5 DIY Summer Crafts for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Sensory activities are crucial to healthy development of the mind and body. They can help boost cognitive abilities, refine motor skills, improve concentration, tactile awareness, aid with mental health, and provide the sense of achievement that every human being needs to feel. 

We’re all mostly stuck inside this summer, but we can still make a party out of it. This post will show you how to make some awesome summer crafts that you can do whenever you like. 

Summer Beach Necklaces

You will need:

• Polymer clay that can be baked like Sculpty or Fimo
• Leather cord
• A skewer or other hole-making device

Instructions:

1. Pick your clay/bead colors
2. Take a pea-sized piece of the clay and roll into a ball or rounded oblong shape
3. Repeat for as many beads as you’d like on your necklace
4. Poke holes through the middle of each bead with a skewer
5. Bake the clay in by following the instructions on the clay packet
6. Take the clay beads out of the over and let cool
7. Insert the leather cord through the holes
8. Tie two ends together in a knot to make a necklace
9. Show off your new design

Gingerbread Beach Hut

A fun spin in the traditional gingerbread house, and a way to mentally get away from it all, is the gingerbread beach hut. It’s also great because it is open for interpretation–people can really add their own style to this gem. Want gummy sharks in the waters surrounding your gingerbread hut? Great. Not a fan of sharks? Totally up to you. You get to make your own paradise and eat it, too.

You will need:

Tools

• 1-2 Baking sheet(s)
• A rolling pin
• A knife
• Icing bag or ziplock bag with ¼ inch tip of one corner cut off
• A large cutting board

For the glue icing

• 2 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp of water

Note: You can also use premade royal icing 

For the ocean icing

• ½ cup butter, with salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 3 drops of blue food color

Note: Alternatively, you can also buy regular blue cake icing from the store.

For the dough

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup light molasses or dark corn syrup
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1  tbsp ground ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2  tbsp water
• Additional: if the dough is too dry or hard to work, add an egg

Note: Alternatively, you can order a regular undecorated gingerbread house online (the beach house is the same shape as a winter gingerbread house)

To decorate 

• Blue icing for the water (recipe above)
• For the sand: 1 cup graham cracker crumbs, crushed
• Gummy sharks or Goldfish crackers
• For the roof tiles: 2 cups unfrosted mini shredded wheat
• For the beachy walk from the ocean to the house: pretzel sticks
• Additional: all sorts of candy or dried fruit

Instructions:

To make the gingerbread house

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and baking soda together until the mixture is smooth. Blend in the flour and water to make a stiff dough. Chill at least 30 minutes or until firm. 
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 
3. Cut out the following paper patterns for the gingerbread house template: Two rectangles, 3 by 5 inches, to make the front and back of the house. Two rectangles, 3 by 5 1/2 inches for the roof. Two pieces for the ends of the house, 3 inches wide at the base, 3 inches to the roofline, and slanted to a peak 5 1/2 inches from the bottom. Four smaller rectangles, 1 1/2 by 1 inch for the roof and sides of the entryway. And one piece, 2 inches wide at the base, 1 1/2 inches to the roofline, and slanted to a peak 2 1/2 inches from the bottom for the front of the entryway. 
4. Roll gingerbread dough out to edges on a large, rimless cookie sheet. Place paper patterns onto the rolled out dough. With a sharp, straight-edged knife, cut around each of the pieces, but leave pieces in place. 
5. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 15 minutes until dough feels firm. 
6. Place patterns on top of the gingerbread again and trim shapes, cutting edges with a straight-edged sharp knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet. 
7. Place royal icing into a pastry bag with a writing tip and press out to decorate individual parts of house, piping on decorations, windows, door, etc., as desired. Let dry until hardened. 
8. Glue sides, front and back of house together at corners using royal icing. Place an object against the pieces to prop up until icing is dry (it only takes a few minutes). 
9. Glue the two roof pieces to the pitched roofline of the house. Then, similarly, glue the sides and roof of the entryway together with icing. Attach the entryway to the front of the house. 
10. Glue the mini shredded wheat pieces on top to look like roof shingles 
11. Continue decorating the house, gluing on random candy as you like

To make the glue icing

1. While the gingerbread is in the oven, make the icing. Mixing together 2 cups of icing sugar mixed with one tbsp of powdered sugar should give you the consistency of honey. If it’s too runny, add more sugar. If it’s too thick, add more water. This will be used as the glue for your gingerbread house.

To make the ocean icing

1. Cream room temperature butter with a hand mixer, the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, or a wooden spoon until smooth and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until fully incorporated. Beat in vanilla extract.
2. Pour in milk and beat for an additional 3-4 minutes. Add food coloring and beat for thirty seconds until smooth or until desired color is reached.

To decorate

1. Take your large cutting board (or, for a less messy version, use a clean baking sheet).
2. Spread blue icing on half of the board/baking sheet, to look like ocean water with slight waves.
3. Crumble your graham crackers onto the other half of the board/baking sheet to make it look like sand.
4. Place the constructed gingerbread house onto the graham cracker sand.
5. Take the pretzel sticks and lay them out parallel to the front of the gingerbread hut, as a pathway from the hut to the ocean
6. Decorate your beach hut as you see fit
7. Add some gummy sharks, Goldfish crackers or both to the ocean
8. And you’re done

Tropical Milk Painting

You will need:

• Whole milk
• Food coloring in 4-5 tropical colors of your choosing
• Dish soap
• Q-tips
• Paper (A4 or any size you would like)
• A glass baking dish (big enough for your paper to fit comfortably in)

Instructions

1. Fill the glass baking dish ⅓ full with milk.
2. Add two drops of each different food color into the milk-filled dish
3. Dip the end of a q-tip into the dish soap
4. Dip the soap-covered end of the q-tip into the milk, close to a drop of color. As the dish soap hits, the color burst out.
5. Lightly swirl the q-tip through the different colors to form little streams of colors.
6. Once you have a pattern you like, gently lay a sheet of paper onto the milk mixture and press down very gently for 5-10 seconds. You can do this on one side or both.
7. Pull the paper out and set somewhere flat to dry.

Sand Foam

You will need:

• Sand
• Shaving cream
• A large tub or tray

Instructions

1. Start by adding three cups of sand into the large tray/tub.
2. Gradually add shaving cream to the sand and mix it with your hands. Continue adding shaving cream until the sand foam feels like dough.
3. And you’re done

Tropical Fish

You will need:

• Large Paper Plate {one per fish craft}
• Craft Scissors
• Office Stapler
• Colored Tissue Paper
• School Glue
• Large googly eyes

Instructions

1. Start by cutting out a wedge from your plate. 
2. Take the wedge you cut out and glue or staple it to the back of the plate (onto the opposite edge from where it was cut. This will make your tropical fishtail.
3. Cut or tear your tissue paper into squares.
4. Cover the plate (tail included) with school glue.
5. Place the tissue paper squares randomly (they can overlap) onto the glued area, adding more glue when needed.
6. Once you have all of your tissue paper placed, glue on your googly eye. 
7. And, there you have it! A tropical fish to make your home feel summery!

About Stephen’s Place

Stephen’s Place is an independent apartment community for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, located in Vancouver, WA (7 minutes from Portland, OR).

If you have a loved one with developmental or intellectual disabilities, who is looking for a community to live in, please contact us for more information. 

Stephen’s Place is a private-pay apartment community due to our state-of-the-art amenities and programs. We are a nonprofit and do not profit from our community. We are private pay because we spend more than some housing communities to ensure that our residents are comfortable and can safely live their lives with independence and dignity.