Arts and Crafts Ideas for Kids - Cupcake Decorating

 All kids get bored sometimes so as a parent you can be on a constant lookout for new arts and crafts idea for kids to do.

It doesn't matter whether it's school holidays or a wet Saturday afternoon, soon enough the cry 'I'm bored' will be heard, and kids being kids don't always want to do the same thing again and again, they want something new and exciting - while you want something that will keep them entertained for a good few hours.

Cupcake decorating is great for this as it can provide hours of entertainment, is inexpensive to organise and, as an added bonus, your kids get to make something that they can then eat ~ and let's face it, kids love cake.

 It's very easy to get together everything you need for cupcake decorating.

To start with you'll need a table or other space where the children can work, and either aprons (as it can get messy) or old shirts or t-shirts they can wear to stop them getting covered in icing.

You'll need cupcakes ~ either bought or made ~ and you should allow for around 4 - 6 per child. You'll need sugar paste icing (fondant), butter icing or frosting, and plenty of sweets of all different colours and types.

 Whether you are doing cupcake decorating as an arts and crafts birthday party activity or as an arts and crafts project on a wet afternoon it's best to follow the same format.

Start by having a few cupcakes already decorated so that the children can see the types of things you want them to do.

If you're short of ideas at all you can look at these instructions for making frog cupcakes, lady bird cupcakes, elephant cupcakes, cow cupcakes and pig cupcakes. Or if your kids are a bit older they might like to try making sugar paste lilies or carnations.

If you just let them go at it they'll finish in about 5 mins flat so it can be a good idea to give them a theme i.e. fairies and monsters and ask them to decorate and cake and then when they've all finished one cake call you to see them. The set the next theme. This makes it easy for you to see if anyone is not keeping up or needs a bit of extra help.

If you really want to turn it into an event i.e. if you were looking at it as suitable activity for arts and crafts for birthday parties there are some extra things you can do.

Brightly coloured cupcake baking cups are available in most large stores now and there is also a fantastic range of cupcake wrappers online if you wanted to set a theme for your cupcake decorating. Also, once they're made, the cupcakes could be displayed on a cupcake stand.

It's also a great idea to take a picture of the cupcakes your kids have made and put them in a scrapbook and them each time they do some more decorating they can look back for previous ideas and add the new photos to the scrap book.

The most important thing is that however you do it, and whether it's for an hour or an afternoon, you and kids have fun and hopefully learn how to do a few things you didn't know how to do before.