Free Crafty Recipes, Projects & Step-by-Step Instructions

By Chris Dunmire

Blue Paint Stroke Learn how to make homemade craft materials: salt dough, clay, paper mache, and finger paints for non-edible crafts. Plus, some recipes for edible artful creations for fabulous food fun!

When it comes to homemade arts and crafts, nothing beats using your own home-grown materials and methods. You can spend a lot of money buying colored clay dough, paper mache mix, and finger paints at the store, or you can use some basic materials you already have around the house to make your own.

The following of crafty recipe ideas cover some of the most common do-it-yourself materials for non-edible craft projects you can make for yourself or for creative children. Included are recipes for salt and clay doughs, paper mache, and finger paints.

And if you're looking for food fun of the edible kind, don't miss the recipes further down on this page for chinese fortune cookies and other art you can make and eat.

Crafty Recipe Selection (Non-Edible)

How to Make Salt Dough, Play Clay Dough, Paper Mache, and Finger Paints
Learn how to make homemade salt dough for fun Christmas ornaments and other dough sculpture fun. Once baked, salt dough can be painted and decorated until your heart's content.

Fabulous Food Fun Recipes (Edible)

How to Make Fun Fortune Cookies
Recipe for Chinese fortune cookie dough complete with step-by-step instructions for writing your own creative fortunes and folding them into your own cookies!

Fun with Food: Art You Can Eat!
It begins with an innocent fruit salad smiley, but then prompts you towards animal faces, celebrity portraits, and designs.