A very simple craft project for small children is a paper hat. All you do is take a piece of 8-by-11 inch paper, roll it into a cone that fits as a hat on your child's head and then tape it together with a single piece of tape. You can use construction paper or copy paper, and you can roll it up any way that you like. Give your kids crayons, markers and stickers to decorate their hats. Encourage them to write their name on their hat as writing practice.
Small children do not mind getting messy when doing craft projects, and a hand stamp project is a messy project to try with your kids. You can lay out a piece of poster paper, lather up your child's hand with non-toxic finger paint and let them make a hand print on the paper. They can write their name under their hand print, they can make prints of both of their hands or they can draw on their hand to make a drawing such as a turkey.
A picture collage is a fun craft project that could create a lifelong memory for you and your child. You can start with a magazine that has pictures of their favorite television characters, foods and pictures that your child finds interesting. Help your child by cutting the pictures out. You can then lay out a piece of poster board and help your child paste their pictures to the board to make a collage.
Craft ideas that you do with your small children can be looked back on later in life for fun and memories. You can tap your young child's creative mind by setting up a small toy painting easel and placing a blank foam poster board on it. Then give your child a set of paints and a brush and ask them to paint you a picture of something specific like a dog or a building. Once they are done you can write on the back of the painting what it was supposed to be and what age the child was, and then store until you can bring it out again years later.