for the stem and pom poms for the center.

15. Potato Flower Stamp

There are many ways to use a potato as a stamp. This spring craft is perfect for toddlers or young preschoolers. Cut a potato in half, and use the raw side as a large petal. The potato stamp flower will be simple and can stay the head of a flower, or you can add a stem with paper or a different paint color.

Butterfly Crafts That Make Beautiful Art

Butterflies exquisitely embody the essence of spring. These floating beauties of the insect realm easily inspire creativity and are adored by children the world over.

16. Colorful Butterfly

Use a thick marker to draw a large butterfly shape on the clear side of contact paper. Peel off the paper to reveal the sticky side. Let your kids add sequins, cardstock scraps, and pom poms to create a colorful butterfly.

17. Sun Catcher Butterfly

This spring craft is very similar to the one above. Use tissue paper this time and stick it to the window.

18. Coffee Filter Butterfly

Start with coffee filters. Color them with felt markers and wet them so the color spreads. Or use liquid watercolors to paint them. You can cut them into butterfly shapes, draw a butterfly shape outline for your kids to cut, or let them get creative with the shape. Add a middle section with a coffee filter stick butterfly or a clothespin butterfly.

19. Butterfly Puppet

A craft that can become a toy has always been my favorite! Make butterfly puppets with a paper lunch bag and cut out butterfly pieces.

20. Butterfly Prints

Pair a lesson on symmetry with crafting and create butterfly prints. You can use an online image search or a butterfly book from the library for inspiration. Fold a piece of paper in half. Draw a butterfly with the center of the butterfly on the paper crease. Have your little crafter paint only one side of the butterfly. While the paint is still wet, fold the paper and gently press the sides together. Open and enjoy.

Bug Crafts for a Creepy Crawl Craft Time

Butterflies aside, you may not love all the insects that start showing up in the spring. Nonetheless, you’ll have a hard time resisting these cute bug crafts.

21. Paper Plate Ladybug

Use two paper plates, black paint, red paint, a black foam sheet, and some googly eyes to create an adorable ladybug. Cut one of the paper plates in half. Paint the halves red, and once they are dry, add black dots. Paint the full paper plate black. When all the paint is dry, glue the red plates onto the black plate in the shape of wings. Add the black foam and googly eyes to the top to make a little ladybug face.

22. Paper Plate Bee

Since you already have the paper plates, you can create another garden favorite. Use yellow and black paint to create a bumble bee on a paper plate, then add googly eyes and a pipe cleaner antenna.

 23. Ladybug Paper Craft

Very similar to the paper plate ladybug, use construction paper to make a ladybug paper craft.

24. Buggy Bookmarks

Lay out some markers and some craft sticks. Encourage your kids to create bug drawing on craft sticks. These make great bookmarks you can use or give away as springtime gifts! I have one from years ago that I like to get out every spring. It has a picnic blanket background and adorable little marker-drawn ants crawling all over.

25. Egg Carton Caterpillar

Cut down egg cartons to the size you want the caterpillars to be. Similar to the bookmarks craft above, set up a creative table with markers, glue, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and paint. Let your artist create a caterpillar from their imagination.

Adorable Baby Animal Crafts

While you’re working together to create some lovable baby animals, add a few animal jokes to make the experience even more fun.

26. Lamb Puppets

These lambs can be used for decoration or a puppet show. Make the lamb puppets by cutting a fluffy shape (think of a cloud) out of white paper and a simple lamb head out of black paper. Glue the head into the center. Glue a craft stick to the back.

27. Chick Craft

Make paper plate chicks with one paper plate, some yellow paint, yellow and orange construction paper, and googly eyes. If your kids are working on the skill of cutting, you can make templates for the pieces (circle for the head and small triangles for the beak and feet) out of cardstock. They will then trace and cut the pieces before going the chick together.

28. Animal Press

Add a few small animals to playdough play. Make a ball with the dough and then flatten it with your hand. Press the toy animal into the dough and carefully pull it up. This can be a fun spring activity to do over and over or turn into a craft by letting the dough dry.

29. Cotton Ball Bunny

Make a cotton ball bunny using construction paper cut into a bunny shape, cotton balls, and glue. Keep it simple, or add paint or paper eyes, ears, and tail.

30. Shadow Animals

Set up toy animals near a sunny window. Place paper over the shadow created and trace the animal’s shadow. You can also do this on the driveway with chalk.

This article originally appeared on Wealth of Geeks.