Listen, when I became a mom I knew I would have to make some allowances and loosen the reigns on my type A household. As someone who is into aesthetics and neutrals, the idea of a Fisher-Price sponsored household gave me hives. It's vain, I know, but I'm not perfect and neither would my house be with kids in the picture. And here's the kicker: I love a good craft. Like I am that mom that wants to be creative with her kids (who could've predicted that? not me) so I needed to find a way to do this without losing my damn mind. Little colored fingerprints all over my house just wouldn't fly so I have hacked the crafting market to find the best ways to forget your rigid rules & allow your littles to color outside the lines a bit. Here are some of my favorite mostly mess-free ways to get artsy:
If there's one thing you have to do for me today, it's buy a craft mat off Amazon. We have 3 in our growing collection that keeps multiplying and I ain't mad about it. I have the kids eat on these (the lip really provides a great defense against cereal milk, pasta bits, spills etc.), paint on these, play with slime or playdough on these. They are just really an all-purpose item in our household and the ultimate mess container.
If you don't know about mess-free markers and paper, don't worry because it took me like 3 years to learn these existed. These markers are utterly magic. They are clear unless used on the special mess-free paper so you don't need to worry about any unsanctioned murals making their way to your walls. You can also use the Crayola app to print specific things onto the blank sheets to tailor to your kids interests and favorite things - like, for example, unicorns or Bluey (both big hits in our all-girl household).
The plug above perfectly parlays into the Crayola mess free paint gadget also featured above. I don't even really know how this thing works - Elon Musk must've created it. But I don't question the efficacy. Somehow the single paint brush changes color according where you dip it and somehow it all works and it's basically a low-paid in-home magician. Kids go crazy for it. Buy yourself some quiet time by investing in this.
If you can't get on board with clear watercolor paint, opt for the real deal. We love this watercolor paint set that, too, can be yours for the low price of $8.99 (even less with the 10% off coupon going on right now). I usually lay down one of my old faithful picnic blankets that has so many patterns you can't see stains and grab one of my handy dandy craft mats, fill the little designated compartment with water, grab some printer paper and let the kids make something I will probably hide in the trash after they go to bed. To be real, though, watercolor art is the superior art in my opinion and grandparents love it.
Wikki Stix. I wasn't a believer...until I was. I had heard about Wikki Stix - even seen some kids playing with them at the table next to us at our favorite Mexican restaurant. But I didn't know what could be so great about a wax strand. Boy, was I mistaken. I am both embarrassed and excited to admit that I recently spent 45 minutes crafting a three strand Wikki Stix bracelet at breakfast the other day without even noticing that I had commandeered the craft. My kids love these. And, frankly, so will everyone else at the table regardless of age. You can make them into anything you want and you don't feel bad throwing them away at the end of the meal. Win/win(e)
Chalk. Yeah, I know some people hate it because it gets air-born and can stain clothes and get tracked into homes but I love it. We are big chalk people. I even leave a bin of it on our front grass so neighbors and passerbys alike can play with it which has led to make fun drawings and notes on our little stretch of sidewalk. This is just a low risk, high reward product in my opinion. The canvas is already there for you provided by the city and everything is easily washed away with a little water. Chalk keeps my kids entertained for, well, not hours because nothing does that but many many minutes.
These silicone placemats are really fun because they use wipeable white board-adjacent markers and the kids can color them while you're prepping dinner and then feel very cool when they get to eat on them. Plus anything that is reusable gets bonus points in my book because I can't keep direct depositing funds straight into Bezo's bank account which is basically what I do on the daily. Wipe those suckers down and let them color them again the next day. There are also pretty cool Caden James pajamas that follow this same concept - color, wear, wash, repeat.
Next up on my list of things to try is this desk which a fellow New & Gold mom inspired me to buy, will report back :-)