I Took My Kid to a DIY Craft Studio in Natick and We Both Left Happy
A mall visit turned a dreary Sunday into a sweet, screen-free bonding session.
Illustration by Dale Stephanos
This is part of a winter series on things to do indoors in Boston.
On a Sunday that was too wet to go out and too cold to play ball, as Dr. Seuss so eloquently put it, I found myself at a crossroads: Should I spend the day inside the house, becoming a de facto kiddie cruise director, or go out and let someone else do the work? That’s how I wound up at the Natick Mall’s unofficial children’s wing, staring down a gaggle of tables covered in plastic at the Crafts Zone, a DIY spot offering unique projects that can be completed and taken home the same day.
The most exciting offering for my seven-year-old daughter was decoden, the Japanese art of decorating an item with “cream glue” that resembles frosting, then covering it in fun, quirky charms. Essentially, if you love baking, you’ll love making this craft.
After walking into the gray-and-yellow space, we chose our projects from a sample wall: a jewelry box for my daughter and a digital alarm clock for me. Next, we moved to the charm area, which had boxes full of tiny plastic pieces, loosely organized by color and theme. We picked everything from mini cheeseburgers and ice cream cones to Paw Patrol and Hello Kitty characters, along with plenty of stars and bows. After selecting the recommended number of charms, we chose the colors for our cream glue, which was already neatly loaded into piping bags.
Finally seated at our table, a staffer guided us through the design process, demonstrating how to pipe the cream glue (the shell technique took me a couple of tries). Once the “frosting” was down, we arranged our charms. The final, and most fun, step was the sprinkle station, where my daughter chose five different types of non-edible jimmies to give her masterpiece a sweet dusting.
Walking out with our sticky-fingered handiwork, I realized we’d successfully killed a couple of hours without a single screen—and created something that would take up precious space on her bedroom dresser for months to come. Totally worth it.
Natick, crafts.zone.
This article was first published in the print edition of the December 2025/January 2026 issue as part of a winter activities package with the headline: “The Great Indoors.”
