25 Art Gift Ideas That Your 8 Year Old Will Love In 2022 

Art gifts are a great way to let your child showcase their creativity and express themselves. If you’re looking for art gift ideas that your 8 year old will love, then look no further. From painting to playdoh, and string art to slime, here are 25 art gift ideas that your young artist will love in 2022. 

Mess Minimisation

Many art gift ideas for children can result in a lot of mess, but it doesn’t have to be that way! There are many ways for your child to explore their imagination and tap into their arty side without leaving a huge mess behind!

1. Diamond Painting

Diamond painting is a great mess-free art gift idea for young and old children. Canvases and templates come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, varying from beautiful woodland scenery and beaches, to your children’s favourite Star Wars character or Disney princess. 

Diamond painting involves placing gems on a canvas in an order dictated by the number on the canvas and corresponding colour. It’s a great art gift idea for artistic children who like a quiet, focused task they can really get themselves stuck into.

2. Scratch and Sketch

Another great art gift idea for 8 year olds is ‘Scratch and Sketch’ books. These books range in difficulty from simple line drawings to ‘extreme’ city skylines and other complex drawings. Books can be simply art or educational, requiring a reader to sketch out various drawings as they learn.

Sketches can be framed and put on display in your home, or gifted to friends and family.

3. Lego Dots

Lego Dots combine the joys of building a tangible structure with the creativity of painting to enable children to make unique designs out of hundreds of colourful Lego dots. Children can create fun and interesting patterns that allow them to develop their creative skills without any mess. Designs can simply be disassembled and the dots reused, time and time again.

This fun form of art helps your child to develop hand-eye coordination and design skills.

4. Drawing Light Board

Mess-free art gift ideas don’t come much better than this. Light boards for drawing are effectively reusable paper, meaning that there is no mess at all made when using one. Drawings can be as interesting and colourful as your child wants, and some drawing boards even light up so that the drawings can be on display. 

The Crayola drawing board (linked below) even has a removable back so that your child can use it to trace images and objects.

5. Window Pens

Window pens are washable markers or crayons that come in many vibrant colours. With window pens, your child can develop their creative skills by creating masterpieces on the glass of your windows. 

This is ideal for a child who wants to experiment with colour and shapes, and is great for seasonal decorations too. Why not leave your child in charge of the window pumpkins, and once Halloween is over simply wash off the marker!

6. Weaving Kit

Another great mess-free art gift idea for children is a weaving kit. If your 8 year old is artistically inclined and very focused, they’ll love combining textures and colours to create their own patterns on coasters, headbands, bracelets and more. Loom kits teach children a new skill and promote creativity and design skills.

The beautiful garments created can be gifted to family and friends, making memorable keepsakes that can be cherished by everyone.

7. Dot to Dot

Dot to Dot books will puzzle and challenge your 8 year old in a way that a standard colouring book won’t. Watch as a Dot to Dot book captivates your child, and they sit for hours until they have perfected their masterpiece. These books range from easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy to extreme difficulty, and will teach your child how to draw anything from landscapes and skylines, to people and animals.

The colourful creations can be framed and put on display, or gifted to family and friends! 

No Batteries Required

We all know the feeling of opening up a brand-new toy, only to discover that we don’t have the batteries it needs to operate. Fear not, there are plenty of art gift ideas for your little artist that don’t need them at all, and are just as much (if not more) fun!

8. String Art

String art is a fascinating way for your child to experiment with 3D art, and have enormous fun creating colourful projects that can be displayed throughout your home. It’s easy to do, and is a brilliant way for artistic children to learn a new skill, that improves their dexterity and attention to detail. 

String art involves looping colourful string around metal or plastic pins that are arranged in a way that means the string takes the form of animals, scenery or even people. Easy-to-follow tutorials mean that this mess-free, battery-free art form is simplistic and will captivate your 8 year old.

9. Introduction to Woodworking

If you’re child loves getting stuck into a project then a beginner’s carpentry set is the perfect battery-less activity for them. Woodworking kits are an art gift idea that ranges from simply slotting pieces of wood together, to using a hammer and nail to build their own masterpieces, under the supervision of an adult of course. 

The detailed instructions mean that your 8 year old can follow along easily, and will thoroughly enjoy the project from beginning to end. Create pencil holders, piggy banks, trucks and boxes that can be useful as well as brilliant fun to make.

10. Card-Making

Another fantastic art gift idea for your 8 year old is card-making. Children that love to be creative will love even more the ability to share their creations with family and friends by sending personalised birthday, Christmas and thank you cards. No batteries are required, and minimal mess is made, depending on whether paints are involved, of course!

11. Play-Doh

Play-Doh sets result in hours of fun for all age groups. With kits ranging from building a kitchen to forming dinosaurs, your child will be taught to create a variety of 3D shapes from Play-Doh. Of course, they’re free to come up with their own unique creations too! 

Play-Doh is known to enhance your child’s imagination skills, and is great fun for them to do with friends.

12. Clay Modelling

Playing with crafting clay will help your 8 year old child develop their creative thinking, imagination, dexterity and colour skills. Clay modelling is an art that increases creative confidence in your children and will provide hours of fun for them. 

It’s the ideal art gift idea for creatively-inclined children, and the non-toxic, air-dry clay will mean it’s a safe activity you can leave them to enjoy on their own, or you can enjoy as a family.

13. Spirograph Set

Spirographs are a fascinating tool for creative children, allowing them to create unique patterns that are as easy to create as they are beautiful. They’re a brilliant tool for improving your child’s dexterity, hand-eye coordination and visualisation skills. 

Spirographs are a classic art tool that have been around for years, using the symmetry of geometric curves to create visually appealing designs that your 8 year old will love.

Detailed Drawing

If you have a child who loves to draw, why not get them a fun drawing gift that develops their artistic and thinking skills, as well as providing them with endless hours of fun?

14. Emoji Drawing Guide

Get your 8 year old started with drawing with one of the most fun, on-trend drawing guides available. Drawing guides like this one make drawing fun and easy for children, motivating them and inspiring them to learn more. 

Books such as this one will teach your child how to draw emoji faces, emoji hands, the monkey emojis, the dancing girl emojis and more. It’s a great way to teach children how to draw cartoons from the most basic, to more complex.

15. Doodle Books

If your child loves to colour and create, why not introduce them to doodle books! Your 8 year old can enjoy hundreds of pages of doodles for them to replicate and colour however they want. It’ll keep them entertained for hours, and develop their all-important creative skills.

16. Superhero Drawing Guide

If your 8 year old is mad about superheroes, get them the gift they’ll remember forever. Superhero drawing books are designed to take your child through the process of drawing their favourite characters, step-by-step. Designed for beginners, drawing guides such as these make for a great art gift idea that will teach your child drawing skills that can be developed for years to come.

17. Animal Drawing Guide

Animal drawing guides are a great art gift idea for your child if they love animals, as they’re both a fun activity and a great teaching tool that does more than just show you completed pictures of the animals. Illustrations are broken down with step-by-step diagrams and loads of helpful tips. Many drawing guides also include facts along the way, enabling your child to develop their understanding of animals and their environments.

18. How to Draw Minecraft Characters

If your 8 year old loves playing Minecraft, then a brilliantly-written tutorial book to teach them how to draw all things Minecraft will suit them down to a T. Watch them learn to draw all their favourite characters, and develop their creative skills by designing their own. It’s an art gift idea that will result in endless hours of fun, both on their own and with their friends. 

Bang On Trend

19. Paint Pouring

Paint pouring has been a growing trend amongst artists on social media, providing viewers with mesmerising footage of colourful paint poured on to a canvas, resulting in a marbled effect. It’s an art gift idea that 8 year olds will love, as their colourful creations are guaranteed to be display-worthy. No two pieces of art that you produce will ever be the same, and the marbling effect is beautiful to look at.

20. Slime

Slime has been an online trend for the last few years, with many videos of creators making slime going viral throughout 2021. If your child has always liked slime, then s/he is guaranteed to love a slime-making kit, and the experimentation with colour and textures will develop their design skills.

21. Quilling

Quilling is an art form that involves using strips of paper that are rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs. Designs can range from basic shapes to intricate patterns that will keep your calm artistic child busy for hours.

It’s a unique way of creating art pieces with minimal resources, simply print out a template, buy some coloured paper and away you go! The 3D art pieces are great fun for the family to create altogether. 

22. Colour Chemistry

Give your 8 year old the ultimate festive creations set, combining the fascination of science experiments with the creativity of experimenting with colour and patterns. This trendy art gift idea will be a hit with your child, as they perform up to 50 different experiments of varying length and difficulty.

23. Soap-Making

Soap-making is a brilliantly fun and creative activity for 8 year olds to get busy in. Watch as they learn how to melt and pour a soap base, choose a fragrance and colouring and shape their soap using soap moulds and cutters. 

This is the gift that keeps on giving; the soap can be wrapped and gifted to friends and relatives for their birthdays or Christmas presents!

24. Tie Dye Kit

Allow your child to unleash their creativity with an all-inclusive tie dye kit. Children can create their own fun, unique wardrobe with a pop of vibrant colour and pattern. 

Tie dye kits come with everything your child needs to experiment and have fun with colour, and the pieces they create can be washed and worn time and time again. When your 8 year old gets bored of wearing that same white t-shirt, instead of throwing it in the bin, give it a new lease of life with some colourful tie dye patterns.

25. Hydro-dipping

Hydro-dipping is a fun new art trend that uses water to activate funky patterns and graphics that can be used to cover all sorts of objects. Dip toys, mugs, paper and canvases into water to transform them from boring to brilliant in a matter of minutes! Your 8 year old will love showcasing their trendy pieces to their friends.