The Wonder Years shares many Montessori-inspired activities that can be made at home. This lacing board is simple to make and is perfect to help your preschooler practice his lacing skills. Click here to learn how to make one AND how to introduce the activity to your child!

Here’s a fun and easy way to add custom stamps to your child’s art supplies! Go check out Mel’s Own Place for a tutorial on making these stamps using bottle caps!

One Inch World has discovered that juice tops are sturdy enough to make excellent custom sewing cards for your little crafters! Click here for more!

You can make a fun and relaxing retreat for your littles with the help of a bed sheet! Craft Addictions explains how she created hers here!

LOVE this simple idea for making homemade lollipops! So many possibilities! See The Decorated Cookie for the details! (via The Crafty Crow)

Just for Fun With Sandy shares a super-simple way to make bathtub paints…so simple you may wonder why you haven’t tried it before! Click here for the details!

Brassy Apple made this I Spy Book as part of her self-hosted “creativity for the car” summer craft challenge. It’s such a simple idea, but one that the kids will love!  You can see how she made it, plus check out what others have made for the car, right here!

Mommy Blessings shares a great tutorial for making fairy wings from wire hanger and women’s nylons! Take a look here!

Here are some fun ways to give the gift of crafting to your kiddos (and their friends!):

Silly Putty Kit from Havin’ Fun Yet

Doll Quilt Kit from Craftstylish

Clothespin Doll Kit from Mama Urchin

Hand-stitched Teddy Bear Kit from Chica and Jo

Collage Kit from The Toby Show

Cookie-Baking Kit from Simple Green Frugal Co-Op

Mother Earth shares the dream catchers she recently made for her daughters to hang over their beds. This one is really beautiful and would be a great to make for or with your kids to accompany a lesson on Native Americans. Learn how to make one here!

This play dough looks so inviting, doesn’t it? I love the soft colors! Click on over to LMNOP for the recipe!

Trixi, from Coloured Buttons, has been coming up with some really amazing kid toys using matchboxes as her foundation. This doll house is incredible with all of its tiny details, plus she’s added a bit of ribbon going through the roof making it highly portable (and fun to wear)!

She didn’t stop with this dollhouse. In fact, she challenged herself to complete weekly matchbox crafts for a month! This tiny rock theatre is another one of her creations:

Her other matchbox projects include a board game and matchbox bugs! I hope you’ll check out all of her matchbox crafts. You will surely come away inspired!

This work apron from Urban Organica is sure to be a hit with any child who LOVES pockets! Go here and follow the photo tutorial to make one for your own kiddo!

Ikat Bag shares a game that’s easy to make and fun to play. Reading her description had me feeling a bit nostalgic for the schoolyard pastimes that I rememember: hopscotch and jumping rope! You can read about how to make and play the game “Five Stones” here!

The first day of Summer is just a couple days away! Here are some fun ideas to help get you through these long days!

Count down the weeks of summer with this Sunshine Patterning Activity from Her Cup Overfloweth!

Make and Takes has a great list of items to keep handy for summer crafting. Bag them up for your own Tub O’ Fun!

Let’s Explore is sharing the contents of their Summer Fun Bags beginning with this tangram kit!

Get the kids outdoors for this fun Backyard Alphabet Hunt from Teach Mama!

Follow along with The Long Thread’s Summer Reading Crafts, beginning with the story of Elmer!

Create a fairy fantasy land in your backyard. Here’s a lovely example from And Everything Nice:

Frame a doorway with the items on your summer activity list written on die-cuts. Then take them off as you complete them! Check out the Doorway into Summer at The Artful Parent.

The Thrifty Chick came up with a clever remake of the classic game of Checkers. Here she shows how you can easily make over an existing Checkers set to make your own set with family photos!

I love this set of personalized name blocks from Melissa at Chasing Cheerios!. These would make a great gift for any child, especially those just learning to spell their name. What a fun way to practice putting the letters in the right order! Older kids could take it a step further by rearranging the letters to see how many words they can spell using the letters in their name, and the younger ones could simply enjoy stacking and playing with the colorful blocks! Go to Chasing Cheerios for the how-to!

A simple IKEA hack turned this rail and hook system into the perfect dress-up storage solution. You can learn more at Memories Are The Scraps of Life! (via IKEA Hacker)

How sweet are these pipe cleaner fairies from 5 Orange Potatoes? They would go perfect in a backyard fairy garden! Click here to learn how to make the fairies.

Dot at Dabbled recently held the coolest dragon party for her son with many DIY details, including this amazing dragon cake. You can find a tutorial for making the cake here. She’s also sharing a tutorial for making dragon wings…  PLUS…downloads for the invitations and thank you notes she designed! Now you have everything you need to have your own dragon-themed bash!

Mushy shares a free printable and tutorial for making these fun popcorn bags…perfect for your next movie night!

Or…

Hosting a sleeper for some girly tweens? Make some pink popcorn with this how-to from Jenny Ryan at Craft!

Teach Mama had a great idea when she made individual grocery lists for her little ones. This is such an easy and fun way to get the kids involved in the shopping while sneaking in a bit of counting and reading! You can read more here!

This pint-sized cardboard stool is just one of several free furniture designs for children available at foldschool. The patterns and instructions are all downloadable and should take between 3.5 to 5.5 hours to assemble. After you’ve finished, pass your handiwork over to your kiddos and let them decorate their new furniture!  According to the folks at foldschool, all of the pieces are very stable and can “easily carry the weight of an adult”! Go here to check it out! (found via The Red Thread)

If you make this soap I guarantee you will get voted “coolest mom ever”! I love this soap, and it’s ok if your kids aren’t into Batman. Just follow the tutorial at The Pink Toque and personalize to suit your needs! (via Craft)

I was thinking all day yesterday about making a marble run of sorts with my girls. I think this cardboard contraption complete with recycled bits might be just the inspiration I needed! You can see this at Handmade Beginnings!