10 brilliant messy play ideas for kids

This is a collaborative post with Regina Blitz. 

Kids just love getting messy!

It’s about more than just the fun of doing something a little different, it’s the sensory element of touching and feeling squidgy, sticky, squashy stuff that delights them. 

As a mummy of two, I’ve enjoyed getting more creative with messy play as the girls have grown older. 

While they absolutely thrive on the mess, I love a clean house. So it’s great to have products like Regina Blitz to help me tidy up any spills and splatters of paint, flour or water after the fun is over. 

This household towel is 3 ply and 60 per cent larger than average kitchen towels, so its ideal for cleaning up the big messes that little people create. 

The cleaning up part is my idea of fun, after I’ve seen the girls giggle and squeal as they play! Why not give Regina Blitz a try for yourself? You can find out more about them by heading over to Facebook and giving the page a like.

I’m sharing with you 10 brilliant messy play ideas for kids for you to try at home! I hope these give you some inspiration for making mess with your own little messy monsters. 

Please let me know in the comments about your own favourite messy play ideas. 

Flower ice cubes 

I’ve frozen flowers picked from our garden here, but you can freeze anything at all!

Why not try freezing some LEGO bricks, or some plastic animal toys?

Once you’ve frozen your chosen toys in either a plastic food container or ice cube trays, use a large plastic box or tray to tip them into. 

Now your child can have fun picking them up and throwing them down to try and break into the hidden toys inside. 

This is the perfect garden activity on a hot day!

Finger painting 

This is always a favourite in our house!

Why not get creative and try putting rainbow stripes across your kids’ hands before they then put a handprint down on a piece of paper. 

My two also love doing finger paint flowers, where you draw a flower stem and centre, then get them to fill in the petals using their fingerprints and some paint. 

Make slime 

This fluffy slime is one of my favourite crafts. It’s really easy to create and the kids can get involved with the mixing before then getting their hands into the slime. 

You can customise it to whatever different colours you want, but I personally love pastels for this slime! If you add extra glitter, or use glitter glue, you get a glitter effect to the slime as well!

Frozen paint

Do something a little bit different with paint by freezing some of your child’s favourite colours!

Simply squeeze the paint, no need to mix with water, into ice cube trays and put into the freezer. After around 20 minutes put some lollipop sticks into the paint then return to the freezer. 

Now you have paint cubes on sticks which your kids can push around on paper to create works of art!

This is definitely one for outdoors on a warm day. 

We used our tuff tray to do our ice painting, and the girls just loved pushing and swirling the ice paint cubes around on pieces of paper!

They also painted their hands with it, making a mess and getting cool at the same time!

Baking 

If the kids are ever complaining about being bored, I always know that suggesting baking to them will get them excited!

The love to make cupcakes, brownies and biscuits. 

The cupcakes are my usual recipe of choice because I always have the right ingredients in for this very simple recipe!

The girls like to help me weigh out the ingredients, but the best part is decorating the cakes with icing and sprinkles!

Painting with cars

Pour paint into containers wide enough so you can dip some of your child’s toy cars into it. 

Now encourage your child to run the cars across pieces of paper to make cool patterns with the wheels of the car. 

My two love doing this! On a similar vibe, LEGO bricks are also great for dipping in paint and using to create patterns on paper. 

Why not use leftover toilet or household towel rolls for printing too! You could use them to make circles with the paint, or bend them into a pretty heart shape!

Colourful spaghetti 

There are a ton of messy play activities you can do with pasta. 

I love painting bits of penne, leaving them to dry and then threading them onto string to make little necklaces and bracelets. 

But this activity is loved by the kids so much!

First of all cook some spaghetti then divide it up into three different bowls. Now add different food colouring to each bowl and give it a good mix. 

Make sure the spaghetti is cool before then adding it to tuff tray or plastic box for your kids to play with. 

Give them play scissors and they can snip the spaghetti up or just let them mix all the colours up with their fingers. 

Petal potions

This lovely craft sparks your child’s imagination and keeps them busy for a good amount of time!

You start by gathering some pretty flowers and/or petals from the garden or on a nature walk. We’re lucky that we have lots to choose from in our own garden. The girls always seem to favour the daisies on the grass though!

Now put the flowers into some little jars or bottles – raid your recycling box if you need to.

Next top the bottles up with water and add a couple of drops of food colouring of your choice. Now put the lid on and give it a good swirl. Add extra food colouring for a more intense colour. 

Fairy soup 

Tell your kids that the fairies need lunch! Now ask them to gather all sorts of different ingredients from outside such as petals, twigs, leaves and grass. 

Now add them to a bowl or tray and top up with some water. Give it a good stir and then your kids could use a ladle to divide the soup between bowls. 

I suggest doing this one outside, and remind your kids they shouldn’t eat the soup!

Dolly bath time 

I like doing this activity in our tuff tray but you could do it in the bath or a large plastic box. 

Mix up some soapy water with plenty of bubbles and strip off your kids’ doll collection. Now they can give their dolls a good bath!

Make your own messy moments

So there you have it! Some fabulous fun messy play activities to try with your kids.

I hope you enjoy giving these activities a try and they inspire you to make some more messy memories of your own with your family!

I’ve shared more about our messy play activities with Regina Blitz over on Instagram. Why not join in with the hashtag #Happimess!

Pick up your own pack of Regina Blitz, available in single, twin or triple sizes, in your local supermarket!

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