12 celebrity parents who get crafty with their kids

Who knew actress Alyson Hannigan was the bento-box queen? All you need to do is check out her Twitter stream to see why. She is a master at crafting with food — creating fun, colourful and adorable lunches for her daughters, Satyana and Keeva. Check out some of her best ones: here, here and here (she made animals out of carrots? I'm not woooorthy!).

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Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts is big into crafts. "There’s one little room in my house which is filled with all my clutter and bits and pieces," Julia has shared. "My sewing machine is up there and all my knitting stuff. It’s a place where I can go to relax and unwind."

"I don’t get to spend a lot of time up there," she laments, "but at least I know it’s there!"

When she does get time to craft (even between scenes in her trailer), she often sews stuff for her three kids, Hazel, Phinnaeus and Henry — like clothing for them and sleeping bags for Hazel's dolls!

They say it's Julia who inspired a bunch of other celeb parents to take up knitting, including David Arquette, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristin Davis.

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Katie Holmes credits her own mom and ex-hubby Tom Cruise for getting her into crafting with daughter Suri. "Bring lots of crayons, glue, good paper and you can turn any room into a very warm, familial place," she has said. "My mom grew up making curtains and pillows and everything, and it made our home very warm, so I like to do things like that with my daughter. . . . [Tom] got me a sewing machine for my birthday."

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Heidi Klum takes crafting so seriously, she gets her kids (literally) right into it, too. 

"So two of my boys, they have big afros, and when I shaved them all down, I kept all the hair and I put it in a Ziploc bag," she tells Your Tango. "It was so beautiful, this whole bag of afro: one for Henry, one for Johan. The next time they painted their faces, I glued all their hair around it, so it was like this three-dimensional painting. It's their face! And Henry was always a bit more blonde, like the tips are really blonde, and Johan's more dark. . . . It's so pretty."

"I want to make a blanket now," she continues. "I saw this blanket that [Nigel Barker] did with photographs, so I want to make that for all my kids; a collage with all their friends — a BFF, best friends forever, blanket. They can give those as presents to friends for their birthdays." Wow, ambitious!

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Here's Angelina Jolie and daughters Shiloh and Vivienne returning home from an afternoon of pottery and painting at the Paster Painting Studio at the Fox Entertainment Quarter, in Sydney, Australia. Fun!

"We’re really into arts and crafts," actress Busy Philipps has said of her older daughter, Birdie. "I’ve always been a crafty person. [Birdie] likes to paint. The other day, we took a cardboard box and we made a fairy house. We painted it, and I wrote 'Fairies Welcome' and cut out a little door." Cute!

Tori Spelling is — bygones — noTORIous for being crafty! She even has an entire section dedicated to crafts on her website, and it includes loads of kid-friendly crafting ideas. Here's Tori making her Vintage Pop Silhouettes with daughter Stella. "Crafting is more than a hobby in our house," she writes. "It’s a way of life!"

Ben Affleck has been known to take a trip with the kids to the ceramic painting centre, Color Me Mine, in Santa Monica, California. He's photo'd here with his oldest child, Violet. Ben's painting a cup and saucer, and Violet a penguin.

David Beckham has also been known to bond with his boys at Color Me Mine, in Los Angeles, California, while wife Victoria's busy with their toddler daughter, Harper.

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Hilarious actress Melissa McCarthy keeps her daughters entertained by doing arts and crafts with them. Here she is with her older daughter, Vivian, shopping at Michaels Arts & Crafts in Burbank, California.

Indeed, Michaels is a hotspot for celebs. Jennifer Garner and her kids are often spotted perusing its aisles and leaving with bags of arts and craft supplies.

Famously crafty Rosie O'Donnell wrote the book on crafting — Rosie O'Donnell's Crafty U: 100 Easy Projects the Whole Family Can Enjoy All Year Long — so it's no surprise she and her family have made crafting part of their way of life. 

"My kids think it’s totally normal to ask for a six-foot canvas and have every paint colour they want," she has said. "I think it’s going to ruin their lives. We can’t get our 10-year-old to behave at school. And every other parent goes through this in America, just so you know.”

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