I didn’t spend a ton of time at my paternal grandfather’s house when I was a kid, but the few memories I do have of being with them are pretty vivid. I remember laying on their floor in front of their TV watching a VHS of “Savannah Smiles,” a winning and winsome tale of accidental kidnapping. I remember a weird and fascinating lamp they had hanging from the ceiling that featuring a lady in the center who was surrounded by strings that had oil dripping down them. It was mesmerizing.

And I remember Betty’s craft room.

Betty was my grandfather’s second — and, as it turned out, final — wife. Her craft room was a Pinterest-enthusiast’s dream. She had every bead, glue gun and bauble you can imagine. She had stamps, stickers and glitter, tissue paper, ribbon and a hundred varieties of scissors. And I have no idea what she did with all of it because she only let me in there to get crayons from the crayon drawer and coloring books from the coloring-book shelf.

When I was in kindergarten or first grade, Betty came to Grandparents Day at my school to have lunch with me. I embarrassed her by pulling my plate away just as she tried to put peas on it. The peas hit the floor, and she was not pleased. I’m not sure that particular incident is the reason I wasn’t granted free reign amongst her craft supplies, but it certainly couldn’t have helped things. I’m not going to say that Betty is to blame for my aversion to crafts, but that incident in the cafeteria was clearly traumatic for both of us.

Anyway.

My children enjoy a good craft project, which could have been most unfortunate for them because in addition to not having a fully stocked craft room, I am very bad at thinking up good craft projects. Fortunately for Poppy and Pete, they are being raised in the Pinterest era. So I have 24/7 access to the best crafting minds on the internet, and I make frequent use of that modern-day blessing.

The first day of Spring is just a few days away, so I’ve been compiling a list of easy, cute and Springy arts and crafts projects for the kids to enjoy. Hopefully I’ve squirreled away enough coffee filters, paint and toilet paper rolls to make a few of them.

Follow Nichole’s Spring Art Projects board on Pinterest.

Not surprisingly, there are a lot of floral-themed art projects out there. That Artist Woman’s paper hyacinths and found-poetry nests and this up-cycled bouquet from Chica Circle are stunning, but the very easy cherry blossom pieces from Alpha Mom and Kim K are probably more my speed.

I’m positive I don’t have all of the materials required to make these wax-resist bunny garlands from Housing a Forest, but I think you could make the bunnies using pretty much any sort of colorful, abstract artwork. I also don’t have the yarn I’d need to make this texturized bunny silhouette from Katie’s Crochet Goodies, but I might have to fix that because I love it. In non-mammal news, I also love the sweet and spiky baby chick from All Free Kids Crafts. Who would’ve thought you could paint with a fork? (Art teachers and other creative folk, that’s who.)

I have a beautiful Pysanky egg that a neighbor made for me about a decade ago, and I always put it on the mantle in the springtime. (I also put up the one I made, but it is… not beautiful.) I’d like to have some more permanent egg art to put on display. I think the tape-resist Easter eggs from Mom To 2 Posh Li’l Divas, the splatter-painted Easter eggs from Hands On As We Grow or the marbled Easter eggs from The Chocolate Muffin Tree would look pretty great on the wall.

How about you? Was your childhood wrought with arts & crafts?