Easter Basket Crafts

Easter basket crafts, like any crafts that you do with your kids, provide an opportunity for hands-on learning. Many people learn best when they are doing something. If we can incorporate a few Easter basket crafts this spring with our celebrations of Christ’s resurrection, then we are helping our kids learn the most important truths they will ever know.

Keep these key items on hand for your Easter Basket Crafts:

Card stock or construction paper: For small children, paper is a given for almost any kind of simple Easter basket craft. You can:

• Stamp it
• Color it
• Draw on it
• Paste to it
• Build on it, using it as a base for a Lego or Play Doh creation

TIP: You can make your own Easter basket “grass” by recycling paper that has already been used. Just run it through your shredder.

Glue: Depending on the age of your child (and your level of mess-tolerance, LOL) you can use glue sticks or the white liquid glue (like Elmer’s). I recommend pouring liquid glue into paper cups and letting your kids use paintbrushes to apply it. (Be sure to rinse those paintbrushes out in hot soapy water!)

Cotton: Use cotton balls for making sheep and bunnies. Draw an outline of a sheep or rabbit and let your children fill the space by gluing cotton balls for a wooly lamb, or adding a fluffy cotton tail to a bunny. Here are some Scripture verses that go along with the Easter story. You could write one or part of one below the picture:

He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young. (Isaiah 40:11)

He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7)

I have wandered away like a lost sheep; come and find me, for I have not forgotten your commands. (Psalm 119:176)

Ribbon: What color ribbons do you have at home? You can always use a JoAnn’s or Michaels coupon to begin a ribbon stash of your own. Ribbons can be used for:

• Weaving through an Easter basket
• Tying plastic Easter eggs together
• Creating simple flower arrangements
• Making edible necklaces by threading thin ribbon through “o”-shaped cereal

Easter and spring colors for crafts: PASTELS

pink · lavender · peach · baby blue · spring green · grass green ·  yellow

I’d love to know what items you consider “staples” for working on Easter basket crafts or any Easter basket ideas with your children. What do you keep on hand? What items have proven to be invaluable when it comes to crafting at home?