Top ten NYE crafts for kids

Looking for a way to keep the kids’ itching fingers busy on New Year’s Eve? Look no further, as we have a top 10 New Year’s Eve countdown to some of the best New Year’s crafts for you and the kids! Whether it’s a fun snack, an artistic masterpiece, or a hand with New Year’s Eve party decorations, there’s plenty of creative and quirky ideas to have a go at. COMMENCE THE COUNTDOWN…

KIDS doing crafts

10. Kid Friendly Sparklers

Kid-friendly, craft sparklers are great for the little ones. They can explore different colours, textures, and materials while they make them and channel their inner artists. These sparklers are also a good idea for smaller children as they are a safer alternative to real sparklers.

You will need…
– Foil
– Wrapping paper
– Coloured cellophane
– Glitter
– Glue/adhesive
– Scissors
– Coloured paper/card/sugar paper

Cut your piece of paper in half lengthwise. Fringe one of the long ends then cut this piece in half.
Coat the tips of the fringe with spray adhesive, covering the front and the back of the paper. Then sprinkle the paper with glitter.
Roll your paper tightly and then add glue to the end. Insert the glued end into your straw. Separate the fringe and give your sparkler shape.

9. DIY Noise Makers!

When midnight strikes, the kids can celebrate with the ultimate DIY noise makers! This one is easy-peasy as you use everyday items to create the design. It is suitable for all ages too, what’s not to love about this one?

You will need…
– PVA glue
– Plastic bottles
– Pasta (or beads)
– Glitter

Take a used plastic bottle (make sure it’s washed out and clean).
Squirt some PVA glue in the bottle, screw the lid, and shake around until it covered the whole inside of the bottle.
Quickly add your chosen coloured glitter and shake around again, with the lid on. Any colour will look great!
Check if the glitter has covered the inside of the bottle. If it has, leave the bottle to dry for an hour.
Once dry, add some dried pasta, beads and anything small and hard that will create a good rattle sound!
Fasten the lid once your chosen rattle objects are in the bottle.
RATTLE AWAY!

8. New Year’s Eve Pretzel Recipe!

Chocolate pretzels

A nice and easy snack-tastic craft idea is chocolate-dipped pretzels! You can use white, milk and dark chocolate. White chocolate looks best with metallic sprinkles, but it is up to you!

You will need…
– Pretzels
– Big bar of Chocolate (white chocolate looks best with sprinkles but up to you!)
– Boiled water in a saucepan
– Glass bowl
– Metallic sprinkles or multi-coloured

Melt a big chocolate bar in a bowl over a saucepan half-full of boiling hot water.
Once melted, dip and coat your pretzel sticks into the chocolate – be as messy or neat as you want!
Next, sprinkle a range of sugary, sparkly edible sprinkles onto the melted chocolate that is coated on the pretzel.
Leave them either on a tray or in a glass (stood up) to cool down and set.
Then voila! You are done, all that’s left is to munch on them.

7. New Year’s Eve Wishing Wand

With your New Year’s Eve Wishing Wand you are an unstoppable force of positivity and magic! Here’s how to make one…

You will need…
– Card
– Scissors
– Sticky-backed plastic/contact paper
– Pretty embellishments such as glitter, sequins, ribbon, tissue paper or left-over wrapping paper.
– Pencil or marker pen

Start by cutting out a circle from the piece of card. A cereal bowl is about the right size to draw around.
Once you have your circle you need to turn it into a star shape.
Fold your circle in half, then fold the half into three sections.
While your circle is still folded, cut out a segment as shown in the picture. Unfold to reveal a pretty star shape.
You can use the star as it is and glue it on some decorations. Alternatively, for an extra magical effect, cut out the centre of your star to just leave the outer frame.
Stick this star frame onto a piece of sticky-backed plastic (contact paper) and trim around the edges. Then you can decorate the inner star.
Using sticky-backed plastic rather than glue stops things from being too messy and children can stick, peel and re-stick as much as they like. Plus, the decorations look like they are magically floating in the middle of the wand!
You can write ‘I wish…‘ on the outer edge of the wand and then ask your child to say, write or draw what their wishes are. You might be surprised about what they pick!
Add a stick – we used a rolled-up piece of the card – and some ribbons and you’re done. Then your little fairies and New Year pixies can waft around granting wishes into the New Year.

6. NYE Wishing Tree

Get crafty with a New Year’s Eve Wishing Tree! The whole family can add to this and get involved with making it. It’s a beautiful way to start the New Year, setting good intentions and wishes about the future with your family. Soon the tree with be budding and blossoming with positive hopes for the year ahead.

You will need…
– Paper
– Scissors
– Pens/crayons/coloured pencils
– Ribbon
– Twigs or small branches from a tree (pipe cleaners and twizzled cardboard is a good replacement)
– Glitter (optional)

Use real twigs and smaller branches to place in a vase, this will form the tree.
Print, paint or draw the outline of stars in different colours on white paper.
Once it has dried, write your wish for the year in the centre.
Hole punch the top of the star; this can be done with a pencil and scissors (if you fold the section you want to hole punch and make a small snip), if you do not have a hole punch.
Thread gold, silver, (or both) through the hole and attach it to the tree. Before you know it, you’ll have a budding and blossoming tree of wishes!

5. Times Square Playdough

Multi-coloured playdough and glitter

This is for the lil’ ones! There is no child in the world who dislikes playdough, there are so many things to do with it and so many ways to make it more fun! So for NYE, why not add some glitter to your easy-to-make mix? We’ll call this one the New Year’s Eve Time Square Playdough!

You will need…
– 2 tablespoons of cream tartar
– 1 to 1.5 cups boiling water (adding in increments until it feels just right)
– gel food colouring (optional)
– 2 cups plain flour (all-purpose)
– 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (baby oil and coconut oil work too)
– 1/2 cup salt

Mix all of these ingredients together
Leave it to chill for an hour
Play!

4. Watercolour party hats – inspired by ModernParentsMessyKids.com

Get the kids to help make party decorations in a fun and creative way! It can be as simple as using watercolours, cards, and festive ribbons to make cone-shaped party hats.

Cut your piece of white card. It doesn’t have to be completely symmetrical, so don’t worry about precision! Just start a few inches down the card and cut a curved line to the other side (You’ll be using the top portion.)
Next, paint your piece of card using watercolours. If you don’t have paints, don’t worry, you can use markers or crayons.
Consider using different shades of the same colour and some white, for a nice effect.
Leave the paint to dry for a few minutes.
Use your hand to curve the paper around itself. The bottom curved part is the bottom of the hat and the straight part on top will become the side seam that you can glue!
Use some kind of ribbon or elastic to add a strap to both sides so it can be secured on the head.
DECORATION TIME! Use some gold tissue paper, then cut it into strips to create a little tassel on the top.
Stuff the gold tissue paper tassel in the tiny hole at the top of the hat. You can add a drop of hot glue to secure it as hot glue works better than PVA and Pritt stick glue.
You can print or draw the year on the hat with stamps, gold pens or paint!

3. A 3D Paper Craft Masterpiece – Inspired by Projectswitkids.com

New Years Eve artwork Photo credit: Projectswithkids.com

This very simple and easy design only requires paper, scissors, and glue! You can get all art deco-y and picasso-y with this one, as there’s so many fun things to do with mixed media and coloured shapes!

You’ll need…
– Coloured paper
– Scissors
– Glue stick
– PVA glue

Make the skyline with either printable templates or draw your own. If you choose to draw them, you’ll need a pencil and ruler.
Draw out a few different-sized rectangles, squares and tall rhombi’.
Cut the buildings out of black paper and the doors and windows out of yellow.
Using a white pencil crayon to trace the templates on the black paper makes it easier to see.
Once your windows, doors and buildings are cut out, place the buildings down onto your dark blue paper. Arrange your skyline on the paper before glueing anything down.
Once you are happy with how it looks, glue the buildings down with a glue stick.
Next, FIREWORKS! Cut strips of paper, around 1/2 an inch thick. You can cut them again for different lengths and thickness so that they aren’t all the same.
Pour some PVA glue into a shallow dish or on some extra paper (not on your design).
Dab the edge of your paper (on its side) in the glue and curve it, so it sticks to your design properly. You are aiming to create a burst of colour, with strips of different sizes and colours!
Next, wrap the long strips of paper around a pencil to make a coil shape. Take the paper coil off and dip it into the glue and place it onto your paper.
Lastly, use star stickers or use a star-shaped hole punch to add to your coils and bursts or colour in your skyline design. You can add glitter too!

2. Toilet Paper Roll Fireworks! inspired by Montessorifromtheheart.com

This activity is great for kids aged 2+, the only thing they might need adult assistance with is cutting the toilet paper roll. In this 3D design, you can create a mixed-media masterpiece! P.s you can be as messy as you want!

You’ll need…
– A toilet paper roll
– Dark paper, (or card, or sugar paper), preferably black or navy blue.
– Paints – we want to use vibrant and sparkly paints to create fireworks!
– Glitter (optional)

Cut one-half of a toilet roll, creating a fringed effect. Each individual fringe strip being between 1cm – 1.5cm in width.
Flatten the fringed bits down onto the paper, as if you were printing with the object. We want the fringe bits flat so we can actually print with them!
Squirt some different coloured paints on a plate or a separate piece of card.
Add some white paint to each coloured dollop of paint.
Then, press your fringe toilet roll firmly into the dollop of paint, and print onto your dark piece of paper. Keep repeating and use other colours on top too if you like!
You can always sprinkle glitter in as well and free draw on top of your dried prints.
Lastly, glue your fringe toilet roll to one of the designs for a cool 3D effect!

1. New Year’s Eve Moon and Stars Celebration Wall Hanging – Inspired by liagriffith.com

moon and star wall hanging Photo credit: Lia Griffith

This is one for all the family to get involved with, as this design is more complex than the others. Children will need to be assisted with this one unless they are older children, as there is the use of scissors and metal wiring. If made well, you can reuse every Christmas and New year, as part of your home decorations!

You’ll need…
– Coloured card, plain and sparkly
– Scissors
– Gold or silver paint
– Glue stick or PVA glue
– Circular metal frame (Old coat hanger or lampshade wiring)
– Pencil
– String
– Gold or silver thread

Bend a metal clothing hanger into a circle, or use an old lampshade wire!
Snip the wire if it is already a complete circle. This is so you can thread your card designs on later.
Paint the metal wire gold or silver, and wait for it to dry.
Cut out one piece of coloured card and one piece of sparkly card into the shape of a crescent moon. The outer one will need to be big enough to cover half of your metal ring.
Cut a smaller crescent moon (1 inch smaller), so you can mount it against the larger one. This will give a 3D look to the design.
Now make some stars, using the same process as the crescent moons. You can use multiple colours and different-shaped stars to mount against each other.
If you are happy with your measurements and cutouts, start glueing your mounted moon pieces together. Do the same with your star shapes too.
Once they are all glued together, Pierce a hole in the top and bottom of the crescent moon to thread onto the bottom and top of the wire – the moon should be big enough to cover nearly half of the metal ring.
To keep the design in place on the ring, and to connect the ring back together, you can either bind it together with cotton/string, or you can buy a metal clip like a bootlace ferrule, to connect the wireframe together again.
Next, attach the stars in a disorderly fashion, be as random as you wish! You can either PVA glue them on or use sellotape.
A nice finishing touch is to use gold or silver threads, tie them to the ring and attach your stars to them so that they dangle freely.
Tie some string to the top of the design, so that you can hang the design around your home!

Found something crafty to do this New Year’s Eve? Check out our other blogs for more NYE and Christmas inspiration, whether that be party ideas, food ideas or wonderful Wintry events!