What are your favorite resources (website or books) for craft ideas with little kids?  My 2+ year old daughter loves to do "projects", but mostly that's coloring and using a glue stick. 

I'm thinking that pinecones and glitter are next! (Save me!) 

   My DD is just 2, but we haven't done much in the way of crafts. I sew, and she likes to play with the fabric scraps, but that's about it :)   I had some ideas for projects, but she's just not interested yet.   

      I was going to make birdfeeder pinecones.  Take the largest  pinecones you can find, and tie a long ribbon to the top. Spread  birdseed in a large foil pan or even in a large ziploc bag.  Cover pinecones with peanut butter (chunky or smooth) with fingers (it's way easier than trying to be neat with a spoon!    Then, roll the covered pine cone in bird seed. Let hang to set for about 1/2 hour, and then hang up on the porch or in some trees in the yard.  

   I thought this was eco-friendly, and I wouldn't be vacuuming glitter until June! LOL      But this is one more project I'll wait to do until spring maybe when she's more interested.

The Toddler's Busy Book is a life-saver!  Almost every situation can be turned into something fun to do, even standing in line at the grocery store.  It is totally worth the price to buy it new, I swear!  And it's small enough to fit easily into a "Mommy" bag (our more grown-up version of the diaper bag.)

Also, I belong to this email group, and they have some really great ideas: http://www.kidscraftweekly.com/ .

Family Fun magazine's website http://familyfun.go.com/ is also great.  Lots of printables and craft ideas for kids of all ages.  They're owned by Disney, but they don't push Disney stuff on you, which I really admire.  (One more Pooh doll and our house will be sucked into a rabbit hole....)

Dont forget that grandma's love to get items handmade by our babies. My DD has in the past had the kids put their painted hand prints on aprons and tote bags for me. She has also had them paint and decorate small picture frames.  I kept my granddaughter the year she turned 2  while her parents went on vacation. We planted some flowers together and I took her picture; then she glued some ribbons on a frame and we put that pic in the frame for her parents. I took pictures of her everyday and made a little scrapbook of them and called it "our vacation" pictures, making notes of things that we did. 

We also made a frame for her dad using the clear acrylic frame we glued buttons down one side and she gave it to him for fathers day, he took it his job. 

Also you can make book markers. Let her glue small pictures of herself on a card stock or art paper, and add her favorite stickers too. Then help her write her name on it.

On a magnet you can glue paper that you have written cute things your kids have said. My DD did this for me also she called it "Becca-isms" and listed about 10 funny and cute things she did or said. It is about a 4 by 6 size, and she put  a ribbon across the top to dress it up a little.

IF you are going to get messy with glitter you may as well take some of the largest fall leaves you can find and decorate those, you can also tape them to gifts instead of a bow. good luck and have fun. Judye

I like to cover my coffee table with newspaper, and let my daughter (2 yrs) paint. I pour some washable paint into and old egg carton, and bought those big foam brushes (easy for her to use) and let her go to town. Last time we did it, she really got into it--abandoned the brush and stuck her hand in the paints. (I know it sounds messy, but you just roll up the newsprint for cleanup. and she helps me clean the brushes while she washes her hands).

Kim

 THat's a great idea, Kim!  DD is getting into coloring and I've been wondering about the the coloring books with water paint, but maybe she'd have a better time and let her imagination go crazy with a larger canvas!

Thanks Kim. I like coloring books too but I think they limit kids' imaginations. I just give her blank paper and she goes nuts! She also got some homemade playdough and loves just mushing her hands in it.

Kim

Have you seen these coloring books?  They're by a Japanese guy, and they are open-ended.  Look through the sample pages they have on the Amazon site, it's pretty cool.  I agree that especially at a young age coloring books are too limiting for childrens' imaginations.  These are a little expensive for my child at this age, but they're on his wish list for later on in life. 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811852504/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=I13NOJ4URPBFFQ&colid=PB27W8Q1RL7L

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811855090/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1SOO1ZLQZX6NC&colid=PB27W8Q1RL7L

Those look fun! Someone gave my daughter the Anti-Coloring book as a baby shower gift. She's too young for it, but I plan on photocopying pages from it and letting her color. It's the same concept. I think it's a great idea! But you can encourage this for your kids too. Draw a big box, circle, etc, and ask them to fill it in.

If you have a Borders near you, they have this awesome coupon right now: 40% off one book with purchase of $20. And you can get free coffee while you're there.

We tried the pinecone bird feeder and our birds are too dumb to eat it.  UGH!  Well, one of them was swiped by  a squirrel, we think, but the other is just hanging there.  But DD loved the project and wants to make more.

LOL Bridget, they can be dumb, can't they?  I made a little feeder out of 2 empty orange halves.  I had cut open an orange for DD who decided she doesn't like "ogenges" so I added some peanut butter and nuts and orange pulp.  The birds checkedit out but decided to try the year old empty birdfeeder instead, going so far as to knock one of the orange halves onto the deck trying to get to the empty feeder!  Silly birds!