Check out our handy art & craft essentials guide and get ready for fun and messy hands-on activities in your learning setting (perfect for those dreary rainy days!)
In this blog, we break down a range of materials and tools to inspire creativity and awaken children’s imagination. Offering creative opportunities is crucial, as research has shown that arts and crafts play an important role in enhancing a child’s development and learning – helping to develop their confidence, creativity, imagination, social skills, coordination, motor skills, decision-making and thinking skills.
Make sure that your crafts area is not missing any art & craft essentials with our materials list to guide you in making your purchasing decisions!
The Ultimate Art and Craft Essentials List:
Paint Supplies
- Paint: Our range of kids’ paints includes non-toxic paint, face paint sticks, ready-mix liquid paint, washable paint, paint palettes, watercolour paints, finger paints and tempera paint.
- Paint Brushes: These paint brush sets come in a variety of sizes, shapes, handles and bristles for small hands.
- Sponges: Available in transport, Halloween and Easter shapes. Also shaped to fit plastic bowls to make your own ink pad.
- Paint Rollers: Practice grip and hand motion with these chunky mark-making tools.
- Aprons, Table Cover & Splash Mat: Encourage creativity without any worry about messes.
- Easel: Durable and easy to transport, our easels include wooden easels, double-sided easels and three-sided easels.
- Paint Brush Pot: Fill these non-spill pots with water for brush cleaning or with paint for children to dip their brushes into.
- Drying Rack: Specially designed with multiple shelves allowing artwork to dry quickly, whilst reducing clutter in the classroom.
Drawing Supplies
- Pens & Markers: Essential stationery for every home and early years setting to inspire creativity and add a touch of colour to your children’s sketches.
- Graphite & Coloured Pencils: Bring drawings to life with a rainbow of colours!
- Crayons & Chalks: Great for developing pre-writing skills and increasing overall concentration.
- Sharpeners & Erasers and Scissors: Ensure children’s safety with scissors that are safe but still sharp enough to cut a variety of materials including metal scissors, plastic scissors and spring-loaded scissors.
- Rulers: Crafted from clear plastic for easy measuring.
- Stencils: Durable plastic stencils in a range of themes including sea life and nature stencils.
Paper & Card
- White Paper & Card: Available in a variety of sizes including our exclusively developed Tuff Tray Paper Pad.
- Rainbow Paper: Add colour to craft time with bulk saver and Pride paper packs.
- Coloured & Patterned Paper and Card: Patterned papers depict a variety of nature scenes, animal patterns as well as cultural patterned papers.
- Tissue & Crepe Paper: Soft and easy for little hands to craft with. Choose from bulk tissue packs, tissue paper rolls, shaped tissue paper, off-cuts and much more!
- Metallic paper: Add sparkle with metallic card crowns, shredded foil and glitter cards.
- Sugar Paper: Tougher than standard paper, sugar paper is ideal for folding and building.
Collage Supplies
- Textiles & Fabrics: Our range is made from a variety of materials, fabric paints, needles, threads, tapestry, felt sheets and felt remnants. You can also find in our textile art and craft category a selection of embroidery packs, collage packs, and pipe cleaners.
- Bits & Pieces: Includes beads, buttons, wiggly eyes, pom poms, pipe cleaners and ribbon.
- Sparkly Decor: Create shiny and colourful crafty projects with resources from art and craft bulk savers to Bonfire Night supplies, perfect for events and celebrations. Children will love playing with acrylic gemstones, snowflake sequins, or packs of sparkle sand.
- Lolly Sticks: Available in standard packs, bulk savers and multi-coloured jumbo packs for craft projects such as collages and model making.
Modelling Supplies
- Dough: Specially formulated for Early Years and KS1. Our soft fun modelling dough will never dry out and children can play with it for hours without crumbling or cracking.
- Clay: Available in terracotta and stone-coloured clay for 3D art projects. The clay slowly hardens on exposure to air and once dry can be painted or varnished. Once finished, place it back into the handy re-sealable tub (provided).
- Modelling Tools: Let your children create unique patterns in their 3D modelling materials with our mark-making tools which range from pattern paint rollers to rolling pins and stamps!
- Modelling Boards: An ideal modelling resource for children to have a smooth working surface while protecting tables from stains and scratches.
Adhesives
- Glue Sticks: Great for all arts & crafts activities including card and collage making. With these gluesticks, children can easily stick pieces of paper together without getting a mess on their hands.
- Glue: An art and craft essential, ideal for gluing, collaging and blending with paints to give enhanced effects without loss of colour intensity.
- Tape: Keep cupboards stocked with clear tape and masking tape.
- Putty: Reusable sticky putty is ideal for sticking artwork to boards and doors in the classroom.
- Paper Fasteners (Split Pins): These metallic fasteners are perfect for any project that requires more security or for split pin crafts.
Tuff Tray Accessories
- Tuff Tray Paper Pad: When it comes to creating masterpieces, a blank canvas is always a great place to start. Our white Tuff Tray Paper Pad is the perfect place to get creative. From mark making and painting with sponges. The high-quality Tuff Tray Paper Pad provides an ideal base for a range of activities. Available in standard and mini sizes.
- Tuff Tray Sponge: Fitting perfectly into a tuff tray and can be used for a variety of craft activities. Add washing liquid to make soapy concoctions or squirt paint to make a paint stamp pad.
- Tuff Tray Stand: Adjustable in height, making tuff trays suitable for a wide range of ages during creative art sessions. Also available in wheelchair access height.
Art and Craft Essentials Storage
- Hanging Pocket Organiser: Save space in the classroom with a door or hanging organiser to put away children’s art supplies.
- Tiered Storage Trolleys: Stay organised with a manoeuvrable trolley to keep paints and crafts accessible in your learning setting.
- Storage Holders: Both practical and portable, storage caddies are a must-have for transporting art and craft essentials.
- Storage Unit: Tidy up with a sturdy all-in-one storage solution with storage compartments and built-in scissor blocks. A useful addition for storing art & craft supplies for teachers!
Have you got a dedicated creation station? Make sure you establish a refined creative play space in your home or learning setting. Somewhere arts and crafts resources are readily available at all times! It’s important to allow easy access so that children are free to experiment and explore arts and crafts independently. Kids just love getting messy! So encourage them to express their creativity through art and let them splodge and splat to their heart’s content.
Has our list of kids craft supplies provided you with ideas on art and craft essentials for your learning setting? It’s time to get those aprons on and have some messy fun! Take a look at our Top 5 Messy Play Ideas & Activities for some inspiration.
Don’t forget to create beautiful displays of children’s artistic masterpieces! Let them take their artwork home to show their parents. Doing this will give them the valuable sense of pride and achievement that children thrive on.
Would you like to top up your arts and crafts supply with something a little bit different? Introduce children to new exciting textures! Explore our complete Arts & Crafts Essentials section on our website to get even more creative with the kids!
