10 Coloring Projects That'll Keep the Kids Busy (and Happy) All Summer Long
Summer break arrives with so much promise. Long days, no homework, pool trips, popsicles. And then — roughly 11 days in — you hear the words no parent wants to hear: "I'm bored."
Been there. We all have.
The good news? You don't need an expensive camp or a complicated craft supply haul to keep kids creatively engaged. Coloring — especially when you mix digital exploration with hands-on printable projects — is one of the most versatile, low-mess, high-fun activities you can pull out this summer. Here are 10 ideas to get you started, ranging from quick afternoon projects to full-on family events.
1. Design Your Own Summer Bucket List Poster
Kick off the summer with a coloring project that doubles as a planning activity. Head over to Coloring Fun and let your kids browse through seasonal and nature-themed designs. Have them pick images that represent things they want to do this summer — a beach scene, a camping tent, a backyard BBQ, fireworks. Print them out, color them in, and arrange them on a poster board with handwritten captions.
Hang it somewhere visible and check off each activity as you complete it. It's part art project, part countdown, and kids absolutely love having a visual reminder of the fun ahead.
Make it educational: Talk about the calendar while you're at it. How many weeks until school starts? How many activities can you realistically fit in?
2. Host a Neighborhood Coloring Contest
This one's a crowd-pleaser. Print out multiple copies of the same coloring page from Coloring Fun — something with enough detail to be interesting, like a detailed garden scene or a fantasy castle — and invite neighborhood kids over for a coloring contest. Set a timer, let everyone go wild with their own color choices, and then do a gallery-style display on the fence or garage door.
There are no losers here. Give everyone a silly, personalized ribbon ("Most Creative Use of Purple," "Best Dragon Color Scheme," etc.).
Make it social media-worthy: Line up all the finished pages for a side-by-side photo. It's genuinely cool to see how differently kids interpret the same design.
3. Color-Then-Cut Storybook Characters
This is a two-part project that stretches across a whole afternoon. Start by having kids use Coloring Fun's online coloring game to experiment with colors on a character design — animals, fantasy creatures, and cartoon-style figures work great. Once they've landed on a color scheme they love, print the design and color it with markers or colored pencils.
Then cut the characters out, back them with cardstock, and tape popsicle sticks to the back. Instant puppets. Put on a show.
Make it educational: Encourage kids to write a short story about their characters before the show. Even just three sentences counts.
4. Watercolor Surprise Pages
Print out a bold, simple coloring page — something with thick outlines and large sections. Have kids trace over all the lines with a white crayon, pressing firmly. Then let them paint over the whole page with watercolors. The crayon lines resist the paint, creating a cool "reveal" effect that feels almost magical.
This works especially well with animal outlines, mandala-style designs, and simple nature scenes.
Make it educational: This is a great opportunity to talk about color mixing. What happens when blue and yellow watercolor overlap? Let them find out.
5. Collaborative Mural Project
Got a long roll of butcher paper or craft paper? Tape it to a wall or lay it out on the driveway. Print out a bunch of different designs from Coloring Fun — mix sizes, themes, and styles — and let everyone color their section however they like. When it's done, you've got a giant, one-of-a-kind family mural.
This works beautifully for mixed-age groups. Younger kids can handle simpler designs while older kids tackle more detailed ones.
Make it social media-worthy: Get an overhead or wide-angle shot of the whole mural laid flat. Tag it with the kids' ages and the time it took — people love those details.
6. Coloring Postcards to Grandparents
Here's a project with a heartwarming payoff. Print coloring pages on cardstock, sized to postcard dimensions (4x6 works perfectly). Kids color the front, then flip it over and write a message on the back. Address it, stamp it, mail it.
Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and family friends absolutely love receiving these. It's a rare, tangible piece of mail in a world full of texts and emails.
Make it educational: Practice address formatting and talk about how the postal system works. Old school, but genuinely interesting to kids who've never really thought about it.
7. Glow-in-the-Dark Coloring Night
This one requires a small supply investment, but it's worth it. Print out a detailed coloring page — mandalas or space-themed designs are perfect for this — and have kids color it with neon markers or highlighters. Then turn off the lights and shine a black light on the finished pages.
The effect is absolutely stunning, and kids go completely wild for it.
Make it a summer evening ritual: Do this on the porch after dinner as it gets dark. Bring out some lemonade and make it a whole thing.
8. Color-Matched Nature Scavenger Hunt
Before heading outside, print a coloring page featuring natural elements — leaves, flowers, rocks, bugs, birds. Have kids color the page however they like. Then take it outside and challenge them to find real-life objects that match the colors they used.
A kid who colored their flower red has to find something red in nature. A kid who went purple has to get creative.
Make it educational: This is a fantastic low-key lesson in observation and the natural world. Talk about why certain plants and animals have the colors they do.
9. Digital Design + DIY T-Shirt
Start with Coloring Fun's online tools and let kids experiment with coloring a bold, simple design until they love what they've created. Print the finished version, then use iron-on transfer paper to put the design on a plain white t-shirt.
Suddenly, coloring becomes fashion design. Kids are unbelievably proud to wear something they made themselves.
Make it educational: Talk about graphic design and how the images we see on clothing and products are made by real people whose job it is to create art.
10. End-of-Summer Memory Book
Save this one for late August. Throughout the summer, collect the best coloring pages your kids have made. Print a few new ones that represent summer memories — the beach, a road trip, a favorite meal. Have kids color them and write a sentence or two on each page about a summer memory.
Bind them together with a simple binder or staples and a cardstock cover. Done. You've got a keepsake that'll be way more meaningful than any photo album.
Make it a tradition: Date the cover and store it. Next summer, make another one. By the time kids are in middle school, you'll have a whole shelf of summer memory books.
The best thing about all of these projects? They scale up and down easily depending on your kids' ages and your available time. Some of them take 20 minutes. Some of them take all afternoon. All of them create something worth keeping — or at least worth snapping a photo of.
Coloring Fun is here to make the creative part easy. Browse our library of free printable designs and online coloring games to find the perfect pages for whichever project calls to you this summer. Now go make some memories.
