My first attempt to bring travel arts & crafts supplies on a plane did not turn out the way I expected. I handed 2YO Tiny Traveler a plastic box full of crayons. She spent most of the flight carefully taking them out of the box and putting them back in again.
Not long after, though, she became a kid who loved drawing, gluing, painting, covering things with glitter and playing with Play-Doh anywhere and everywhere. So I became adept at finding crafts that traveled well for every age she grew into.
Here are 17 travel arts & crafts supplies that will pass muster with both your kids and TSA security. Readers love these, too, so pack a couple in your kid’s backpack for your next road trip or flight.
Need more kids gift ideas?
Try these books, gadgets, puzzles and building toys.
• Also, Make Flying Time Quality Time With Your Kids
Creative & Compact Travel Arts & Crafts Your Kids Will Want To Bring Everywhere
1. Sketch Pads Can Be Anything
When your kids reach an age where they just want a blank notebook for doodling, drawing and journaling, grab this three-pack of mini sketch pads from Melissa & Doug.
Each has 50 pages of acid-free paper for markers, pens, pencils, pastels, or whatever else your kid tosses in their backpack.
They’re part of Melissa & Doug’s extensive On The Go line of craft activities and toys kids can take with them anywhere.
2. Super Easy Knitting for Tweens
The Creativity for Kids Pocket Scarf kit comes with color-coded needles, wool and instructions for a scarf that has a pocket for a phone, cash or whatever else tweens want to slip into it.
Tip: The TSA says some knitting needles are OK in your carry-on.
3. 2 Mess-Free Glitter Substitutes for Girls & Boys
Kids. Love. Glitter. Parents don’t. And it definitely doesn’t travel well.
Skillmatic’s Foil Art kits let kids make shiny puffy stickers and use them to fill in themed scenes. And, there’s no glittery mess.
In addition to animals, the themes include unicorns, space, dinosaurs and bugs & butterflies.
These kits are small and flat. They’re the sort of thing I’d stash in my bag and hold onto for that moment when I really needed something to engage my child. Like when our plane was delayed or a waiter is glacially slow bringing our dinner.
4. Don’t Lose Puzzle Pieces With These Sticker Books
Brain Games makes spiral-bound books with sticker puzzles in 19 themes including robots, monsters, awesome animals and ocean treasures.
Each book has ten pictures that can keep kids from ages 4YO-to-8YO busy for up to half an hour.
5. Draw Over & Over Again With a Reusable Coloring Kit
Several of my readers like these kits that feature a reusable drawing book.
The kit comes with erasable markers and a storage bag for them, stencils, and a spray bottle and cloth to wipe the drawings away when kids are ready to start again.
You can toss both the book and the cloth in the washing machine.
There are 16 themes, including monsters, unicorns, dinosaurs and a wide range of animals.
6. Carry Classic Crayola Modeling Clay
If you want to keep things simple, just pick up a pack of Crayola modeling clay. It doesn’t dry out easily and kids can do a lot with it without molds or accessories.
The first time I brought it along I wondered why I didn’t do it sooner. It’s the kind of thing that sucks adults in without us realizing it.
Tiny Traveler would make simple animals, beads and pretend food. My husband would amuse her with pastel elephants and kangaroos.
Tip: Bring a Ziplock bag to keep the clay in. Once you start shaping it, it will never go back in the box.
7. Play-Doh To Go…Anywhere
Before there’s modeling clay there’s Play-Doh. And these party-size containers and a few molds and shapes were one of my most reliable airplane activities.
I had to cobble a “travel kit” together. But you don’t have to, thanks to these Play-Doh Create ‘n’ Go Pet Playsets.
A compact case holds four small Play-Doh cans, a rolling pin, mold and shape-cutter. The top has five more molds built in.
For kids who aren’t pet people there’s also a cupcake-making kit.
8. Mess-Free Fun with Water
My readers can’t get enough of Melissa & Doug’s Water Wow coloring books in themes that include jungle, safari, dinosaurs, under the sea and adventure.
There’s also a set of Paw Patrol books for young fans of the series,
Fill the pen with water before you head out. As kids “color” in the 4-page books, colors magically appear.
The colors disappear when the water dries, too, so kids can use them on several legs of your journey.
9. I Love This Compact Clay + Ideas Book
My readers also like Melissa & Doug’s Clay Creations kit. It’s compact and self-contained with ideas for things to do.
School-age kids can make some cool things with it. Younger kids will be less artistic, perhaps, but equally engaged.
Water Wow and the clay are two of many On The Go Crafts sets for kids from this toy company that I’ve long loved.
10. 2 Crayola Wonder-ful Mess-free Craft Kits
For more mess-free art coloring for preschoolers, my readers also love Crayola’s Color Wonder series.
The travel size Mess-Free Activity Kit is the most popular.
Refill it from an extensive line of Color Wonder coloring and activity pads, some of which incorporate popular characters like Peppa Pig.
The mess-free finger painting set is especially clever, IMHO.
11. If you like the Color Wonder concept but want something a bit more compact for travel, several of my readers are buying this Mess-free marker set.
The compact carrying case holds 25 mini markers that only work on Color Wonder sheets. It also comes with Includes 12 pages of animals and four pages of stickers to color, plus 12 oversize blank pages.
Once, again refresh the kit with any Color Wonder pages.
12. A Filled Crayola Backpack for Little Artists
This Crayola art buddy backpack was a new find to me last year. And I love it.
This preschooler-sized backpack with all the basics little kids need to create on the go: regular markers and stamp markers, crayons, chalk and a drawing pad.
There’s just enough room for your child’s favorite snack bar, which will make them surprisingly happy.
They’re likely to find other uses for the little backpack, too.
13. Kids Colored Pencils With a Twist
My readers found these Crayola Twistable colored pencils.
The 25 pencils don’t need a pencil sharpener to keep them sharp. The flat travel case also includes 40 pieces of paper, too, and fits easily in a kid’s backpack.
I loved the Twistable crayons when my teen was in elementary school; they were longer than regular crayons and were unbreakable. So I’m sure we’d love these, too.
14. Teens Need Art Supplies, Too
Tweens and even teens will love this tube of 48 pencils from Arteza for travel arts & crafts.
They’re not-quite-round shape keeps them from rolling away. And they’re stored in a slim eco-friendly tube they can pop in a backpack.
And they can have just about any color they want at their finger tips.
15. Here Be Paper Dragons!
For the 10+ set, Klutz has quirky and fun kits with appeal for boys as well as girls. The Flying Paper Dragons kit includes paper, instructions and other essentials.
Kid can make their flying creatures en route, then have something to play with when you arrive at your destination.
I love Klutz. They have kits for every age and I’ve never bought a kit of theirs that wasn’t a hit with my kid.
16. Lots of Paper Airplanes, Too
Readers who like the paper dragons are also buying this paper airplane kit from Creativity for Kids, another of my favorite brands for craft kits.
It comes with 20 two-sides pieces of paper, instructions for three types of planes and stickers for decorating.
There’s something zen about making paper airplanes, even for kids. So this is a great way to get them absorbed in a project for a bit when yuo need to.
Just don’t try flying your planes inside an airplane; that won’t land well with the cabin crew.
17. A Llama Lap Desk That Goes Where You Do
A lap desk like this one from Lapgear gives kids a flat surface for crafting and drawing in the car.
It’s slim enough to pop into a car’s seat-back pocket so it’s always handy. And the handle lets kids take it with them when you get where you’re going.
There’s a dog, shark and unicorn, too.
Pin it for later!
