Pretend Nail Salon Activity with Wipeable Boards

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Pretend nail salon - let kids enjoy pretend play with this DIY nail salon for kids - a great indoor activity for kids and they can have fun painting nails

Painting nails is so much fun but there’s only so many times Mum or Dad can be the hand model!

Which is why this DIY pretend nail salon is so brilliant.

You can draw round hands and feet to quickly make lots of ‘blank canvases’. They’re ready to enter the nail salon for a mani or pedicure.

If you like you can even make them wipeable. That you can make them once, let kids play and wipe them down when they finish to start again.

Summary

Time: 10 minutes
Ages: Little Kids
Difficulty: Easy peasy

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Pretend nail salon - let kids enjoy pretend play with this DIY nail salon for kids - a great indoor activity for kids and they can have fun painting nails
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You will need:

  • Cardboard sheets
  • Felt pen or Sharpie pen
  • Scissors
  • Nail polish or paints

Optional Extras:

  • Sticky back plastic or sticky tape (to make it wipeable)
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Beads

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Pretend nail salon - let kids enjoy pretend play with this DIY nail salon for kids - a great indoor activity for kids and they can have fun painting nails
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Step 1: Draw Around a Pair of Hands

Place your child’s hands on a sheet of cardboard and draw around them.

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Step 2: Make Them Wipeable (optional)

If you’re making this a wipeable board then draw on the nails to your hands and feet.

Cover the entire surface of the board in sticky back plastic or with strips of sticky tape.

This helps you to wipe down the boards after your child has finished painting those nails.

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Pretend nail salon - let kids enjoy pretend play with this DIY nail salon for kids - a great indoor activity for kids and they can have fun painting nails
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Step 3: Cut Around the Hands

Then cut around the hands. You can make several pairs of hands quickly for your nail salon.

If you prefer you can also skip this step and leave them as a board that they can paint onto.

 

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Pretend nail salon - let kids enjoy pretend play with this DIY nail salon for kids - a great indoor activity for kids and they can have fun painting nails
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Step 4: Draw Around Feet

Repeat the process for your feet.

Draw around feet, draw on the toenails and  if you’re making it a wipeable board cover in sticky back plastic or tape.

Then either cut them out or leave them as a pedicure board.

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Pretend nail salon - let kids enjoy pretend play with this DIY nail salon for kids - a great indoor activity for kids and they can have fun painting nails
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Step 5: Make Some Bracelets (optional)

You can thread beads onto pipe cleaners and twist them around the wrists as bracelets or rings if you’d like.

Making DIY accessories can be a fun activity on its own.

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Pretend nail salon - let kids enjoy pretend play with this DIY nail salon for kids - a great indoor activity for kids and they can have fun painting nails
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Step 6: Let the Mani-pedis Begin

Let your child can have fun painting the fingernails and toenails in a rainbow of colours.

They could use your nail polish or their own paints to give brightly coloured manicures and pedicures.

This is an easy pretend nail salon activity to help kids get creative and explore role play at home.

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