Their playdough is homemade, super soft, non-toxic, and taste-safe, made from ingredients families can trust. Happy Hands kits are known for helping to build fine motor skills and inspire open-ended, imaginative play, making them a favourite among parents, educators, and therapists alike.

The business was founded by twin sisters Haanah, an early childhood educator, and Zahra, a social worker, who share a passion for child development and emotional wellbeing. Happy Hands was born from their desire to create a meaningful product that supports both learning and play.

Playdough is widely recognised as a valuable sensory tool that helps develop key skills in language, motor control, problem-solving, and emotional regulation. Whether customers are looking for themed playdough kits, individual tubs or bulk quantities, Happy Hands offers a playful and purposeful solution.

Autumn is the season of colour, and by far my favourite. I remember I used to go out of my way to step on a crunchy leaf, and for some reason it still brings out the child in me!

These activities have been created with young children and preschoolers in mind, but they’re equally as satisfying for older age groups too (ahem, even really big kids at heart!). They’re easy and quick to put together and especially great for keeping those toddlers busy while you get something else done, or better yet, sit down and have a cuppa, or read that magazine you bought three weeks ago that’s still sitting on the kitchen counter!

Contact Art

You will need:

• Clear contact
• Black card or brown paper, cut into a trunk and then some branch shapes.
• Homemade leaves (you could pre paint/fingerpaint some autumn colours with your child and cut it into leaf shapes)
• Or craft leaves from a variety shop
• Sticky tape

To begin… Cut some contact off the roll and round off the top. Then pull off the paper backing. Stick this (with the sticky side of the contact facing outwards) to a window, wall or sliding door with sticky tape on the edges (you’ll only need a little.)  Press on the trunk and branches!

Pop the leaves in a bowl and let your child enjoy adding them to the tree!

This activity is very easily adapted for other themes! You could make a basket instead of a tree and decorate with homemade cardboard glitter eggs for Easter, or a Christmas tree with round painted baubles or even a snowman made with cotton balls!

I found the autumn tree worked a charm, our leaves even fell off a few times which made it look like a real tree dropping leaves!

Sensory Zip Lock Art

You will need:

• Two pieces of coloured card
• One zip lock bag
• Sticky tape
• Red, Yellow, Orange and Brown paint

To begin…

• Trace around a large leaf or freedraw and cut out the two pieces of card, so that they are the same. It’s easiest to cut one and use that as a template for the other.
• Place small squirts of each paint colour in the zip lock bag and zip it shut.
• Place the bag in between the two pieces of card and tape the edges.
• Attach to a window with tape at the top and bottom.

Watch as your little one discovers the joy of mess free painting!

This activity can also be adapted to different themes. Easter eggs, trees, stars, suns, moons… the ideas are endless!

HOT TIP: For crawlers, this is a brilliant activity to tape to the floor or high chair!

Broccoli Leaves

Every child loves to stamp, and for some reason using vegetables or fruit makes it extra fun! This activity is extremely quick to set up and will bring you much needed quiet time as your child enters that relaxation ‘zen’ mode whilst they paint! Bliss! Beware! It could get messy, so it’s a great one to do before a bath!

You will need:

• Large piece of paper
• Red, Yellow, Orange, Brown paint
• Broccoli
• Pencil or texta

The only prep required is to pop the paint on a paper plate or a palette (if you have one) Draw the tree trunk and branches. Then chop up the broccoli!

You may need to do a quick little demo to explain the activity to your child! Just dip the broccoli in the paint and add the pretty leaves to the tree!

Adaptation: If you don’t have broccoli you could also use cue tips, bubblewrap, fingerprints, toilet roll ends squashed into a leaf shape, flowers, cotton ball paintbrushes (cotton balls held by a peg)

Bunny Ears…

You will need:

• Cardboard
• Glitter/textas/sparkly things!
• Scissors
• Craft Glue
• Paintbrush
• Hot glue gun
• Wool/string

Method:

• Cut out two bunny ear shapes and one long thin rectangle
• Let your child paint on the glue
• Decorate to hearts content (use anything! We used glitter (much to Daddy’s dismay as he had cleaned the floors the day before)
• Let dry
•  Use glue gun to stick the ears onto the rectangle (watch out it’s hot!)
• Get an adult to pierce holes in each side and tie on wool or string
• GET HOPPING!

Old School Spud Stamps

You will need:

• Paint
• Paintbrush
• Thick paper or cardboard
• Kitchen knife

Method:

Get and adult to cut out some simple shapes into a halved potato. Your child will love painting the stamp and pressing it onto the paper. Wait until the paint has dried and then cut out the egg shapes to decorate the house with! We used fluro paint and decided to decorate our back doors! They glow in the blue light of our fish tank at night

SPLATTER EGG…

You will need:

• A tray with edges (I used an old cardboard box)
• Paint
• Something to move the paint with (we used a straw, you could use marbles, toy cars or a ball)
• Painting tape or strips of paper
• Thick paper
• Scissors

Method:

Cut out a large egg shape and lay in the tray. I used painters tape to create shapes on our egg. You could use strips of paper to form the patterns and stick it down on either side (this would avoid ripping your egg when it’s time to remove!)
Pop some blobs of paint straight onto the egg shape. Use your straw or other object to move the paint around. Children love to see the colours combining and creating patterns.
When the egg is completely covered, carefully remove the pattern paper or tape to expose the egg decoration!

Extension idea: Make two with larger edges and staple together when dry. Leave a space and stuff with tissue paper. Use to decorate your dining table or mantle piece! Or a lovely Easter present for Grandma if you pop a few eggs inside

ALFOIL EASTER EGGS…

You will need:

• Cardboard
• Scissors
• Alfoil
• Sharpie textas

Method:

• Cut out cardboard eggs.
• Tear off your tin foil and lay your egg on top!
• Fold the edges so the front of the egg is completely covered.
• Leaving the lid on the texta, have your child draw designs all over the egg.
• When they are finished they can use the Sharpie markers to trace over their designs and add more detail.

Easter Egg Sun Catcher

You will need:

• Clear Contact
• Confetti/shredded colourful paper/easter egg wrappers
• Sticky tape

Method:

• Cut contact into an oval shape
• Carefully peel back the contact halfway and stick the top sticky side up on a table, then peel off the rest and stick the other end down too!
• Let your child decorate the egg by sticking colourful confetti or tissue paper down on the egg
• Shake off excess
• Cut a rectangular piece of contact and place it on top, sandwiching the decorated egg and leaving a sticky border so that you can attach it to a window or door!

Fork Chick

A really simple painting for children aged 2+ to achieve! You could even paint a few and place them around the house!

You will Need:

• Plastic fork
• Yellow paint
• Paper
• Black Texta/Crayon
• Red piece of paper or scrap
• Googly Eyes!

Method:

• Draw a circle for your child in yellow pencil
• Dip the fork into the paint and guide your child to paint inside the circle!
• Add the red beak and googly eyes
• Draw on chicken legs and feet!!!

Toilet Roll Bunnies

Another great use for all those toilet rolls everyone would have at the moment! Use them to print bunnies! So quick and fun!

You will need:

• White paint
• Green paint or crayon
• Cotton buds
• Black texta/pencil/charcoal
• Pink pencil/crayon/paint
• Glue
• 3 toilet rolls
• Coloured paper (we only had blue but pink would look great!)

Method:

• Start by squashing two of the toilet rolls together to make ears!
• Tape or glue them to the other round roll
• Dip your bunny stamp into the white paint
• Start stamping
• Get your child to add green grass for the bunnies to jump in with the cotton buds
• Add bunny faces with the black
• Add a bit of pink in the ears

*You could also add easter eggs in the grass by doing thumb prints in different coloured paint!

B is for Bunny

You will need:

• Coloured paper
• Cotton Balls
• Pencil or white charcoal
• Glue
• Googly eyes (you can draw eyes too!)
• Cotton buds for gluing

Method:

• Draw a B!
• Demonstrate how to use the cotton bud to put glue on the lines of the B!
• Pop on a cotton ball!
• Cover the whole thing!
• Add a cute face

*We made ears by tracing little hands and adding some pink, but you could also make regular shaped bunny ears and glue them to the top!

Some more quick and easy Easter Craft Ideas

Dyed Eggs

This one was pretty easy. Grab some eggs, boil them, then put them into food colouring with a drop of vinegar. We drew our initials and some patterns on the eggs with white crayon first to add extra effect. This was a more parent-oriented activity with the kids choosing the colours they wanted their eggs, and doing the crayon part. Obviously the hot water and food colouring was an adult responsibility. The more food colouring the more vibrant the eggs will be.

Here’s a link the might be helpful: 

Popstick Chicks

These were easy and fun! Glue, colourful feathers, popsticks, googly eyes, coloured paper and you’re done! My kids made many more that were less chicken-coloured, but this photo shows the more traditional ones!

Bunny Butts

This craft idea is from and is simple and quick. We wrote on ours and will give them to grandparents on Sunday for Easter (lucky grandparents! Haha.)

Balloon Bunny

No explanation needed for this one! We’ve had a whole family of balloon bunnies in our lounge room this week!

Some other ideas!

*In keeping with a hopping theme, how about drawing a chalk hop scotch game on the driveway!
*Make a cardboard cut out of bunny feet and use the good old powder to create some bunny magic!
*Take the top off a real egg, empty it out, refill with flowers or confetti, food colouring and water. Stand upright and freeze. When frozen, take off the shell to reveal a beautiful painting egg! Pop some paper in an oven tray and let it slither and slide, creating a beautiful Easter egg painting!

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

1. It’s got to be kid-oriented and age appropriate (eg. no origami or glass blowing!) . This year my kids are 3 and 2 (and 10 weeks, but he doesn’t really count this year- sorry little man!).
2. It should be an activity that the kids can do the majority of themselves so they can work on their fine motor skills, creativity and imagination. Some activities may require difficult scissor work, which may need adult help. The photos I’ve added in this post are the efforts that look most like what I expected! A lot of the craft we completed looked vastly different from one to the next, which is fine too. 🙂
3. It should be inexpensive to do (eg. no fancy paint brushes, sequins or cartridge paper)
4. The mess should be as minimal as possible (eg. paint is fine, but glitter is NOT IDEAL). I’m fine with mess as long as it’s not permanent!
5. The art and craft activity should ideally use things I already have in the pantry or craft boxes

So here are some of the craft ideas we’ve completed so far…

Dyed Eggs: This one was pretty easy. Grab some eggs, boil them, then put them into food colouring with a drop of vinegar. We drew our initials and some patterns on the eggs with white crayon first to add extra effect. This was a more parent-oriented activity with the kids choosing the colours they wanted their eggs, and doing the crayon part. Obviously the hot water and food colouring was an adult responsibility. The more food colouring the more vibrant the eggs will be.

Here’s a link the might be helpful:

Popstick Chicks: These were easy and fun! Glue, colourful feathers, popsticks, googly eyes, coloured paper and you’re done! My kids made many more that were less chicken-coloured, but this photo shows the more traditional ones!

Links here for more pop stick instructions:

The craft idea from was simple and quick. We wrote on ours and will give them to grandparents on Sunday for Easter (lucky grandparents! Haha.).

Our was great because we got to use our endless supply of recyclables to create it. Plus, it didn’t require much paint. Hit the link for more instructions.

Balloon Bunny

No explanation needed for this one! We’ve had a whole family of balloon bunnies in our lounge room this week!

If you haven’t heard of Artventure before, it is an online video art lesson platform giving kids the ability to express themselves, extend their art skills and build their confidence. It’s perfect for kids aged 4-12 or for your teenager, their Art Eye Deer program will be perfect. It’s really simple to use – you (there is a 48hr free trial available too!), choose the lesson and off you go!

There are plenty of lessons to choose from as well (over 470 to be exact!)- firstly you choose lessons from Levels 1 -5. If your child is up for a challenge or wants to hone their skills, choose a higher level. If you have a beginner artist or they just want to relax while they create, choose a lower level. As well as the levels there are themes to choose from such as animals, nature or Olympics, so your child can choose a lesson that aligns with their interest.

Art has such a benefit for kids – A report by Americans for the Arts says “young people who participate regularly in the arts are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to participate in a math and science fair or to win an award for writing an essay or poem than children who do not participate in the arts”.

Artventure is perfect for any household – whether your child does a lesson daily, maybe you homeschool, perhaps you spend time in the school holidays doing art or maybe you are looking for something different to keep the kids occupied when it’s wet outside or when they are sick. It’s not all painting either – if your child wants to up their drawing skills or you can’t face the mess that can come with painting, choose a drawing lesson where all you’ll need is a pencil or texta.

There are 3,6,or 12 month subscriptions available – click on the link below to sign up or do a free trial.

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a commission. Thanks.

HANDY ANZAC WREATHS!

You will need:

• Up to 20 paper plates
• Some green card or paper (or collect real leaves or greenery that can be glued)
• Glue stick or glue and brush + scissors
• Red and black paint + paint brushes

Method:

Cut the centre out of one paper plate – this will make a donut shaped template to stick your poppy hands and leaves onto. Generously paint your hand red and print it into the middle of a paper plate. Repeat for as many ‘poppies’ as you’d like (we made about 14). Pop black dots in the middle of the palm print, representing poppies. Allow them to dry and then cut out the hand prints. Draw and cut some green card for leaves, or collect some leaves or greenery from out doors. Glue the hand prints and leaves around the donut template to create yoru wreath. Hang it on the wall, your door ot fence, or take it to place at your local war memorial.

POOL NOODLE POPPIES!

You will need:

• A little piece of pool noodle
• Red, Black and Green paint
• White paper, card stock, cardboard or canvas
• Leaves

Method:

So simple! Dip the noodle into the red paint and print your poppies wherever you like. Next, paint the back of a leaf in green and print the leaf sporadically in between the poppies. Last, have your child dip their fingers in the black paint and fill in the middle of each poppy! Voila! A beautiful artwork to pop out the front of your house for ANZAC Day.

PAPER PLATE POPPIES

You will need:

• Paper plates
• Red and Black paint
• Scissors
• Pool Noodle/fingers

Method:

Get a big person to cut four triangle shapes around the plate. Fill in the entire plate with red paint, and then either use a spare pool noodle piece or fingers to print the idle with black!

These can be stuck to a stick, or wooden spoon and stuck out in the lawn to create our own memorial gardens.

MINI MEDALS

You will need:

• Paper plates/cardboard
• Oil pastels/crayons/paint/pencils/textas (or a mixture of all)
• Scissors
• Sticky Tape
• Coloured Card

Method:

Draw a variety of medal shapes in the centre of the paper plate. Get your child to colour or decorate each medal. Cut each coloured medal out. Get your child to decorate the piece of card you will attach the medal to. Stick the medal to the card. We then used some streamers we had lying around to be able to wear them or you could use a safety pin.

Extension Ideas: If you have school aged children you could take each of these activities further by having them research ANZAC Day. You could literally cover each curriculum area just with this one subject.

Maths – research the number of soldiers etc…
Science – look at the terrain and environment they were in, how did it affect their health?
Art – What wartime posters were created and why? Can you design one too?
HASS – What dates did the war commence and end. Where was it? What countries were involved?

There are many resources you can find online, from poppy templates to hundreds of other art ideas. There are some great ones for creating wreathes from garden cuttings and door decorations, making poppies from egg cartons.

We hope you and your loved ones enjoy commemorating ANZAC Day, to pass down the importance of it to our kids is something we can all be proud of this year, even if we can’t get to our local RSL. We will all be there in the spirit.

Here are some great ideas for creating an inexpensive and fun playroom.

Choose fabrics and rugs that are durable and easy to wash. A playroom looks much cosier and more comfortable with a range of different textures, fabrics, and rugs. Just be aware that they will get dirty easily, so make them easy to quickly throw in the wash.

Use rugs to “define spaces”, this encourages children to keep toys in one area. An example of this would be to have a special “Lego area” and the Lego gets played with only on that rug, making it easier for clean-up and avoiding the old stepping on Lego issue that we have all experienced at some point!

Storage! Having clever storage ideas are a must! We like to use low storage shelves with baskets, so that each item is easily accessible and easy to pack up. Children can see what they have to play with at a glance which can prevent them tipping EVERYTHING out on the floor.

Create little “pockets of play,” Children love cosy little spaces to curl up and play in. Create a little book corner, or a soft space for cuddling up with soft toys. We used to drape a sheet over chairs so my daughter could play tea parties in peace away from her noisy car-mad brother.

Think outside the box! Have you ever noticed how children love playing with things that are not traditional toys? Well, visit your local op shop, get down to Kmart, visit your local park for nature items or check garage sales for real items for children to play with! A stainless-steel tea set (or a real one, if your child is gentle with breakables) add a whisk and saucepan to a play kitchen. Full up baskets with pinecones and seed pods and watch their imagination take flight!

Declutter. Regularly go through your child’s toys and pass on anything that they do not play with. Or alternatively, store it away and rotate the toys every few months to keep children interested. Having an uncluttered playroom can make the difference between chaos and calm.

Firstly, a few disclaimers – There is a lot of adult assistance required so it’s something you will need to do together. Also it’s way messier than it looks so prepared to get dirty. Don’t be fooled by the YouTube clips that claim they just scoop the centre out with a spoon – we fast learnt this is NOT reality! Be prepared to be elbow deep in pumpkin seeds! Also pumpkins only last a few days once cut so don’t cut too early if you want it to still be around on the the 31st.

First step is to draw up your pumpkin with the face you’d like to create. We spent some time googling different images before settling on one. Also keep in mind cutting the pumpkin is quite difficult so you want a face that is forgiving with miss cuts (not too intricate for your first attempt). We used a pen which we found great as it allowed us to wipe off as required.

Once your set with your design the next task is to cut a lid in the top. This proved quite difficult to cut through and is definitely one for the adults to complete. A really sharp knife with some muscle power is required.

When you have the lid off place to the side for the time being and time to clear out the centre of your pumpkin. This is the part your going to get quite messy! we found a spoon helped to scrape around the edges but to pull the centre out required our hands. Mr 4 loved getting dirty through this part, me on the other hand…. not so much! We pulled out as much as we could and placed into a bowl for disposal as we went.

Then onto the face cutting. Again, this is something that the adults should be doing and again quite tough to cut through, although not nearly as hard as the lid. We made many cutting errors as we went but it really added to the final effect so it really doesn’t matter. Once we had cut through pieces we just pushed them out and then used a sharp knife to tidy up the holes and make them look cleaner.

When all the cutting was done it was easy to remove any left over pen with a baby wipe, then added in some tealights placed the lid back on and our newest house mate was complete!

Buying plain pots means there is lots of room for customisation, and they can really take pride in this craft and turn it into a lovely gift or even teacher gift as that time of year is fast approaching! We chose a mix of free hand painting as well as some stencils.

The supplies were really easy to come by and I found including the kids in this process really gives them a sense of creativity and passion. As above we brought some pots from Bunnings, there is such an array to choose from there all different shapes, sizes and prices. We also HAD to buy a Dino pot for the dino obssessed toddler while we were there (pictured which started hot pink but we painted white). We were then off to Cheap as Chips for some stencils, paint brushes and paint, you need to use acrylic or ceramic paint, washable will not stay. Then it was home to put our creative hats on and get messy.

This project will get quite messy and as the paint is not washable we do recommend old clothes or a smock. Also cleaning up straight after before the paint stains.

All in all this project is very cost effective and really enjoyable to do with the kids. There are so many ways to get creative with this project, From sponging , paint brushes, stencils to free hand we had the best time mixing it up and the memory of keeping it on display around the house is such a sentimental reminder of how quickly they grow up!

Hand print bouquet

You will need:

• Paper or card stock
• Paint
• Texta

Method:
Draw a pot and some lines coming out. Paint your child’s hand and print to create flowers!
Write a nice message for mum or get your child to write or draw something at the bottom.
This can be turned into a card by folding in half or leave as is!

Daffodil Wish

You will need:

• Paper
• Paint
• Texta

Method:
Draw a stem and a dot at the end. Then draw lots of lines coming out of the dot. Get your child to dip their finger in the paint and print on the end of each line. This creates a daffodil. Write ‘Make a Wish’ on the bottom!
This could be a nice card front also!

Woven Hearts

You will need:

• Cardboard
• Wool/String
• Cue tips/straw to create a needle
• Scissors

Method:
Cut out a heart shape. Pierce holes around the heart. Crate a needle by tying the wool on your cue tip and cutting off one end. Get your child to sew around the heart. Young children will need assistance but can happily pull through the wool. This is a great activity to practice hand/eye coordination and fine motor skills!
Write a message for mum in the middle or get your child to draw a funny picture of mums face!

Funny Card Quiz

Instead of writing the same message that Mum get’s every year, why not interview your child about Mum and write the answers in the card! This could be hilarious!
Here are some ideas!

1. My Mum is _________ years old.
2. My Mum weighs ______________.
3. My Mum’s favourite color is _______________.
4. My Mum’s favourite food is ________________.
5. My Mum always says _________________________________.
6. My Mum cooks the best _______________________________.
7. My Mum’s job is ______________________________.
8. My Mum laughs when _________________________________.
9. If Mum had more time she would love to _________________________.
10. My Mum and I like to _________________________________.
11. My Mum really loves _________________________.
12. I love my Mum because _______________________.

Hand print keepsake

Baby handprints are especially special to print and frame. If this is your Mum’s first Mothers Day, this will be an extra special gift that she will treasure forever.
IDEAS ….

• Take the kids out and leave Mum at home, maybe she can read a book she’s been wanting to read for three years!
• Plan a SPA DAY! Face mask, bubble bath, candles VOILA!!!
• Plan a picnic at home!
• Candle light dinner (so simple, make dinner, light candles!)
• Let Mum sleep in!
• Organise a menu for a Mother’s Day Room Service breakfast!

We hope your Mother’s Day is relaxing, even if you just take the lap top for a drive to the beach, grab a coffee and watch a couple of episodes of that Netflix show you love, in peace!

Gosh! Reading this, I think every day should be Mother’s Day!!!
Enjoy xxx