I have two boys, and keeping them busy becomes a full-time job. There’s only so much time they can spend outside before they’re back inside saying they’re bored.
These summer crafts for kids are fun, creative, and easy to make using simple supplies you likely already have at home. From handprint keepsakes and nature-inspired art to imaginative cardboard creations and colorful painting projects, there is something here to inspire and delight every child this summer.
The best summer kids crafts blend creativity with hands-on sensory exploration, helping children develop fine motor skills, color recognition, and imaginative thinking while having an absolute blast. Whether you are looking for indoor rainy-day activities or breezy backyard art projects, these ideas have you covered all season long.
Keep these ideas bookmarked for summer camp, school holidays, family weekends, or those slow summer afternoons when the kids need something fun and engaging to do. Gather your supplies, clear the kitchen table, and get ready for a summer full of crafting memories that both you and your children will treasure.
1. Clay Ocean Scene Art
Children can create their own underwater ocean scene using air-dry clay pressed onto cardstock, then decorated with blue paint, glitter glue wave lines, and dimensional texture details.
This tactile, sensory-rich craft encourages creativity and fine motor skill development while producing a beautiful piece of art that doubles as a keepsake of their summer imagination.
2. Pressed Flower Summer Letter Garland
Spell out SUMMER with cardboard or wooden letters covered in decoupage newsprint and decorated with real pressed flowers, ferns, and petals in cheerful yellows, purples, and pinks.
This beautiful botanical craft is a wonderful way to involve kids in flower pressing and create a stunning seasonal display that can be hung indoors all summer long.
3. Tropical Leaf Block Print Art
Using foam or potato stamps carved into tropical leaf shapes, kids can print bold blue botanical designs onto white paper for a simple yet striking summer art project.
The repeated printing process teaches children about pattern, rhythm, and composition while producing beautiful artwork that looks impressive enough to frame and display around the home.
4. Cardboard Ice Cream Cone Craft
Cut ice cream cone shapes from corrugated cardboard and let kids decorate them with colorful chalk pastels, paint, and marker details to create the most delicious-looking pretend scoops imaginable.
This budget-friendly summer craft is endlessly customizable, requires almost no supplies, and keeps kids engaged as they design their own dream ice cream flavors.
5. Mini Beach Scene Painted Canvas
Kids can paint a tiny summer beach scene complete with sandy shores, blue rolling waves, a striped beach towel, a colorful umbrella, and a bucket on a small canvas or cardboard rectangle.
Photographed right on the real sand, this sweet miniature beach painting craft is a perfect summer activity that combines imagination with hands-on painting practice.
6. Felt Watermelon Scissor Case
This charming felt craft project uses simple hand-sewing techniques to create an adorable watermelon slice-shaped scissor or tool case, complete with black seed details and a sweet ladybug charm on top.
While slightly more advanced, this project is a wonderful introduction to felt sewing for older kids and makes a functional summer keepsake they will treasure.
7. Summer Paper Embellishment Discs
Using cardstock, stickers, and dimensional embellishments, kids can create layered summer-themed paper discs featuring beach scenes, palm trees, sailboats, flamingos, cameras, and tropical details. These intricate little paper collages are perfect for scrapbooking, journaling, or simply displaying as miniature pieces of seasonal art that celebrate everything they love about summer.
8. Citrus Fruit Thank You Gift Boxes
Craft adorable orange and lemon-themed gift boxes from cardstock using a die-cut machine or freehand cutting, complete with citrus slice windows and a Thank You sentiment tag on the front.
These cheerful summer favor boxes are perfect for end-of-school gifts, summer party favors, or sweet thank-you presents that kids can help assemble and fill with treats.
9. Nature Window Frame Craft
Collect flowers, ferns, and greenery from the garden, then arrange them inside a simple cardboard frame to create a beautiful nature window that frames the outdoor world like a living picture.
This peaceful, mindful summer craft encourages children to connect with the natural world around them while creating something genuinely lovely that can be photographed and remembered.
10. Quilled Sunflower Coasters
Using paper quilling strips or thin cardstock, older kids and parents can create gorgeous sunflower coasters by rolling and shaping paper petals into a flower design and gluing them onto a cork or felt base.
The golden yellow and tan tones of these coasters feel perfectly summery, and the finished product is a functional piece of handmade home decor the whole family can enjoy.
11. Handprint Crab Postcard Art
Press both hands in red paint onto a white card to create a crab body and claws, then add googly eyes, blue crayon waves, and a sandy yellow shore for an adorable handprint postcard craft.
This classic summer art project is perfect for toddlers and young children and creates the most precious, time-stamped keepsake of their little hands during the summer months.
12. Paper Plate Summer Sun
Paint a paper plate bright yellow and orange, cut out pointed sun ray strips from colored paper, and draw a cheerful face in the center to create a giant, smiling summer sun that kids can hold up against the blue sky. This simple and joyful craft requires only basic supplies and produces a dramatic, photogenic result that children absolutely love making and playing with.
13. Cardboard Highland Cow Wall Art
Cut a Highland cow head shape from corrugated cardboard, add wooden horn pieces, and give it a full fluffy fringe of looped rope or yarn for an adorably shaggy farmhouse-inspired wall decoration. This creative cardboard craft is surprisingly easy and incredibly charming, and the finished result looks impressive enough to hang in a playroom, bedroom, or even a living space.
14. Paper Circle Crab Craft
Assemble a happy little crab scene using pre-cut circles in tan, blue, and red, tearing the blue paper to create realistic ocean waves and adding googly eyes and tiny paper claws for expression. This mess-free, scissor-light craft is perfect for younger children and teaches basic shape recognition and collage composition while producing an adorable summer ocean scene.
15. Paper Plate Beach Scene
Transform a plain white paper plate into a summer beach scene by painting the top half sky blue, the bottom half sandy brown, and adding a cupcake liner umbrella, a craft stick pole, and a tiny red bucket and shovel cut from cardstock. This classic kids craft is quick to make, requires minimal supplies, and results in a wonderfully cheerful summer artwork.
16. Popsicle Stick and Cupcake Liner Fish
Build colorful tropical fish using popsicle sticks arranged into triangle shapes, cupcake liners as decorative tail fans, and small googly eyes for personality.
This simple and vibrant craft is perfect for summer camp, classroom activities, or rainy afternoon projects at home, and the bright mix of colors and playful fish shapes make the finished display feel like an underwater aquarium.
17. Seashell Sorting Sensory Play
Fill a large tray or sensory bin with a collection of real seashells in all shapes, sizes, and textures for a calming, exploratory summer activity that toddlers and young children absolutely love.
Sorting, counting, and examining shells develops early math skills, sensory awareness, and a natural curiosity about the ocean, making this one of the easiest and most enriching summer activities around.
18. Corrugated Cardboard Jellyfish Craft
Cut dome shapes from corrugated cardboard, add googly eyes and a cheerful red smile, then hang colorful beaded pipe cleaner tentacles underneath to create the most delightful jellyfish craft imaginable.
Set against a bright blue background, these smiling jellyfish are a crowd-pleasing summer project that combines fine motor skills, color mixing, and imaginative play in one fun activity.
19. Handprint Crab Painted Art
Use both hands dipped in bright red paint to stamp a crab shape onto yellow paper, then add blue painted waves, white highlights, and googly eye stickers for a fun and colorful summer handprint painting.
This cheerful beach-themed art project is a wonderful way to document children’s hand sizes each summer and makes a treasured keepsake that parents will love for years to come.
20. Giant Cardboard Ice Cream and Popsicle Set
Cut large ice cream cone and popsicle shapes from cardboard and decorate them with paint in pastel pinks, greens, and browns to create a giant, Instagram-worthy summer prop set that kids can play with in the garden or use as a fun photo backdrop.
These oversized cardboard creations are a wonderful large-scale summer craft project that brings pure joy and endless imaginative play.
