TIPS TO HELP YOU PLAN A PRODUCTIVE AND TASTY CRAFT TIME WITH KIDS

Indoor craft activities are a fun way to get children's imagination running and it can help kids develop important skills, including hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Books "(Almost) Too Cute to Eat" and "Candy Creations" offer tips for parents on how to make decorating cupcakes and other sweets an entertaining craft for children.

Making crafts provide children with creative outlets and allow them to use their imaginations. Also, hands-on projects can help kids develop important skills, including hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, how to communicate effectively, and about self-expression.

Books "(Almost) Too Cute to Eat" and "Candy Creations" provide easy ways to transform and decorate sweets like cupcakes and cookies that children and parents can turn into a hands-on project for their children.

Before diving into craft time, here are a few things to remember to have:

• Something to protect the table from messes

• Paper plates to hold their creations
  
  
• Marker to write the child's name on the paper plate

• Paper towels and hand wipes

• Extra candies, because some are sure to get snatched while decorating

After prepping, set up shop and get decorating with these two ideas from books "(Almost) Too Cute to Eat" and "Candy Creations."

I'm No Dum-Dum Mini Cupcakes

What You'll Need:

• 36 mini cupcakes
• 1 (1 lb.) tub white or chocolate ready-to-use frosting
• 36 Dum Dum pops, any color
• Mike and Ike candies, any color
• Green Tootsie Fruit Rolls, optional
• Green paste food coloring, optional
• Green nonpareils, optional

To Make:

1. Tint frosting green if desired. Cover each cupcake with white, green, or chocolate frosting.
   
   
2. Unwrap Dum Dum pops; use kitchen shears to cut 1 inch from sticks.
   
   
3. For each flower, cut four Mike and Ikes in half crosswise. Press cut edge of Mike and Ikes against rim of pop for flower petals.
   
   
4. Flatten Tootsies (soften in microwave a few seconds if needed) and cut out leaf shape.
   
   
5. Push stick of one flower into each cupcake. Press one or two leaves into frosting beside flower.

Coral Critters

What You'll Need:

• 8 sour gummy worms
  
  
• 1 large gumdrop
  
  
• 1 Nerds Rope, unwrapped
  
  
• Melted white almond bark

 





To Make:

1. Cut off the desired colored section of each gummy worm for "tentacles."
   
   
2. Arrange tentacles evenly around gumdrop "body," pressing cut ends against gumdrop to stick.
   
   
3. Coil Nerds Rope and fasten end with melted bark; hold until set.
   
   
4. Set octopus on top of coil, fastening in place with melted bark.

The tips here are courtesy of CQ Products. For more fun creations, visit cqproducts.com.

Also see:

• Fun and Easy Watermelon Cupcake Recipe