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Gift Guide: 17 Engaging Arts & Crafts Kids Can Do Anywhere

Gift Guide: 17 Engaging Arts & Crafts Kids Can Do Anywhere

My first attempt to bring travel arts & crafts supplies on a plane did not turn out the way I expected. I handed 2YO Tiny Traveler a plastic box full of crayons. She spent most of the flight carefully taking them out of the box and putting them back in again.

Not long after, though, she became a kid who loved drawing, gluing, painting, covering things with glitter and playing with Play-Doh anywhere and everywhere. So I became adept at finding crafts that traveled well for every age she grew into.

Here are 17 travel arts & crafts supplies that will pass muster with both your kids and TSA security. Readers love these, too, so pack a couple in your kid’s backpack for your next road trip or flight.

Need more kids gift ideas?
Try these books, gadgets, puzzles and building toys.
• Also, Make Flying Time Quality Time With Your Kids

Creative & Compact Travel Arts & Crafts Your Kids Will Want To Bring Everywhere

2 Compact Kits for Drawing & More

arts & crafts are a lifesaver then you travel with kids, so pack supplies like these mini sketch pads.

1. Sketch Pads Can Be Anything

When your kids reach an age where they just want a blank notebook for doodling, drawing and journaling, grab this three-pack of mini sketch pads from Melissa & Doug.

Each has 50 pages of acid-free paper for markers, pens, pencils, pastels, or whatever else your kid tosses in their backpack.

They’re part of Melissa & Doug’s extensive On The Go line of craft activities and toys kids can take with them anywhere.

2. Super Easy Knitting for Tweens

The Creativity for Kids Pocket Scarf kit comes with color-coded needles, wool and instructions for a scarf that has a pocket for a phone, cash or whatever else tweens want to slip into it.

Tip: The TSA says some knitting needles are OK in your carry-on.

c4k knitted scarf
foil fun

3. 2 Mess-Free Glitter Substitutes for Girls & Boys

Kids. Love. Glitter. Parents don’t. And it definitely doesn’t travel well.

Skillmatic’s Foil Art kits let kids make shiny puffy stickers and use them to fill in themed scenes. And, there’s no glittery mess.

In addition to animals, the themes include unicorns, space, dinosaurs and bugs & butterflies.

These kits are small and flat. They’re the sort of thing I’d stash in my bag and hold onto for that moment when I really needed something to engage my child. Like when our plane was delayed or a waiter is glacially slow bringing our dinner.

4. Brain Games makes spiral-bound books with sticker puzzles in 19 themes including robots, monsters, awesome animals and ocean treasures.

Each book has ten pictures that can keep kids from ages 4YO-to-8YO busy for up to half an hour.

brain games sticker puzzle books combinecrafting and games for airplane rides and road trips.
reusable book

5. Reusable Coloring Kit

Several of my readers like these kits that feature a reusable drawing book.

The kit comes with erasable markers and a storage bag for them, stencils, and a spray bottle and cloth to wipe the drawings away when kids are ready to start again.

You can toss both the book and the cloth in the washing machine.

There are 16 themes, including monsters, unicorns, dinosaurs and a wide range of animals.

6. Classic Crayola Modeling Clay

If you want to keep things simple, just pick up a pack of Crayola modeling clay. It doesn’t dry out easily and kids can do a lot with it without molds or accessories.

The first time I brought it along I wondered why I didn’t do it sooner. It’s the kind of thing that sucks adults in without us realizing it.

Tiny Traveler would make simple animals, beads and pretend food. My husband would amuse her with pastel elephants and kangaroos.

Tip: Bring a Ziplock back to keep the clay in. Once you start shaping it, it’s never going back in the box.

modeling clay is one of the most simple and versatile arts & crafts materials to travel with.
playdoh create go

7. Play-Doh To Go…Anywhere

Before there’s modeling clay there’s Play-Doh. And these party size containers and a few molds and shapes were one of my most reliable airplane activities.

I had to cobble a “travel kit” together. But you don’t have to, thanks to this Play-Doh Create ‘n’ Go Pet Playsets.

A compact case holds four small Play-Doh cans, a rolling pin, mold and shape-cutter. The top has five more molds built in.

For kids who aren’t pet people there’s also a cupcake-making kit.

8. Not-Messy Fun with Water

My readers can’t get enough of Melissa & Doug’s Water Wow coloring books in themes that include jungle, safari, dinosaurs, under the sea and adventure.

There’s also a set of Paw Patrol books for young fans of the series,

Fill the pen with water before you head out. As kids “color” in the 4-page books, colors magically appear.

The colors disappear when the water dries, too, so kids can use them on several legs of your journey.

md water wow books
melissa doug pack clay and an idea book into a compact travel kit.

9. Compact Clay + an Ideas Book

My readers also like Melissa & Doug’s Clay Creations kit. It’s compact and self-contained with ideas for things to do.

School-age kids can make some cool things with it. Younger kids will be less artistic, perhaps, but equally engaged.

Water Wow and the clay are two of many On The Go Crafts sets for kids from this toy company that I’ve long loved.

10. 2 Crayola Wonder-ful Mess-free Craft Kits

For more mess-free art coloring for preschoolers, my readers also love Crayola’s Color Wonder series.

Most popular is the travel size Mess-Free Activity Kit.

Refill it from an extensive line of Color Wonder coloring and activity pads, some of which incorporate popular characters like Peppa Pig.

The mess-free finger painting set is especially clever, IMHO.

crayola mess free kit
color wonder marker set

11. If you like the Color Wonder concept but want something a bit more compact for travel, several of my readers are buying this Mess-free marker set.

The compact carrying case holds 25 mini markers that only work on Color Wonder sheets. It also comes with Includes 12 pages of animals and four pages of stickers to color, plus 12 oversize blank pages.

Once, again refresh the kit with any Color Wonder pages.

12. A Crayola Backpack for Little Artists

This Crayola art buddy backpack is a new find to me this year. And I love it.

This preschooler-sized backpack with all the basics little kids need to create on the go: regular markers and stamp markers, crayons, chalk and a drawing pad.

There’s just enough room for your child’s favorite snack bar, which will make them surprisingly happy.

They’re likely to find other uses for the little backpack, too.

crayola drawing backpack
crayola twist pencils

13. Kids Colored Pencils With a Twist

My readers found these Crayola Twistable colored pencils.

The 25 pencils don’t need a pencil sharpener to keep them sharp. The flat travel case also includes 40 pieces of paper, too, and fits easily in a kid’s backpack.

I loved the Twistable crayons when my teen was in elementary school; they were longer than regular crayons and were unbreakable. So I’m sure we’d love these, too.

14. Teens Need Art Supplies, Too

Tweens and even teens will love this tube of 48 pencils from Arteza for travel arts & crafts.

They’re not-quite-round shape keeps them from rolling away. And they’re stored in a slim eco-friendly tube they can pop in a backpack.

And they can have just about any color they want at their finger tips.

arteza pencils
klutz's paper flying dragons will keep boys and girls busy in transit.

15. Here Be Paper Dragons!

For the 10+ set, Klutz has quirky and fun kits with appeal for boys as well as girls. The Flying Paper Dragons kit includes paper, instructions and other essentials.

Kid can make their flying creatures en route, then have something to play with when you arrive at your destination.

I love Klutz. They have kits for every age and I’ve never bought a kit of theirs that wasn’t a hit with my kid.

16. Lots of Paper Airplanes, Too

Readers who like the paper dragons are also buying this paper airplane kit from Creativity for Kids, another of my favorite brands for craft kits.

It comes with 20 two-sides pieces of paper, instructions for three types of planes and stickers for decorating.

There’s something zen about making paper airplanes, even for kids. So this is a great way to get them absorbed in a project for a bit when yuo need to.

Just don’t try flying your planes inside an airplane; that won’t land well with the cabin crew.

paper airplane kit
who can resist a llama lap desk for doing arts and crafts in the car or on a plane.

17. A Llama Lap Desk That Goes Where You Do

A lap desk like this one from Lapgear gives kids a flat surface for crafting and drawing in the car.

It’s slim enough to pop into a car’s seat-back pocket so it’s always handy. And the handle lets kids take it with them when you get where you’re going.

There’s a dog, shark and unicorn, too.

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17 travel arts & crafts supplies for kids from tot to tween: knitting kits, paper dragons, colored pencils with a twist, mess-free markers & so much more.