Since the weather is so unpredictable, it is always worth having a few “rainy days” craft ideas in reserve.  I have gathered the suggestions below from favourites of my own friends and family and also what our friends at Netmums have come up with.  If you haven’t already visited www.netmums.com, it’s worth having a look because there are some great articles and ideas for parents.

Fill an old biscuit tin with odds and ends of coloured paper, glitter, ribbon, stickers, cotton wool, coloured match sticks, etc.  If you add to it gradually you will quickly find yourself with the basis of many hours’ fun – just add glue and children.
Some collage ideas:

Use a variety of collage items to make wooden spoon people and families.  Each one can be different – you might recreate your family members or even make zoo animals. Afterwards the children can create stories with them so the fun goes on for hours. Use cheap wooden spoons from supermarkets own brand ranges.

Like spoon people, but for those days when you have no wooden spoons!  You can design clothes on paper before cutting the outfits out and sticking onto the lollipop stick.
Plastic tub cars...
...or rockets...or buses. What is it about margarine tubs?  Stick paper windows onto the side of the tub, add discs of cardboard for wheels, loo rolls for rocket boosters and your budding engineers will treasure their inventions.

Using a hole punch, make four holes in a large paper bag at the four corners and secure long lengths of string in two loops to make two handles.  Decorate the bag with collage materials (nothing too heavy!) - feathers, sparkly bits and foam shapes work well.
When completely dry, open the bag, hold onto the strings and run. The wind should catch in the bag and make the kite fly high above the artist.

Plain sheets of card (cereal boxes are perfect) can be decorated with colourful bits and pieces to make cards for friends and family.  Other card-decorating ideas include making bookmarks,

Let your child draw or paint on a plain A4 sheet of paper then cover both sides of the paper with clear sticky-backed plastic and you have a personalised placemat for the table.

Cut out a strip of card that fits around each child’s head and get them to decorate it with paper, feathers or leaves before fastening it with sticky tape and judging who is the finest King or Queen.

On a big piece of paper, create a scene using bits of paper, fabric and pictures cut out of magazines.  Ideas include a green jungle with lots of trees and long grass – you could even add real grass or flowers from the garden. Your children can then act out scenarios using wooden animals, or any other small figures they have.  You could even make lollipop people to fit in with the scene.

How many uses can you dream up for a paper plate?  Make silly faces by sticking on wool hair and pom pom noses.  What about a woolly sheep face made by sticking cotton wool balls around the edge of the plate?  Or a shaggy lion’s head with a fringe of paper around the edge?  It is great fun to decorate the shell of your paper plate tortoise – just stick four triangles of card at the edge of the plate for legs, and an oval for the head, and get decorating with brightly coloured scraps of paper.

Keep a scrapbook for each child and get them to make collage pictures of what they have done recently.  You can then add to the page with photographs, ticket stubs, sweet wrappers...whatever you feel will evoke the memory in years to come.

Creepy Crawlies

Loo roll; crepe paper; long pipe cleaners; glue; sticky tape and googly eyes.

Roll the toilet paper up into a ball, cover with crepe paper in whatever colour you fancy and secure with tape. Twist 3 pipe cleaners together so you get a 'star' of 6 points. Tape to under side of the ball of paper. Glue eyes onto top and bend its hairy legs to an appropriately creepy shape. Add wings made out of 2 further pipe cleaners if you want your creepy crawler to be a creepy flyer!

Personalised mobile

Colouring pencils/pens; paper; card; glue or sticky tape; lolly sticks; string; scissors  -Firstly create some templates in both paper and card of suitably shapes – dogs, cats, cars, fairies etc. Get the kids to colour them in and add their own artistic touches. The paper pictures then need to be stuck down on to their corresponding cardboard shapes. Remember that you'll need two paper pictures for each piece of card so that it is decorated on two sides!

Cut two pieces of string of varying lengths. Stick one end to the card and the other to a lolly stick. Do the same to the other side of the lolly stick so you have two pictures hanging from the one stick. Repeat with another lolly stick so you have two lolly sticks with two pictures hanging off each.

Then get a longer length stick (or stick two together) and attach the two chains to either side of the stick. The mobile can now be hung up and spun around!  

Masks

Newspaper; pens/pencils; scissors; cardboard; selection of paints, glitter, crepe paper, etc; elastic; hole punch or stapler - Making masks is a fun way to add an individual touch to any costume. You can look on the web to download mask templates or create your own.

To make your chosen design, make a template on the newspaper and then use this pattern to cut out the shape on the cardboard. Decorate accordingly and either staple or tie on a length of elastic to secure the mask.

Egg Box Spiders

An egg box; scissors; black paint; pencil to make a hole in the sides; pipe cleaners; googly eyes (buy from craft shops or make your own from card cut-outs); string; glitter and glue (optional) - Cut out the egg box into its pre-divided sections and paint each section black. Using your pencil make a couple of holes in each side of the sections for the pipe cleaners to be threaded through. These will make the spider's legs. Then stick on the eyes. You can add a dusting of glitter to the spiders to make them really stand out.  Make a hole in the middle of the egg cup and thread some string through, knotted at the end, so the finished spiders can be hung from doors, windows or ceilings.  

There are many types of play dough that you can buy, but it is just as easy (and much cheaper) to make your own.  It also lasts a long time without drying out if you follow the storage suggestions.
You can use food colourings for different colours and even make it seasonal by adding glitter near Christmas or birthdays (to make fairy dough).
You can also make it smell nice by adding essential oils.  Used sparingly these make great additions to play dough - a few drops of lavender can have a calming effect (and is antibacterial) and eucalyptus has a great menthol smell which is great for winter (not suitable for use around asthma sufferers).  

Cooked Play Dough
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
4 cups water
4 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup cream of tartar
Mix all ingredients in a saucepan. Cook and stir over low/medium heat until play dough is completely formed and no longer sticky. Allow to cool slightly before storing in an air-tight container or bag.  Keep in the fridge.

Uncooked Play Dough
1 cup cold water
1 cup salt
2 teaspoons vegetable oil  
food colouring
3 cups flour
2 tablespoons cornflour
Put everything except the flour and cornflour into a bowl.  Gradually add these until you have the consistency of bread dough.  Store in an air-tight container or bag in the fridge.

Salt Dough
1 cup salt
1 cup water
1/2 cup flour plus additional flour
Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan over a low heat.  Remove when rubbery.  Once cooled knead with flour to make it workable.  This dough works really well for making Christmas decorations and models.  Once made place them on greaseproof paper or a tray on a radiator (or in hotpress) so that they dry very slowly. Once dried they can be painted.  Don’t forget for hanging decorations to make a small hole in the shape before you dry it!

Gunge

Cornflour
Water
Food colouring
Glitter
This keeps kids of all ages amused for ages, but once they have had their fun, the mixture will not keep.  Put some cornflour in a large flat bowl or tray with sides and add a bit of water (you will need to play around with amounts - just add the water a little bit at a time so it does not get too runny – if it does, just add more cornflour.
Mix it together until you get the consistency of a very thick milkshake. Add a few drops of food colouring or glitter, then get your hands in.  
The gunge feels weird as you build it up to make a solid tower, but as soon as you pick it up it runs like water through your fingers.
Turn it into a learning opportunity as you explain that cornflour (like custard) reacts like this because it is a thixotropic non-Newtonian liquid....but run away before they ask you what that means.

This is a great way to amuse kids and allow them to make presents for their friends and family.  I have lost count of the times I have walked around in public wearing drinking straws or pasta.
You will need:
Dried pasta shapes ...macaroni and penne work well
Paint & brushes
Ball of string
Scissors
Paint the pasta and leave to dry. Try making patterns on the pasta or painting different colours.  Thread the pasta onto a length of string to make a bracelet or necklace.
You can do the same with colourful drinking straws to make necklaces.
For older children, you could use this as counting practice or to learn colours and pattern making e.g. two blue/one red/two blue/.

When the weather’s not great and they’re climbing the walls, try some of the ideas below to let off some steam and get them moving.

Show your children how to walk like a crab: hands and feet on the floor, tummy facing up. Once they can do it, set them a goal. They can balance some beanbags on their tummy and move towards a marked finish line, or gather some wayward toys and carry them to their bedroom.  Which is faster: carrying one toy across the room at a time or a whole stack at once without spilling?

This is a fun stretch with added imagination- ask your children to curl up on the floor as tightly as they can, pretending to be a small flower seed. Get them to imagine feeling the warm sunshine, letting their bodies slowly unfurl and then reaching toward the sky. Repeat the cycle, getting faster each time until the little flower blooms so quickly that your children jump into the air.

Dump a pile of cotton wool balls on the floor in your child's bedroom and place an empty bowl on the floor in another room.  Challenge your child to move all the cotton wool balls from their bedroom to the other bowl - using a spoon and crawling on hands and knees. Give them, say, four minutes to carry out the task.  The cotton wool balls are so light that they're likely to go flying.  If your child succeeds, set the timer to three minutes!

This is a version of volleyball that only needs one player!  The whole fun of this game is for your child to play both teams.  Blow up a balloon, set up the sofa or chair as the net, and challenge your child to run back and forwards to hit the balloon before it lands on the ground.  Keep score and see if it can be kept aloft for 21 volleys-the usual winning score in volleyball.

Place a large bucket or bowl in each room and give each child a rolled-up sock. The children must stand in the doorway and take aim, trying to get their sock into the bowl.  When each child scores, they get to go on to the next room. The first person to complete the circuit is the winner.

Write the names of different animals on pieces of paper and put them into a bowl.  Each child takes turns choosing a slip and acting out the animal until someone guesses correctly.  To make it more of a challenge, try it with no sounds.

Each child throws a beach ball into the air and must try to complete a task before the balls drop. Task suggestions include touch your nose, touch your toes, shake hands with the other players.  Make the challenges harder as you go along.