I want to set up a craft area in our new house with natural products. I have dollmaking supplies: cotton skin colored knit, wool stuffing, some little pieces of silk and wool felt, pipe cleaners, embroidery floss, felting needles, etc.

I need to build up my supplies, but I am not even sure where to start. Austin is NOT at all artistic. he would try something for a few minutes and just give up. However, he does like his knitting spool and is about ready to start crocheting or knitting. Nathan likes to use his knitting spool, too. Oh, and they like my round knitting looms. Nathan is very artistic... so I am thinking some watercolors. Adam and Lauren... not sure yet. The like to pretend to make bendy dolls, but none of the kids have enough coordination yet.

I was considering getting a supply kit that includes a bunch of different dollmaking and wool crafting supplies. I also was thinking about getting the set of 6 watercolors and a large set of beeswax block crayons.

Do you have an area that the kids have access to the crafting supplies? If so, how do YOU store it all? What all do you have available for them to use?

FWIW: Austin 8, Nathan 7, Adam 4, Lauren 3.

I have a closet just off of the dining room. It's packed with our hs'ing stuff and art supplies. They're free to take whatever they can find and work on the dining room table.

I don't have a formal dining room, or anything formal for that matter. Our dining room table is a distressed harvest table built to withstand a lot of hard use. No carpet on the dining floor.

I keep everything in the closet in a container or roll-away of some sort. Crayons, glue sticks and scissors are in a basket and a permanent fixture on the table. It never gets put away.

Katie

We also have Lyra colored pencils, beeswax crayons, glue sticks, scissors always on the table too.

Then we have a craft drawer filled with odds and ends the can get into (pipe cleaners, scraps, buttons, etc.)

ANd their favorite the junk box (tin cans, boxes, egg cartons, toilet paper rolls,etc...) Amazing the things the create with these!

Warm wishes,
Tonya
Home Educating, Simple Living, Mom of 5
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We've always had an "Art Cabinet" at our house (actually it's an old TV cabinet) and it works very well. It was low enough for my daughter to access when she was little, but easy to put things away when not in use. Even a shelf in a closet would be a great place to store craft items, that's what my sister does.

Besides the usual beeswax or soy crayons (the soy are much easier to obtain, probably at your local art supply), watercolor paints, homemade playdough (the recipe can be found at http://www.homestead.com/thesilverpenny/FunRecipes.html), wool, fleece, and felt -- I also suggest rubber stamps. My daughter always enjoyed those!

I will be a happy, happy woman the day there is a designated craft area in our home.

All of my crafty stuff is squeezed into my bedroom...with the exception of fabric which has taken over the linen closet in the hallway.

We have a short 2-shelf bookcase in the dining room that holds homeschooling books...the top of this bookcase is where frequently used craft supplies are kept (scissors, glue, paper, crayons, colored pencils, markers, paintbrushes, clay (the "doesn't dry out" kind of modelling clay), watercolors, and a little container of small fabric scraps)

I have a giant basket on top of the refrigerator for stuff that needs my permission and assistance (liquid stockmar watercolors, tube watercolors, rubber stamps and ink pads, a bag of mixed beans we use for mosaic type pictures, water soluble crayons (these are soooo cool), air-dry clay, and glitter). I also keep infrequently used things in that big basket (potholder looms and loops, foam brushes, weaving stuff, feathers, pom poms)

The kids are welcome to use any of my stuff but I've started dd (9 1/2) on her own stash of embroidery floss, beads, pipe cleaners, yarn, knitting needles and crochet hooks, felt, and needles as she was making a mess getting to my stuff and making too big a dent in my stash. I keep a basket of felt scraps that everyone is welcome to use without asking but other than that I prefer to be asked if my stuff is going to be used just because I am the only one who knows where everything is...and I'm the only one who can find something without making a mess.

We have a a few places we keep craft supplies. We have some 3 drawer units along one wall, some supplies in the wooden wardrobe and then the mightly (ugly) tower of supplies. I keep all the like items in bins with labels. It makes storage and clean up so much easier. I got the plastic bins at Ollies, so they were really cheap. It's not very attactive, but it works. Dd has her own activity room, but of course, it gets tracked all over the house. LOL

Here is the tower of craft supplies. Only the bottom shelf is used for non-craft items.