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Golden Carers has 1000s of activities and resources for senior care.
Your residents can enjoy expressing themselves creatively with these arts and crafts kits, perfect for both group activities and individual leisure.
Create your own arts & craft to-go packs using ziplock bags for residents to enjoy in their rooms!
Safety First
Safety is always a top priority, but it is especially important when you are dropping off items for residents to use in their rooms or apartments. It’s a good time to make safe decisions like:
- Follow your community’s policy on disinfection
- Make sure anything you put into a ziplock bag is either one-time use or washable
- If you are going to reuse any items, the items need to be easy to disinfect (markers, laminated instruction sheets, etc.)
- Never give items to residents who are not able to use them safely without supervision
- Use non-toxic materials
10 Tips for Optimal Results
Keeping individual art and craft kits available for residents is a great way to encourage creativity, reduce feelings of loneliness, and work on fine motor skills. You can make it easier on your staff, as well as more effective for residents, by following these tips:
- Make multiple kits of the same craft (for example, make ten beaded necklace bags at a time).
- Have a new craft kit available each week to make things more interesting and exciting (Check out our featured craft kit of the week!).
- Laminate instruction sheets if you want to be able to reuse them; otherwise, just print out instruction sheets that the resident can discard.
- Include a photo of a completed project as an example.
- Distribute kits to interested residents during an Art Cart time where you roll a cart of projects down the hall. You can even have a completed project on the cart so residents can see if they would like to do it.
- Inform overnight and evening staff about the kits' location in case residents want one when your activity staff is unavailable.
- Keep track of which residents grab a kit by charting their participation so that you can check in with them over the next few days to see if they have any questions.
- Choose craft kits that result in a finished project that residents can display and enjoy in their room.
- Capture photos of completed projects to share with family members.
- Create an Art Gallery wall somewhere in the community where residents can admire the work when they are out for a stroll.
17 DIY Art & Craft Kits
You can break down any of your arts and crafts projects into single servings. In fact, now is a great time to sift through your activity closet to see if you have some materials you could transform into a fun individual project for residents. You can also use a few of our ideas:
- Stained Glass Kit: window markers, photos of stained glass windows, painter’s tape
- Beaded Necklace Kit: string, beads
- Photo Frame Kit: acrylic photo frames, paint pens
- Spring Wreath Kit: kits like this are already separated individually, or you can pass out foam wreaths, cutouts, glue sticks, and a ribbon
- Flower Pot Kit: small terracotta pots, paint pens, glue sticks, foam cut outs
- Tissue Paper Flower Kit: tissue paper, pipe cleaner, scissors
- Bird Feeder Kit: pre-assembled bird feeder, paint pens or paint
- Tissue Paper Kites (or any shape) Kits: black construction paper pre-cut, contact paper (pre-cut), tissue paper squares
- Suncatcher Kits: mason jar lid, string, parchment paper, colored pencils or markers
- Stationery Kits: blank cards and envelopes, stamps and ink pads
- Coloring Kits: adult coloring books, colored pencils
- Sketching and Doodling Kits: sketch pad paper, charcoals or pastels, inspiration photos
- Photo Ribbon Kits: long piece of ribbon to hang over the door, tacky glue, favorite family photos
- Yarn Kits: crochet hooks or knitting needles, yarn, pattern
- Knotted Garland Kit: yarn, rectangle fabric pieces
- Collage Kits: construction paper, glue stick, magazine pages (have a little fun by making the kits scavenger collage themed)
- Fabric Carrot (or any vegetable or fruit!) Kits: pre-cut fabric, filler, glue
You just may be surprised and how many residents take a craft kit and complete it. Uncertain times bring out the inner artist in all of us!
What art and craft kits are working for you and your residents right now? Let’s share with one another so that we can all get some new ideas.