The FREE time offered by summer vacations may bore the YOUNG MINDS unless you let them engage in a CREATIVE craft activity. I highly recommend checking the following of my summer boredom buster craft suggestions that are so bright, colorful, engaging, and FUN that kids won’t resist but find themselves busy in them.
My idea was similar to what I presented in the indoor summer craft activities. And that was to find the activities where kids can spend quality time, learn new crafting techniques, and stay engaged for at least 1 hour.
So, they can paint the stones, craft with paper plates, make 3D drawings, assemble a gift box, DIY a fridge magnet, and a summer countdown, and I have the best craft options for all these here. The crafts with FREE templates might be a little boring, so I have focused more on painting crafts, such as a tie-dye paper fan!
Another thing that makes a craft engaging is the theme. I could not find better themes for this purpose than the summer itself. So have chosen crafts for summer drinks, tropical fruits, rainbows, ocean scenes, sea creatures, and summer desserts. With all that said, why don’t you check these boredom-buster activities yourself?
Summer Drinks Magnets Craft
In this 1-hour boredom buster activity, let the kids make bright and colorful summer drink fridge magnet art! Each drink is complete with lemon slices, lime slices, ice cube prints, and straws. Just require colored card, paper straws, and washi tape.
Kids can also learn a clever trick using a sponge to “stamp” life-like ice cubes on the drinks. The look 3D as the straw is inserted in the pocket of the glass. You can make a whole art on your fridge with them!
Paper Plate Ice Cream Craft
Let’s craft this bowl of ice cream paper craft for adding to little ones’ fake food parties. With one paper plate, you can craft two bowls. The scoops, chevron squiggles, pom poms for the topping, and glitter, too.
Use a cotton swab to add brown criss-cross lines for a wafer look to the bowl. Decorate them with pom-poms, glitter, or sequins and more.
Strawberry Gift Box Craft
In less than 30 minutes, assemble these Valentine’s Day and birthday strawberry gift boxes using a downloadable free template and patterned paper. You can buy a square sheet with a repeating heart pattern or simply polka dots. These are drawstring boxes and can hold candies and other small gifts.
To make the 3D-to-2D flower-like shape using a template, score the fold lines, and use a hole punch to thread through a green ribbon “stem.” Top it with a green leaf cutout, also available in the template.
Countdown to Summer Paper Chain
Make this 30-minute sun and rainbow wall hanging on a rainy day with the kids using a FREE printable template and cardstock in many colors. We will be making a COOL guy sun with black sunglasses and colorful paper chain stripes hanging below.
It has a “countdown” element, and that is the same paper loop chain. Each day, children remove one link and track their summer vacation to know how much time is left until summer adventures begin. Wanna try? Be sure to!
Paper Plate Hot Air Balloon Craft
Let’s make a colorful, painted hot air balloon with a paperweave basket with this method. Base requires paper plates, straws, scissors, and glue, and the painting can be done with a sponge. To start, one plate is used as the balloon, while the other is cut and woven to make a textured basket.
The two pieces are connected using paper straws. The best part is the decoration; kids can use paint, markers, or glitter to make their balloon unique. They can have a wavy striped pattern, or flower doodles over it!
Crab and Turtle Summer Craft
Making this crab and turtle beach scene on a paper plate would definitely be FUN! And there is a FREE printable template, so it should be easy to assemble even for preschoolers. The scene also has pine trees, sun, and the sky.
You will also need googly eyes and markers for more details, along with the colored paper for this craft. This indoor activity is my 100% recommendation as a boredom buster.
Watermelon Paperweights Craft
Make these CUTE googly-eyed watermelon paperweights from the painted stone using acrylic paints with this method. This is a 30-activity set and makes the most cheerful paperweights for kids. It looks actually funny with the wobbly eyes!
Paint painting a green rind, a white stripe, and a pink or red centre. You can try this with any stone shape and end up with a PERFECT watermelon slice painted stone.
Handprint Pineapple Craft
Of all the handprint paper crafts I discussed last time, the pineapple with the handprint crown FEELS the most FUN. And this COOL guy pineapple craft with black and colored frame sunglasses and a proud smile will be EVEN MORE FUN.
It is also the easiest to assemble, just from 4 cutout pieces from the cardstock. You can make it on June 27, which is International Pineapple Day!
Printable Paper Jellyfish Craft
If I had to rank, this 3D rainbow jellyfish and ocean drawing would definitely have been the TOP 3D drawing craft I have covered so far. The Jellyfish look so CUTE with the googly eyes, gradient rainbow stripes, and the colorful yarn tentacles.
There is a FREE printable template for the swimming jellyfish. The detailed background of the ocean scene made from tearing the paper to make the negative space is MUCH CLEVER and beautiful. It also uses a clever accordion-fold technique that makes the jellyfish “pop” and bounce off the page.
Rainbow Fan Craft
Let’s conclude the discussion with this MOST colorful craft of today, and that is a rainbow watercolour-painted Japanese fan. First, we shall learn how to make a paper fan with sticks and paper, and then fold. Overall, it may take 1 hour for completion.
Kids can paint the shades of the rainbow, such as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, in the gradient method, and it will look so bright and wholesome. This requires a specific method of using the brush!
About "Talha"
Hey, I’m Talha, the Crafter on Craftstive.com. I love to share guides on folding cute origami models and paper crafts, and I am always ready to inspire your next craft project with my weekly craft discussions.