MadeForMums Toy Awards 2024 Winners: Best arts and crafts toys

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Best art/craft toy or kit (3-6)
Best art/craft toy or kit (6+)

Best art/craft toy or kit (3-6)

Perfect for honing those fine motors skills, as well as boosting creative thinking and having plenty of fun while doing it, a great arts and crafts toy or kit is just the thing for keeping little kids entertained on a lazy afternoon or rainy weekend.

Our creative group of child testers have painted, glued, drawn, modelled, snipped and stickered their way through loads of arts and crafts toys to bring you the very best. Our community of parents also gave their crucial insights on which kits and toys were easy to set up, which encouraged independent play, which engaged their children the most and which weren’t a total nightmare to clean up after a crafting session. Here are our award winners.

Gold: The Original Crafty Case by The Crafty Case Company, £55

Crafty Case Company MadeForMumsToy Awards 2024

I like all the different things to do. The cars are really good and go really fast and I like to build the road for the cars and race them. I like to choose which boxes to take out in my rucksack. It’s really fun. I haven’t got anything else like it.
Child judge Gabby, 4

Available from The Crafty Case Company (£55)

Silver: Melissa & Doug Unicorn Sticker WOW

Melissa & Doug - Unicorn Sticker WOW MFM Toy Awards 24

My daughter did really enjoy playing with this toy — I think any child who loves stickers will enjoy this. Having the stamper makes it really easy to use and there are lots of different design of stickers within the 300 loaded. It’s definitely up there in terms of originality as I’ve not seen anything else like it. My daughter also tested coming back to it after school and it was really good to see that the bottom sticker at the bottom of the stamper was still sticky and she had no issues carrying on playing with it.
Emma, mum to child judge Lily, 4

Bronze: Skillmatics Snip, Snip

My son loved doing all the activities. He was excited to see what was next and what cool task he would be required to do. He particularly loved cutting and creating the octopus and the plate of nachos. Also helps to encourage colour recognition and use of scissors.
Sam, mum to child judge Ayden, 4

Editor's Choice: EPOCH Aquabeads Nail Studio Design ‘n’ Display

EPOCH Aquabeads Nail Studio Design ‘n’ Display MFM Toy Awards 24

My daughter was beyond excited to play with this. This toy enabled her to do her nails independently without the mess. It also gave her the added thrill of doing Mummy’s nails which she always wants to do but is always a very messy activity. We love that it’s mess free and we love that it provides a great bonding activity through role-play. As a parent, I love that it combines play with learning — it promotes fine motor skills, concentration and problem-solving.
Samantha, mum to child judge Isabella, 7

Best art/craft toy or kit (6+)

If you’re looking for a fun and creative activity to tempt older children away from screens, you can’t beat a well-thought-out arts and crafts kit. At age 6+, children can concentrate for longer, and their increased fine motor skills make it easier to tackle some more involved crafting.

Our group of child testers, aged 6 and over, trialled a big selection of arts and crafts kits and toys, getting hands-on with everything from bracelet making to Aquabeads creations. Taking into consideration the ease of set-up, how engaging the kit was, and whether this was a toy they’d want to use again, our testers gave their honest opinions on which were awards-worthy. Here are our winners.

Gold: Rex & Rose Air Dry Clay Activity Kit

Rex & Rose Air Dry Clay Activity Kit MFM Toy Awards 24

There are so many colours of clay to choose from to create so many cool things. I really like the sparkles – I use them to create pretty things like sparkly doughnuts. I love that clay is very squishy and easy to use. I also made a bouncy ball for my brother from it which he really liked. I play with this toy every day.
Child judge Reeva, 8

Silver: Stitch Mega Activity Set by Craft Buddy

My daughter loved this toy, she said it's awesome! She spent the whole day decorating her kits. It was very easy to put on the easel and decorate.
Emine, mum to child judge Zeynep

Available from Craft Buddy Shop (£12.99)

Bronze: Skillmatics Foil Fun Unicorns & Princesses

I love that there are lots of different backgrounds and I can make different pictures. I’m going to do another picture after this. I really like the colour foils and it’s like magic.
Child judge Isla, 6

Editor's Choice: Clementoni IDEA! The Highlighter Studio

My daughters eyes lit up once she saw the box and her reaction when first opening the box was pure delight and used the words... ’Wow, this is just so cool!’ She loved that most of the pen making she could do independently. She loved the tools and how you can use them to pick up the little items and to also push the items in the pen holders. The rubber pen heads were also super bright, she said ’mum look, these are so cool, I want to use them all!'
Natasha, mum to child judge Isobela, 7

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Emily Longman WallDigital Content Producer

Emily is the Digital Content Producer at MadeForMums and creates editorial and video content across the brand. She also edits the weekly editorial newsletter, oversees our reviews process and loves creating our craft articles and videos. She specialises predominantly in car seats and pushchairs, and has yet to meet a buggy she couldn’t fold! With a 1st class degree in History, she always researches topics thoroughly to find the best recommendations for parents.