12 Innovative Popsicle Stick Crafts to Expand Your Imagination

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A popsicle stick is more than just a piece of wood that is used to hold ice cream. Your child can also use them for some arts and crafts. Creative activities using popsicle sticks are beneficial for kids because it helps develop motor skills. But the benefits of popsicle stick crafts aren’t just limited to kids. These could also be advantageous to adults because they can be a good pastime.

What to Do with Popsicle Stick Crafts?

It all boils down to your imagination. However, if you are not a crafty person, you could start with something simple. For example, drawing people and animals on popsicle sticks. You can use this for puppet plays to stimulate your child’s creativity and imagination. You could also glue the sticks together to build miniature houses, picture frames, fans, and a whole lot more! There’s a lot of popsicle art crafts ideas all over the Internet, so just do a quick research and you’ll find many fun activities that you can do with your child.

How Do Popsicle Stick Crafts Help Develop a Child’s Motor and Cognitive Skills?

Popsicle stick crafts are more than just fun and creative activities that could hone the artistic skills of a child. They are also beneficial in developing motor and cognitive skills. As children use their hands and fingers to create various crafts out of popsicle sticks, it strengthens their grip and improves their hand-eye coordination.

Meanwhile, cognitive skills slowly develop every time they create something new out of popsicle sticks. During this process, children will stumble upon challenges that will test their decision-making skills and will compel them to become innovative. 

Both core skills are vital in a child’s growth and development because they make everyday tasks (such as buttoning a shirt and tying their shoes) easy. Moreover, since these skills involve activities that help exercise their brain, improving them could aid in a child’s academic success. 

12 Popsicle Sticks Crafts for Your Child to Play With

Popsicle sticks are not just limited to plain, wooden craft sticks. Today, you can find many other designs with different shapes and colors. With these innovative craft sticks, art and craft activities will be much more fun and challenging for you and your child! Here are some of them:

1. [Artilicious] Wooden Popsicle Craft Sticks

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Although this set of Wooden Popsicle Craft Sticks from Artilicious looks plain, it is a great craft material to test the artistic abilities of a child. Making crafts out of these wooden sticks can be likened to painting on a plain canvas; it is up to the artist’s imagination to create a masterpiece using a simple art medium. If you want to challenge your child’s artistry skills, you should start with these wooden craft sticks.

2. [Multicraft Imports] Jumbo Wooden Craft Sticks

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If your child is only two years old or younger, chances are that the muscles on their hands are still weak. Usually, they are fully developed at the age of four or five. So, it wouldn’t be a good idea to introduce them to small popsicle sticks right away. Choose these Jumbo Craft Sticks from Multicraft Imports to make their art sessions easier and a lot more fun. These are a bit larger than regular popsicle sticks so they are easy to play grasp and play with.

Read more: How To Store Homemade Popsicles

3. [Woodpeckers] Paint Sticks

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Part of making craft projects with popsicle sticks is to mix and apply paint. If you want wooden sticks that won’t easily expand, you should consider buying these Paint Sticks from Woodpeckers. These wooden craft sticks are sturdy enough so you can mix thick liquids such as acrylic paint to put on them. Since they last longer, you could save enough wooden paint sticks for your next popsicle art project.

4. [Woodpeckers] Colored Popsicle Sticks

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Painting with kids is guaranteed to be messy. It would be heartbreaking to see your furniture stained with non-washable paint. Avoid the risk of getting stains on your beloved furniture without compromising the fun of doing craft projects with your kids. If you want to avoid messy paint projects, try using these Colored Popsicle Sticks from Woodpeckers. The popsicle sticks are painted with plant-based dye so they are safe for children to use. Furthermore, these sticks have smooth, round edges, so they won’t accidentally cause splinters.

5. [CraftySticks] Jumbo Popsicle Stick Craft

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One of the best popsicle stick crafts for preschoolers is a popsicle sticks fan. It’s fairly easy to do as you need basic crafting materials such as watercolors, fasteners, and scissors. If you want to try this out with your child, you should have these Jumbo Popsicle Stick Crafts. These wooden sticks have wavy edges so you can use them as fan handles. Just make sure to drill a hole first on each popsicle stick and let your child work on the coloring and drawing.

6. [Healifty] Wooden Lolly Craft Sticks

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If you don’t want to go through the hassle of drilling holes on popsicle sticks, you can just purchase these Wooden Lolly Craft Sticks from Healifty. Each stick has pre-drilled holes so you only have to use fasteners and ropes to connect the sticks. This might be challenging for kids because they have to try tying a rope knot, but it could also be a good activity to enhance their fine motor skills. Nonetheless, the important thing here is that they were able to exercise the muscles on their hands.

Read more: How To Get Popsicle Stain Out Of A Carpet

7. [FFNIU730] Sawtooth Popsicle Sticks

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It’s normal for kids to suddenly eat a toy (or anything that’s not food) because they are curious about their surroundings. If you are worried this might happen during playtime, make sure you provide them with non-toxic toys and crafts. It could also help to avoid using glue when making art projects because the glue can cause stomach pain if accidentally ingested. Thus, it would be better to use these Sawtooth Popsicle Sticks from FFNIU730 as these craft sticks do not need glue to be put together.

8. [BACHMORE] Art Supplies Jar

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Wouldn’t it be better if your child has more art materials aside from popsicle sticks? They can do a whole lot more creative crafts with those wooden sticks. This would push the limits of their imagination, and who knows, you might discover that they are natural artists. Now if you want to challenge your child’s artistry skills more, you should give them this Art Supplies Har from BACHMORE. This is a complete craft set for kids because it includes popsicle sticks, foam letters, flowers, plastic beads, and a whole lot more!  If you are going to buy art sets, make sure you’ll also invest in one of these craft cabinets to keep the art materials organized.

9. [Bright Creations] Mini Rainbow Popsicle Sticks

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You don’t have to buy expensive toys for your child if you want them to have fun. Sometimes, you can make toys by yourself. For example, you can use these mini rainbow popsicle sticks to make miniature barns and DIY mini fences and gates. Since these are smaller compared to regular popsicle sticks, you can easily add intricate details to any of your creations. Encourage your child to build as it can help develop and expand their creativity.

10. [Chenille] Wooden Craft Sticks

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Through puppet play, children can understand their emotions better and learn how to be sympathetic. You can do puppet plays without buying expensive plushies. A good alternative would be these Craft Sticks from Chenille. Since these popsicle sticks are pre-cut into people’s shapes, it’s easier to make puppets out of them. Another awesome feature of these craft sticks is that it is available in two designs: one is shaped like a girl and the other is shaped like a boy.

Read more: How To Keep Non-Stick Waffle Iron From Sticking

11. [Custom Shop] Wood Craft Sticks

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Since popsicle sticks are considered disposable items, it’s better to purchase recyclable ones. Fortunately, you can buy such crafting items here at Custom Shop. Their craft sticks are non-toxic, environmentally friendly because they are made of natural wood. Plus, the natural wood used is of premium grade so the sticks won’t easily break even if you use it for stirring paint or other thick liquids.

12. [HTVRONT] Reusable Stirring Sticks

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We have mentioned lots of stirring sticks on our list, but these Stirring Sticks from HTVRONT stand out the most. Not only are they durable enough to mix glue and epoxy resins, but they are also easy to clean because they are made of high-quality PVC material. You can just use a cloth or tissue to clean it. If you want to paint your DIY popsicle artwork with vibrant colors, you should use these stirring sticks to make sure the paint is mixed well before application.

Make playtimes more enjoyable with innovative popsicle stick crafts! Not only will these wooden sticks keep your kids from boredom, but they can also help in their growth and development. Just make sure to keep an eye on them every time they play with these craft sticks. Since most are made of wood, popsicle sticks could splinter their fingers. As we don’t want them injured, consider buying one of our recommended popsicle stick crafts above. Not only are they durable, but they are mostly dyed using plant-based colorings so they are child-friendly.

Don’t forget to also invest in one of these craft tables to make popsicle artwork projects more convenient! Besides, wouldn’t it be better to work on a proper table instead of doing it on the ground? You can focus more and it helps prevent back pain. Plus, these tables provide extra storage for your art materials so you can neatly arrange them after use.