Gifts ideas for girls that will promote creativity and ingenuity for girls that are ages 8-12, including art gifts, science gifts, building gifts, and fairy garden gifts
I have two daughters, ages 10 and 12, and the last few years it’s gotten harder to buy them gifts. They don’t like the little girl gifts anymore, like dolls, dress-ups, and kid crafts. Their tastes are changing, but they aren’t into teen things yet either, like make-up, fancy toiletries, and electronics. They are definitely tweens, that in-between stage.
Plus, I don’t like to give stuff, things that will just sit on their shelves and add more clutter. I want to give them gifts that will help them learn and grow and become more creative. Gifts they can do and make. So, I’ve come up with 25 gift ideas to give tween girls that will encourage them to create and grow. And I have to admit, I’d like to play around with most of these myself.
Williams Sonoma Kids’ Cookbook
In the picture at the top of this post are 2 cookbooks from Williams Sonoma. The orange cookbook, Williams Sonoma Cooking Together, is for beginner chefs because it divides each recipe into kid steps and adult steps. Even older kids who are just learning to cook can be intimidated by chopping with a knife and cooking over a hot stove.
The second cookbook, The Kid’s Cookbook, is for kids who have done a little cooking already. Each recipe is short, easy, and kid-taste friendly. Each recipe is written for kids to make on their own. My girls have loved both cookbook and Williams Sonoma recipes are always delicious.
Silk Scarf Painting Kit
Painting silk scarfs is becoming a popular art right now, and there’s no reason tweens can’t get in on the fun. This kit comes with a scarf that already has a pattern and paint to color in the design. So it’s easier than painting a blank piece of silk, but you still get a beautiful scarf to wear in the end.
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Watercolor Artist Set
This set takes your young artist beyond the Crayola paints. These are real watercolors with rich colors and good, even coverage. They even come with watercolor pens to create details that are too small for a brush.
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Needle Felting Kit
This cute gift teaches your tween how to felt wool and they get to create a cute animal. This link goes to a kit that makes an owl, but there’s also an octopus, a shark, a sheep, a moose, and even a Santa ornament to make by felting wool. And all of them are adorable.
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Shrink & Link Jewelry
This set by Klutz combines the creativity of decorating Shrinky Dinks with jewelry-making skills. If you’ve never tried Shrinky Dinks, it is so much fun to draw and design, cut it out, and watch it shrink and get stiff in the oven. And now you can turn those designs into beautiful jewelry pieces.
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Green Rocket Building Kit
Let your tween learn the basics of physics with this invention set. Build rockets by recycling used water bottles and see how high you can get it to launch.
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Artist Sketch Book
Nothing lets your imagination run free like a blank piece of paper. There’s endless possibilities. And this beautiful sketch pad provides a special place to create your fantasies.
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Prismacolor Colored Pencils
And if you’ve got a sketch pad, you need colored pencils to go with it. And Prismacolors are some of the best while still affordable. These quality pencils can create all sorts of textures and hues.
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Wooden Human Mannequin
If your little artist enjoys drawing super heroes, manga, comic books, or any human figure, a mannequin gives them a perfect reference and lets them explore how the human body moves. It allows them to draw their characters in positions that look realistic.[spacer height=”20px”]
The Ultimate Toy Car
Even girls will enjoy building their own quality racecar with the Modarri car. They have real steering and suspension, and you can mix and match parts to create your own look.
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Make Your Own Soap
Another great kit by Klutz lets girls play with colors and scents to make their own special soap. Maybe they’ll even be excited to take a shower now.
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Light Up Terrarium Kit
While making your own terrarium isn’t hard (my daughter even wrote a blog post about it), this kit takes it up a notch by turning the small terrarium into a night-light. Plus it comes with little accessories to create a little fairy garden.
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3D Art Coloring Puzzle
Use both sides of your brain to decorate and build this 3 dimensional puzzle. There are several different options for these 3D coloring puzzles, but the link takes you to a kit that includes pieces for a house, butterfly, horse, and elephant.
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Marble Maze
Inspire a future engineer or architect by giving her a marble maze to build and watch as she creates a sculpture that also creates the best pathway for the marbles to travel.
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LEGO Architecture
No list of creative toys would be complete without LEGOs, but if your tween girl is getting a little too old for LEGO Friends, a LEGO Architecture set is sophisticated enough for even an adult, but still fun to build. LEGO makes several famous building and landmark sets plus a few big city skylines. I think my daughter would like the Eiffel Tower the best because she loves all things Paris.
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Gel Pens Set for Adult Coloring
Gel pens are big, really big. I’m not sure why they are so popular, but my daughters and their friends love using gel pens to write, color, draw, and more. So I had to include a set in my gift idea list.
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Host Your Own Ceramic Painting Party
This gift set encourages social creativity and interpersonal art skills. It comes with 4 statues to paint so your tween can host her own painting party with 3 friends. There are different set available, but this link goes to a set of 4 dragon statues because this age is when fantasy is really popular.
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An Invention Kit
This science kit turns every day objects into a circuit board and teaches kids the basics of how a computer works. Make a keyboard out of fruit or a game controller out of pennies.
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Embroidery Floss
Embroidery Floss can be used to make so many things, especially friendships bracelets. This rainbow pack would let your tween make bracelets in every color combination. Or maybe she’ll learn to embroider.
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Mini Cinder Blocks
These little cinder blocks are actually made of cement and look just like the real thing, only 12 times smaller. They would be perfect to build a wall in a fairy garden or just to play with at your desk.
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ColorBox Crafter’s Ink
These inks are permanent on fabric, so you can give one or more with a t-shirt so your tween can design and create her own personalized shirt. Read more about how it works in my post on making a custom t-shirt.
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Artist Gift Set
Follow this blog post to put together an entire set of quality art supplies to create the perfect gift your future artist.
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Jewelry Making Set
This blog post shows show to create a hemp jewelry-making set, including a good book with detailed instructions and everything she’ll need to make a hemp necklace.
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Beginning Cross-Stitcher Basket
My good friend Danielle, who blogs over at StoryPiece.net, shared how to make a basket full of cross-stitching supplies so your tween can learn how to cross-stitch in fun ways, like decorating the cover of a journal or making cross-stitched bracelets.
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Fairy Garden Supplies
Fairy gardens are so much fun to create and a perfect way for girls to learn about gardening while creating a magical world. This blog post tell how to make a fairy garden in a pot, but it also list a lot of supplies you could give to your fairy gardener, including craft supplies, dollar store accessories, plants, and more.
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Gifts you can Make for your Tween
And here’s 14 more gifts for girls if you like DIY projects and making handmade gifts. Have fun!