Easter crafts for busy toddlers and lazy mamas

As of the past month or so, David has suddenly become very, very interested in crafts. He loves it all — cutting, coloring, gluing, stickers, painting. This is a new development, I used to have to work really hard to get him interested in crafts. I don’t know if it’s because he’s older, or because of crafts he does at school, but I’ll take it.

We’re also hosting some family for a little Easter celebration next weekend. Those two things combined inspired me to do some spring-inspired crafts with my kids.

Easter crafts for toddlers

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

These are all really simple — perfect for toddlers. And they require very little prep or clean-up — perfect for tired, 33-week pregnant mamas.

The first thing we made was a giant banner for our dining room.

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

Can you tell what it says? (Giant banners are so hard to photograph in a tiny dining room. Even if you are the graduate of a beginner’s photography class.)

HE IS RISEN! And now we have a banner to remind us every time we walk by the dining room.

I started by cutting out bunting triangles and writing each letter. David painted them with dot paints. I’m not an educator and I don’t really have a ton of experience with kids (besides being a mom, I guess), so when I do crafts I always learn things. First, I always over estimate the attention span of a 3.5-year old. I had no problem cutting all the paper and writing the letters in one sitting, so shouldn’t David do his part in one sitting, too?

No. And that’s totally fine, ok, AMANDA? David learned about letters and colors and paint, and I learned to check my expectations.

Second, my absolute top, #1, favorite thing about doing crafts with David is that I have an idea of what the finished product will look like, and he comes up with something totally different. I assumed each letter would be one solid color. Making rainbow letters never occurred to me, but the ones he alternated colors on are my favorites.

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

The dot paints were a little tough for Mary Virginia, but she really wanted to participate. I squeezed paint out for her and let her paint and play. She loved it.

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

Next, a few days later, David painstakingly glued each letter to a piece of construction paper.

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

Then I did my part and strung it up. I made Easter eggs with Mary Virginia’s paintings.

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

Next — and this was my favorite — we made a little flower chain. I picked up these felt flowers and crochet lace at the Target Dollar Spot. David placed them along the lace in a pattern.

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

The flowers had a tiny adhesive dot on the back, but after he placed them I secured each one with glue. I tied it around a lamp in the living room.

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

(I can’t decide if I like it with or without the bow showing. David doesn’t like the bow, so this is how it looks now.)

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

For the next craft, I traced bunnies from this printable, and David painted them with watercolors. Again, I envisioned solid colors, but David did an great mosaic-style. It looked awesome. After they dried, we glued cotton balls on the tails.

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

We also made chicks (I free-handed mine, but here’s a good guide). After I’d already traced the bunnies and the chicks, David picked up the guide and traced one himself. I felt like a fool. Look at this fine-motor control! When did he learn to do this?

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

We glued cotton tails on the bunnies and feathers on the chicks, and then taped them on the wall at toddler-height. I told David it was a “bunny trail” and he corrected me, “No, Mommy, it’s a parade.”

Easy Easter crafts for toddlers

Another surprise for me, I love these Easter decorations. Every year I try to think of one good reason to justify spending a lot of money to decorate my house with Pottery Barn’s amazing Easter decorations. But these decorations are even better. And as much as I love them, David is so proud to see his work displayed around the house, and it’s inspired him to create even more.

He’s SO PROUD and SO EXCITED that I’ve already stashed away an extra bag of jelly beans to quell the tantrum he throws when it’s finally time to take it all down.

9 Comments

  1. Liz Grissom March 28, 2015

    I love those bunnies and want to make some! Good idea 🙂

    Reply
  2. jandi March 29, 2015

    such lovely crafts! xxxx

    Reply
  3. Carie March 29, 2015

    Oh I love the decorations, especially the bunnies and the chicks, they look fantastic and wonderfully colourful – well done David!

    Reply
  4. Tasha March 6, 2016

    I saw lazy mama and I was like . Super cute! I keep meaning to buy those dot paints my daughter is always bothering to paint. And I say with the bow for the lamp. Super cute I feel you could totally pass that off all year long!

    Reply
  5. So cute! I love how simple this is for everyone involved, but still lots of fun and engaging!

    Reply
  6. DazzleWhileFrazzled March 8, 2016

    Great ideas! My 6 year old daughter would love the flower ribbon craft. Visiting from Lou Lou Girls party.

    Reply
  7. sherry March 9, 2016

    It sounds like David may have creative talent, and that will help him in the future in so many ways. Great job on doing crafts with your kids.

    Reply
  8. Meg March 9, 2016

    I love the cut out bunnies and the egg garland. I’ll definitely be doing some of these with my little ones next week.

    Reply
  9. Anita March 11, 2016

    These are an awesome idea! Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

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