5 Easy Winter Crafts Your Toddler Will Love

Annie loves to do little art projects and it’s been so cold outside I decided it was time to pull out a fun round up of winter crafts for toddlers.  All of these crafts are Annie tested and Annie approved.  Seriously so much fun and none of them are hard or time consuming.  Just a great afternoon spent together crafting.

1. Smoosh paint mittens with free printable

Any time I dream up a craft that will entertain both the baby and the toddler I get really excited.  Even better—it’s mess free!  Smoosh paint was the perfect go to for this mittens themed craft.  

I got the kids started with this super cute mittens template.  Added dollops of Valentines colored paints. Then secured it in a plastic bag.  That’s when they took over pushing the paint around with their clean hands.  When they were done we carefully pulled the template out of the bag and let it dry.  

They took some time to dry, so we got a bonus day with this craft.  When the mittens were dry we cut them out and glued them along with a ribbon to a piece of construction paper.  Now they’re hanging on the wall with our other crafts for us to admire.

2. Cotton Ball Penguin Craft

Mombrite is so creative with this penguin craft.  It was perfect for Annie too because she loves penguins.  She sleeps with no less than three penguins in her bed every night so she was excited to put this one together.  

I signed up for her newsletter and got a download of four penguin templates.  We took advantage of three out of the four.  The most complicated one required cutting out the feet, beak, body and belly of the penguin with different colors of construction paper.  I did the cutting, and then Annie helped me use the glue stick to glue the body, belly and the feet onto her choice of colored construction paper.  Then we spread out some Elmers glue over the belly. Annie had fun placing the cotton balls to give our little guy a fluffy belly.  We brought him to life by adding on some googly eyes and a little orange beak.

One of the other templates we cut the full penguin out as one piece, rather than different colored parts.  We pasted it on a colorful piece of construction paper, then Annie filled in the tummy with cotton balls.  So cute!  

The third one Annie used as a coloring page and filled it with vibrant scribbles using her markers and crayons.

I just love how versatile this craft is and that the templates Mombrite provides are age appropriate for a varying skill levels.  It’s perfect for when you want easy winter crafts for toddlers.

3. Snowflake Handprints

Annie is usually very concerned with cleanliness, so I was pleasantly surprised when she loved this Snowflake Handprint craft from In the Playroom.  

We only needed two supplies for this craft: construction paper and paint.  I love it when crafts are that easy.  

I filled a paper plate with white paint and pulled out the piece of blue paper Annie HAD TO HAVE when we were shopping at Michaels.  Then I helped her dip her hand in the white paint and then place it on the paper.  We did this a few times, making a truly beautiful snowflake handprint.  

Once she got the hang of it she took her own creative liberties and just had so much fun playing in the paint.  The process of applying paint to her hands and then pressing them on the paper was so explorative and really let her test out the method and how far she could go with her materials.

Looking back I should have covered her shirt to protect it from the paint.  I got lucky this time and she didn’t get any paint on her clothes, but I’m not so sure I’d be lucky a second time.  I did cover the table with a trash bag though and I’m glad I did.

She had so much fun with this she requested a second sheet of paper so she could keep going.

4. Q-Tip Painted Snowflakes

These Q Tip Painted Snowflakes from No Time for Flashcards are adorable and seasonally appropriate winter crafts, especially since we just got 15 inches of snow.  

For this craft I cut two pieces of construction paper into eight strips.  One page I cut the short way and the other page I cut the long way. Then Annie took four strips, crossed them alternating sizes and used the glue stick to stick them together in the center.

This was Annie’s first experience with glue, so I helped out with the build.  Once we got the first one together she was excited to paint them.  I put three different colors of paint on a paper plate and she dipped a q-tip in the colors and then painted dots and little blobs on the snowflake.  

It was really cool to watch her mind turn with the process for each different snowflake.  At first she would use a q-tip and carefully place the colors where she wanted them and then move on to the next color.  By the end all of the colors got mixed together making multi-colored dots, which was equally creative.

We ended up making three snowflakes, although we had enough materials to make four. We hung them on the window so she can see them when we’re eating dinner.

5. Spool Stamped Snowman Art 

This Spool Stamped Snowman Art from Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds is a cute winter craft for toddlers and I love that it takes an everyday object  and gives it a new purpose, really encouraging toddlers to think outside of the box.

I drew a cute little snowman body and then cut it out.  Annie loved the process of dabbing the spool into the paints and then stamping it on the little snowman.  We used mostly blue paints, but to give it a little shimmer, like a snowman would have, we also used a white glitter paint.  

I love when crafts are versatile and can totally see this one being a repeat with other seasonal shapes and colors.  

What other winter crafts for toddlers have you and your littles enjoyed?  I’d love to hear about those in the comments.