Craft ideas for play dates

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Over the summer holidays I often find myself hosting other children along with my own at home for a few hours. Sometimes the children are happy to play together, and other times it's nice to have an activity planned for them. I particularly like doing crafts with children, and making something that they can have fun creating and then take home as a keepsake. I've shared lots of ideas on my blog over the years, and so I thought I'd pick out a few that work brilliantly as play date crafts for a small group.

We often get the Hama beads out when we have visitors, but many of our peg boards are large and take a long time to complete, not to mention they use up lots of beads. So I try and steer keen visitors towards smaller projects that will be finished in time for them to take home. I'm especially fond of using Hama beads to make magnets, like these Hama bead emoji magnets. All you need is the beads, a square pegboard, and some magnetic tape (affiliate link). Once the design is completed and ironed just stick a couple of magnetic strips to the back and it's ready to go, no waiting around for glue to dry.

Hama beads also make great keyrings, like these Minecraft themed Hama bead keyrings. If you keep some keyring blanks (affiliate link) on hand you can quickly assemble any small beaded creation into a simple keyring.

We've also had a lot of fun using shrink plastic (affiliate link) when we've had friends visiting. You draw your design on the plastic sheet, then place in the oven for a few minutes and watch it shrink to a sturdy, thick piece of plastic which can be used as a magnet or key ring (make sure to punch a hole before baking if you want to add in a key ring).

Another easy craft which is great for play dates is diamond painting. I bought a set of small diamond painting kits (affiliate link) which contains a variety of different cute animal designs. Because they are small they don't take too long to finish, and can easily be completed before the child gets bored. Each design also uses only a couple of colours of bead, so they aren't too complicated. It's a great way to keep a small group of children quiet around the table for a little while!

If you don't want to keep lots of craft supplies around the house but still want to have some activities on hand, there are lots of craft kits that you can buy which will entertain lots of children at once. I've always found Baker Ross good for craft kits, especially themed and seasonal ones, or Hobbycraft often has some cheap craft kits like pottery painting or mosaic art.

I hope I've given you some ideas for making play dates a bit more interesting this summer!