Cupcake Charms Set

Bake It/ Shrink It Cupcake Charms from Great Gizmo's  4M range allows children to create, bake, and shrink their very own cupcake jewellery charms! 

Each kit includes 20 pre-cut cupcake shaped shrinking sheets with four colour pencils so you can start designing and colouring them in straight away. No fiddly cutting out required!

The rough side of the cupcakes need to be coloured in using colour pencils.  Kizzy and Freddy did this together, as he wanted to help his big sister.

When they are all coloured in, they are ready to bake in the oven to shrink them down.

You need to put them onto a baking sheet covered with foil and put into an oven at 160 degrees.

The cupcakes curl up and then flatten out very quickly. Cook for a further 30 seconds and allow to cool.  Freddy loved watching them through the oven door and was very intrigued to see them shrink into the cupcake charms.

The shrunken cupcakes are quite thick and hard and the colour is intensified by the baking process.  Each cupcake charm then needs to be attached to a metal ring. They come with a pre-cut hole which makes it easier, but the metal rings need to be prised open, threaded through and then squeezed back shut.  This was very tricky and fiddly and quite hard on the fingers, so Kizzy got her dad to do it for her!

The charms can then be made into jewellery.  The set includes beads, string, ear-ring attachments and chains to make your own jewellery designs, or the charms can be attached to the cute cupcake display stand which is included in the set. 

On the stand, it makes a pretty ornament for a girly bedroom.  Kizzy decided to do this as she liked the look of the charms on the stand, but she still has all the jewellery making accessories if she ever decides to have a go at making a cupcake design bracelet in the future.

The set costs about £10 and contains everything needed to create 20 colourful, cupcake shaped charms.  Some adult supervision is required for the baking and help will be needed to attach the rings.  It's a nice craft activity that will keep youngsters happily entertained and the end result is something they will be proud of.  It is versatile in that the activity can be extended to include making key rings, earrings and bracelets using the charms.  It allows kids to be really creative!

Moo and Baa Tack Zap from HABA

HABA is a German company renowned for its fantastic quality wooden toys.  Freddy was delighted to be sent a lovely Moo and Baa Tack Zap game to try out, and was eager to get stuck in!

Tack Zap is a beautifully crafted kit that consists of wooden pieces, tacks, hammer and cork board for little ones to create their own masterpieces.  The 45 cute and colourful animal and scenery pieces have a hole in them for the tack to go through, pinning it to the board.

At first I was worried about the combination of toddlers and sharp, metal tacks!  However, I was impressed with Fred's ability to use the little wooden hammer to bang the tacks through the animal shapes.  He was very dextrous and enjoyed making a picture, naming the objects as he went along.

The set is suitable for boys and girls aged 3 and over.  Freddy was perfectly able to play on his own (whilst I was close by just in case of a hammer/tack emergency!)  The characters are so appealing with their soft, pastel colouring.  They feature in a whole range of wooden toys from HABA.

After seeing how well he got on, I really like that this set uses real tools giving Freddy a chance to learn skills at a young age. He really enjoyed playing with this craft set and was very proud of his finished masterpiece!

Check out the HABA website to see more beautiful wooden toys and furniture.