10 Summer Crafts for Kids That Are Fun to Make and Worth Keeping Forever

The last day of school ends, and by day three of summer break someone is already asking what there is to do. You hand over the watercolors and the popsicle sticks, brace for the mess, and hope for the best.

Here's the good news: summer produces some of the best art your kids will ever make. The day is longer, the materials offer different experiences (sun, sand, flowers, water), and kids have more unstructured time to create. The trouble is most summer craft roundups hand you 50 rushed ideas and call it a day. We'd rather give you 10 that are genuinely worth the mess, worth the time, and worth keeping.

Why These 10 Summer Crafts for Kids Are Worth Trying This Year

Below are 10 summer crafts for kids, organized by age range, with a materials list, quick instructions, and a Keepsake Rating for each one (how likely it is to earn a spot on the wall or in a memory book once summer's over). These aren't just easy crafts for kids to burn an afternoon. They're the kind of arts and crafts for kids that turn into something you'll actually want to look at again come fall.

If you're used to scrolling through pages of craft ideas for kids and bookmarking half of them "for later," consider this the shortlist. Every project here works with materials you likely already have around the house or can grab at any craft store, and every one produces something that looks like more than the sum of its parts.

If summer's still young and you want more where this came from, 50 Creative Summer Craft Kits for Kids and 4th of July Crafts for Kids round out the season nicely.

1. Sun Prints (Ages 3+)

Materials: Sun print paper (cyanotype paper), leaves, flowers, small toys or shapes, a flat surface with direct sun, a tray of water

How to make it: Arrange objects on the sun print paper, weigh down the edges with a clear sheet of plastic or glass, and set it in direct sunlight for 2 to 5 minutes. Rinse the paper in water and watch the print appear in shades of deep blue.

This is one of the easiest summer crafts for kids because there's no painting skill required, just an eye for arranging shapes. Toddlers can place objects with help; older kids can experiment with layering and negative space.

Keepsake Rating: 5/5. The blue-and-white contrast looks intentional and gallery-worthy even on a first try. These hold up beautifully in a frame or a memory book.

2. Nature Collage (Ages 4+)

Materials: Cardstock or heavy paper, glue stick, collected nature items (leaves, petals, small twigs, grass), scissors

How to make it: Send kids on a short walk to gather flat, dry nature items. Back at the table, arrange the pieces into a scene, a shape, or an abstract pattern, then glue them down.

This one doubles as a low-key nature study. Kids start noticing textures, colors, and shapes they'd normally walk past.

Keepsake Rating: 4/5. Best preserved through photography rather than storing the physical piece, since pressed leaves and petals fade and crumble over time. A great candidate for digitizing before it degrades.

3. Tie-Dye Paper Art (Ages 5+)

Materials: Coffee filters or paper towels, washable markers, spray bottle with water, wax paper for drying

How to make it: Color the coffee filter in bold sections with markers, then spritz with water and watch the colors bleed and blend. Let it dry flat on wax paper.

It's one of the most satisfying easy summer crafts for kids because the "reveal" moment (watching the colors spread) never gets old, even on the fifth try.

Keepsake Rating: 4/5. Every piece turns out a little different, which makes a small collection of these especially fun to display side by side.

4. Watercolor Resist Painting (Ages 3+)

Materials: White crayon or oil pastel, watercolor paints, thick paper, paintbrush

How to make it: Draw a hidden picture or pattern with a white crayon (it won't show on white paper), then paint over the whole page with watercolor. The wax resists the paint, and the drawing appears like magic.

This craft rewards patience for younger kids and creativity for older ones, who can hide entire scenes for a sibling or parent to "discover."

Keepsake Rating: 5/5. The reveal effect makes these genuinely striking as finished pieces, not just process art.

5. Pressed Flower Frame (Ages 6+)

Materials: Fresh flowers and leaves, heavy books (for pressing), a small frame or piece of cardstock, glue

How to make it: Press flowers between the pages of a heavy book for 1 to 2 weeks. Once flattened and dried, arrange them on cardstock or directly behind glass in a small frame.

This is more of a slow-burn project than a one-afternoon activity, which makes it a nice option when you want summer to include a little anticipation, not just instant results.

Keepsake Rating: 5/5. Pressed flower art is one of the few crafts that genuinely improves with age. These are frame-ready as-is.

6. Sand Art Bottles (Ages 4+)

Materials: Clear plastic bottles or jars, colored sand (store-bought or homemade with chalk and sand), funnel

How to make it: Layer different colors of sand into the bottle using a funnel, tapping gently between layers to keep them distinct. Seal the lid when full.

This is a favorite for beach vacations and backyard afternoons alike, and it's forgiving enough that younger kids can do most of the pouring themselves.

Keepsake Rating: 3/5. Beautiful to look at, but bulky to store long-term. Best kept as a display piece for a season, then photographed before it eventually gets recycled into a new layer combination. (Sand bottles, stone handprints, and other dimensional pieces are exactly what Artkive means when they say 3D art ships just fine.)

7. Handprint Garden Stones (Ages 2+)

Materials: Flat stones or a stepping-stone concrete mix, acrylic paint, sealant spray

How to make it: Press a painted hand onto a stone or into wet concrete, then let it dry and add a sealant coat for durability.

This is one of the simplest summer art projects for kids, and it captures something a drawing can't: the actual size of your child's hand that summer.

Keepsake Rating: 5/5. These are built to last outdoors for years, which makes them a rare summer craft that's also a long-term keepsake without any extra preservation step.

8. Bubble Art Prints (Ages 3+)

Materials: Bubble solution mixed with washable paint, straws, thick paper, a shallow tray

How to make it: Mix paint into bubble solution, then have kids blow bubbles through a straw into the tray until they rise above the rim. Gently press paper on top to capture the bubble prints.

Fair warning: this one gets messy. But the payoff is a genuinely unique, marbled print that no two kids will make the same way twice.

Keepsake Rating: 4/5. The organic, bubbly texture photographs well and looks intentional once it's dry and flattened.

9. Tissue Paper Stained Glass (Ages 5+)

Materials: Colored tissue paper squares, clear contact paper or wax paper, black construction paper (for a frame effect), scissors

How to make it: Arrange tissue paper squares on the sticky side of contact paper, then seal with a second sheet. Frame the edges with strips of black construction paper for a stained-glass look, and hang it in a sunny window.

This is a great option for kids who want to see their work "in action" all summer, since the colors change with the light throughout the day.

Keepsake Rating: 4/5. Best enjoyed as a temporary window display, then photographed before it comes down. For more on giving pieces like this their moment before they're taken down, see 7 Trendy Ways to Display Kids' Art.

10. Summer Self-Portrait (Ages 4+)

Materials: Paper, mirror (optional), any medium on hand (crayons, paint, markers, collage materials)

How to make it: Have your child draw or paint themselves as they are right now, this summer. Encourage details: what they're wearing, what they look like, what they'd want to remember about themselves at this age.

Simple as it sounds, this one tends to become the most meaningful piece of the whole summer. Self-portraits capture a version of your kid you won't see again next year.

Keepsake Rating: 5/5. Of everything on this list, self-portraits are consistently the pieces parents say they're glad they saved.

How to Preserve the Summer Art Collection

By the end of August, you'll likely have a stack of sun prints, a jar of sand art, a pressed flower frame, and a self-portrait or two, plus everything else that shows up between now and Labor Day. That's a good problem to have, and also exactly the kind of pile that tends to sit in a bin until someone finally has to decide what to do with it.

This is where Artkive comes in. Instead of sorting through what to keep and what to let go of, you send the whole summer's collection in one box. Artkive professionally photographs each piece (including the dimensional ones like sand bottles and stone handprints that don't fit in a scanner) and turns it into an art book that holds up far better than a bin in the garage. Prefer something for the wall instead? A framed mosaic works well for a season's worth of standout pieces, too.

One Artkive parent put it this way:

"I love not having bulky cardboard sculptures on my living room table, but having that memory of our project photographed in a way that I could never do myself."

No need to pick and choose; the box can hold all your favorites. Our photography team can perfectly capture both your sun prints and sand bottles alike. It's one less decision during a season that's already full of them. And, if you're gathering art for more than one kid, these packing tips for multiple kids make the sorting even simpler.

It's a natural end-of-summer ritual: the crafts get made, the crafts get saved, and the book arrives just in time for the new school year to start filling up the next one. Families who reset the art pile every season and make an Artkive book every summer or every school year end up with something bigger than any single keepsake: a shelf that shows exactly how much their kids have grown, one book at a time.

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Before the school year fills up the next box.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best summer crafts for kids? 

The best summer crafts for kids use the season itself as a material, think sunlight, sand, flowers, and water, rather than relying on generic craft-kit supplies. Projects like sun prints, pressed flowers, and watercolor resist painting all lean into what makes summer different from the rest of the year.

What summer art projects can toddlers do? 

Toddlers (ages 2 to 3) do well with crafts that involve big, simple motions: handprint stones, bubble art with help, and sun prints with an adult arranging the objects. Look for projects with minimal small pieces and forgiving results.

How do I save my kids' summer art projects?

Photograph anything that won't last (pressed flowers, tissue paper window art, sand bottles) before it fades or gets recycled. For a whole season's worth of pieces, a service like Artkive can professionally photograph and bind everything into one book, so nothing gets lost to a bin in the garage.

What are easy crafts for kids that don't make a huge mess?

Sun prints, pressed flower frames, and handprint stones are among the easiest crafts for kids with the least cleanup. Bubble art and sand art bottles are more fun than tidy, so plan those for outdoor time or a surface that's easy to wipe down.

How do I turn my child's art into a keepsake?

Photograph the piece in good natural light, or send it to a service like Artkive that professionally photographs and organizes artwork into a memory book. This works especially well for dimensional or fragile summer crafts that won't survive long-term storage on their own.