Strand Bands Designer Set Review

The Make 2 Wear Strand Bands Designer Set, is a 62 piece jewellery making set allowing children to create their own bespoke fashion bracelets using colourful bands and beads.

With assorted stretchable, rubber strand bands in various colours, an assortment of beads and charms and a Strand Styler tool and suction cup, there is enough contents to make up to fifteen bracelets in various designs.

The set comes with instructions, but they are quite vague and even 12 year old Kezia and big sister Ella were getting a bit irate and frustrated trying to work out how to make a bracelet. The overly simplified 'fold, knot, peel apart' instructions didn't really help them. So we took to the trusty internet and found some video tutorials on YouTube, which proved a great help.

Once we understood the basic technique, the strands were cut to size, knotted, attached to the top of the Strand Styler, separated into sections and plaited or knotted. The Strand Styler keeps the strands secured together, making working with the materials less fiddly. However, the stretchy strands can ping off, unravel or get twisted up quite easily if you aren't careful, which proves quite frustrating when you're half way through making a bracelet. Practice definitely helps with the techniques and eventually, the girls managed to work out how to make the simple braided bracelets.The ends are then tied off to secure the bracelet to the wrist.

For creative kids, with patience and dexterity, the set will enable them to make a range of cool looking bracelets.There are various different techniques for attaching the beads and charms and lots of ways to knot the strands, making a huge variety of possible bracelet designs. The colours of the strands can be mixed and matched to suit individual tastes and the thickness of the threads can be decided when peeling the strands apart, changing the visual effect of the braiding. The beads and charms are funky, for a variety of looks and styles from punk rock to girly.

The set is aimed at girls aged 6 and up.  I'm sure there might be some girls of that age that may be able to make some wearable pieces with some assistance, but it's not the easiest process as my girls found out. I'd recommend it for children older than this, if you want them to work on their bracelet making skills independently.

Some advanced techniques look very complicated indeed, but I'm sure they can be attempted once the simpler techniques are mastered.  However, I'd definitely recommend using YouTube tutorials rather than the instruction leaflet. Seeing the process in action made the whole thing make much more sense.

You can use your imagination to create your own individual designs using the braiding and beading techniques learned, reusing the Strand Styler tool. The end results look pretty good and with practice, I'm sure they will get even better.

The Strand Bands Designer Set is £19.99 RRP. Find the instructional videos on YouTube.

       

The Gorgeous Girly Card Set Review

With Mother's Day coming up, it was the perfect time for Kezia and her friend Georgia to put The Gorgeous Girly Card Set from Interplay to the test. All mums love to receive a handmade card made for them by their kids on Mother's Day, and this kit provides everything needed to make nine gorgeous cards using feathers, sequins, glitter and ribbons, that would fit the bill perfectly.

The contents of the kit includes coloured folded cards, envelopes, decorative sheets, 300 sequins, feathers, ribbons, motif sheets, glitter, sticky pads, glue and the instruction manual with step by step instructions for nine projects.

Kezia and Georgia decided that they both wanted to make the Sequined Heart Card.  Although there was only one pre-cut heart motif, they were able to use it as a template to make a second heart using the coloured card.  Once the motifs are all used up, the pre-cut shape sheets double up as stencils so you can carry on creating hand made greetings cards for every occasion.

The step by step instruction booklet is fully illustrated and very detailed so they knew exactly what to do to create their cards.  The first two projects in the booklet give the techniques and practice needed to make the rest of the more advanced designs

The glue that came with the set was quite runny and not as strong as they liked and so they substituted it for Pritt Stick and PVA glue.  The PVA worked best at holding on the sequins, while the glue stick was good for sticking card together.

Using sequins is very fiddly at the best of times, but with gluey fingers it is even fiddlier.  Using a pair of tweezers turned out to be a shrewd move when it came to positioning the coloured layers of sequins onto the heart. The girls quickly perfected their technique.

Once the sequined heart was completed, it was mounted onto the card with a feather behind it and a bow underneath it to complete the design.  The double sided sticky pads worked really well for this job, giving a 3D effect to the finished card.

The girls put their own individual spin on the cards that they made, using their own preferred colour schemes. There are plenty of sequins included, but you could always add to the contents and use other bits and bobs to achieve your desired effect.

The girls did a great job and had fun being creative with the card kit.  Georgia's mum and Kezia's nan are in for a treat on Mother's Day with their bespoke Sequined Heart cards.

The Gorgeous Girly Card Kit is a myStyle craft kit from Interplay and is suitable for children aged 8 - 12 years old.  It makes 9 designs of greeting card complete with envelopes and costs £12.99.

It's a great kit for older girls who have the patience and the steady hand to work independently, giving good end results that loved ones will be happy to receive for any occasion.

Find this and other myStyle craft sets at www.interplayuk.com/mystyle.

Get Your Christmas Craft On with Baker Ross

A rainy winter afternoon in the run up to Christmas provides the perfect opportunity to do some festive crafts with the children.  Baker Ross had sent us a selection of their Craft-It products including Christmas foam cards, sequin decorations, hand puppets, stickers, craft pens and ceramic owl trinket boxes, so we enjoyed a brilliant crafting session together.

It's lovely to get the kids crafting to make decorations, cards and little presents for loved ones. Freddy really enjoys getting creative with glue, paint and pens and to see the look of concentration on his face is simply wonderful!

What I love most about Baker Ross craft sets is that they contain everything you need to complete a project (sometimes you might need scissors or glue but all the necessary bits and bobs are included). They come with full instructions and the projects are pretty straightforward with impressive end results. Kids love making them and loved ones will enjoy being given a thoughtful, homemade gift.

I love the ceramic items that Baker Ross do, which can be decorated with acrylic paints or porcelain paint pens. They make lovely gifts.  We were sent some owl trinket boxes, which are really cute and ready to be decorated.  Freddy used shimmery paint pens to colour in his owl and did a great job making it look colourful.  At £4.48 for four owl trinket boxes and five packs of porcelain paint pens for £9.99, this is a lovely Christmas craft activities for children of all ages to enjoy. 

The Christmas Foam Card Kits contain three separate packs, each containing everything needed to create a gorgeous handmade card.  With foam sheets, ribbon, pre-cut foam stickers, lettering and googly eyes, kids can make designs featuring a snowman, Rupolph or Santa.  They are colourful and fun.  Freddy was able to make the cards virtually unaided and did a beautiful job creating them,  He just needed a little help with tying the ribbon and putting the letters in order to spell out Merry Christmas. He added some of Christmas pudding felt stickers (96 for £2.99) to add his own spin on the design. At just £1.99 for a three pack, they are excellent value.

The Christmas Sequin Decoration Kits make three Christmas decorations.  There is a Santa, a reindeer and a snowman, each with a sequinned, shiny, 3D tummy!  Each kit comes with pre-cut, self-adhesive foam pieces, a polystyrene body, sequins, plastic pins, ribbon and googly eyes.  It is very straightforward decorating the foam template with the foam stickers.  Then the sequins are pinned to the polystyrene body, which did make Freddy's fingers a little bit sore after a while, so I helped him!  The decorated body is then stuck onto the foam shape using glue.  The end result is lovely and Freddy was really proud of what he had made.  The kits are £3.99 for three, which again is excellent value.

The Christmas Hand Puppet Sewing kits include pre-cut felt templates, self-adhesive felt shapes, yarn, needles, googly eyes and instructions to make three hand puppets.  They are a great introduction to sewing, as the punched holes make it easy to stitch them up, if little ones can avoid tangling up the yarn!  The puppets are still a work in progress. They are £3.75 for 3.

The Baker Ross Craft-It products are perfect for a Christmas craft party or can be used to entertain your own children in the run up to Christmas.  They are great for making gifts, or indeed make lovely presents in their own right.  The prices are excellent, the quality is great and the range is extensive.

You can find out more and order craft sets through the Baker Ross website.  Whatever your event or whatever the season, they have craft sets that the kids will love alongside essentials for more experienced crafters to use on their own projects.

Little Puggle Activity Boxes

It's not always easy to find fun activities to keep the little ones entertained, but with Little Puggle you  can receive stimulating and inspiring educational play ideas direct to your door.  With a monthly subscription service or the option to buy one off themed boxes, Little Puggle delivers a treasure trove of creative goodies and ideas for activities which will delight any child.

The box arrives with a thoughtful sticker featuring your child's name and the contents are tantalisingly wrapped in tissue paper. We were sent a Transport Activity Box to try out.

Each box contains a selection of activity packs suitable for kids aged 3-7.  We received a racing car kit, a cardboard police car and felt tips, a wooden yacht with paints as well as some stickers, transport themed sheets of paper, a straw propellor, a tips book for grown-ups and a Kids' Fun Book. 

I was expecting more of an arts and crafts box with things to make from scratch so I was surprised to find the pre-made activity kits ready for Freddy to build and play with.  He was very enthusiastic as he got to work on the Speedway Racing Car Kit.

Once he made the slot together car, he decorated it in the stickers and the finished car lead to some imaginative play.  

Using the extra craft materials he helped make and fly paper aeroplanes, inspired by the transport theme.

He has had a lot of fun with his box of crafty toys (although the cars and planes are now in the recycling due to strenuous play).

Little Puggle takes the effort out of having to source quality activities for your child, providing an easy way to entertain your child with monthly or one-off boxes.  The parents' leaflet gives ideas for extension activities and the kids' activity booklet provides some extra themed fun!  With themes such as animals, superheroes, princesses and fairies and Christmas, there is a theme for every child to enjoy.  They are perfect as gifts, to use for parties or play dates or simply for a rainy day!

Subscriptions range between £12.95 and £29.95 a month, but you can order single boxes to be delivered directly to the little person in your life!   They come in three sizes: mini with 2 activities for £16.95, original with 3 activities for £23.25 and the play date box with 5 activities for £33.25: each with extra craft materials too.

To find out more and to subscribe or buy a one-off box (the Christmas box would be a lovely present idea for a child) take a look at the website: www.littlepuggle.com

Artzooka For Christmas

We love Artzooka craft sets from Wooky Entertainment!  From the cool, eco-friendly packaging to the inspirational and innovative craft ideas, they are brilliant sets that keep the kids happily entertained for hours!  We received two of their brilliant kits to try.

Sock-Ups Animal Plush

Create your own adorable plush animal-friend from a sock!

This kit contains:

• 3 socks

• 10 styrofoam balls

• clear elastic bands + 1 white rubber band

• 6 felt eye stickers

• polyester stuffing

• 1 Artzooka episode + instructions on DVD

• 1 instruction sheet with Artzooka challenge included

You can make three models: a caterpillar, a turtle and a koala each using a sock.  The animals each have a different difficulty level so you can learn skills and progress to make the trickier animals.  The step by step instruction sheet is all fully illustrated.  The enclosed DVD features an Artzooka episode  and includes visual instructions for the activity.  The technique can then be extended and inspire you to make your own creations from all your own old odd socks! It is a great way to do toy making that doesn't involve any fiddly sewing.   RRP £14.99

Sketcher Tape Set #1

Using different decorative adhesive tapes and stickers you can embellish pictures!

This set contains:

• 5 rolls of decorative tape and 160 stickers

• 6 backgrounds to decorate

• 1 instruction sheet with Artzooka challenge included

You can use the colourful patterned tapes to build up the background pictures, adding patterns and textures. Then you can add stickers to build up the picture further.  The backgrounds can be joined together to make a bigger scene.  You can extend the activity by customizing exercise books or diaries using the same technique.  RRP £9.99

To find out more about Artzooka and their products, check out the website at artzooka.com.  Their products are available at Amazon.co.uk.

Our Opinion: Artzooka sets will make excellent gifts for children and encourage them to be creative.  The challenges extend the activity and inspire crafty kids.  I love the cool, eco-friendly packaging with the reusable cardboard case.  There is a great selection of really nice, innovative craft kits to choose from.

12 Toys of Christmas #1

Over the following week, Inside the Wendy House will be showcasing a dozen top kids' toys ranging from stocking fillers, to great gadgets to cool craft sets.  Each post will provide some ideas for Christmas gifts for the kids and maybe provide a bit of Christmas shopping inspiration.  Every item included can be purchased from Amazon or other good stockists making Christmas shopping as easy as possible!

First up are some brilliant craft sets for anyone looking for gifts for art loving, crafty and creative kids. The first two are suitable for children aged 8 and over, the other is suitable for ages 5 and up.  They will provide fun Christmas activities with a cool end result!

Build an extreme card sculpture of a Giant Hornet with the Technokit Rivetz Giant Hornet kit. First have fun using the Rivetz gun to learn how the unique self-locking Rivetz system works.  The plastic rivets are even reusable so if you do make a mistake just remove them and start again! Then begin assembling the Giant Hornet by folding and fixing together the 14 pre-cut, pre-printed card shapes. No glue is The colour illustrated instruction manual provided shows you how it’s done. The result is an insectoid  model you will be proud to show off! Just one of the collectable Technokit Rivetz projects available from Interplay. RRP £12.99

The myStyle collection is a must-have amongst girls looking to design and create professional quality accessories whilst keeping true to their own individual style. myStyle Deluxe Charm Bracelets (£19.99) do just that, allowing girls to design and make beautiful silver charm bracelets similar to leading designer brands, but at a fraction of the price!    

The Deluxe Charm Bracelets set includes everything you need to have hours of fantastic fun using beautiful, coloured clays to make gorgeous and unique beads.  The high quality components are designed to ensure a superior and stunning result. The beads and charms can be added to the bracelets to make a lovely gift for someone special or for yourself.

I think this is a great idea for a craft set with impressive results.  The instructions are really clear.  The clay can be twisted or marbled to make attractive coloured beads which are then oven baked with the rivet inside.  The potential for creating different looks is great, allowing young girls to express themselves through their finished piece of jewellery. It's a lot cheaper than buying Pandora Beads and much more fun!

Gelarti is an activity pack that allows you to make over fifty fabulous accessories.  Using the special squeezy paints, you can add colour to the stickers, tags and photo frame and use techniques to make special marbling effects.  You can use the stickers to decorate laptops, mobile phones or anything else you get for Christmas!  And use the frame on a favourite festive photo and use as a thank you present.  This set will provide a lot of fun but the stickers can get used up quickly. (£14.99)

**All the toys have been provided for the purpose of the reviews and I'm proud to announce that most will be donated to Radio Lollipop in Manchester where my daughter is a volunteer.**

Make Your Own Japanese Best Friend Dolls

Beautiful Hand Painted Japanese Kokeshi Dolls For Your Best Friend From My Style

With all this rain we've been having, my children have really enjoyed getting stuck in to some rainy day craft activities to keep them occupied and entertained.  One activity that they have really enjoyed is the Japanese Best Friend Dolls craft set from My Style.  Kokeshi is an enchanting Japanese tradition where you hand paint dolls to give to friends to treasure forever.  This craft kit is based on this lovely idea.

Make Your Own Kokeshi Dolls

The Japanese Kokeshi dolls that you can make with this set are simple hand painted and decorated  wooden dolls that are perfect for giving and even hold a secret message in their base.  The set contains everything you need to make three dolls.

The Wooden Dolls Ready To Paint

The chunky, solid wood dolls look a bit like door knobs but with a bit of effort using the included paints, paintbrush, stickers and pom-poms will transform into cute little Japanese figures.

Easy Instructions

The instructions are very clear and comprehensive, with a section on how to create each of the three dolls.  The paint goes on really nicely and the best result is created by painting three thin coats allowing them to dry between each coat.  If you time it right you can be painting one whilst another one is drying.

Painting Hair Onto Her Doll

After the painting is done, stickers can be added on to provide the finer detail.  If you were a really good artist you could paint features on freehand, but the transparent backed stickers do a really good job and are easy to apply.

Adding The Fine Detail To The Kokeshi Doll

Adding the details really brings these little dolls to life and the end result is really good.  If you want to give the dolls away, the kit also includes some 'secret message' slips which can be written on, folded, rolled and inserted into the hole in the bottom of the doll.

Writing A Secret Message

Kizzy has made her doll Suki as a 'going away gift' for one of her school friends who is moving house.  She wrote a sweet little note to hide inside the doll.

Ready To Give Away

The included stringed tags complete the gift and support the concept of sharing your dolls with friends and loved ones.

The Japanese Best Friend Dolls craft set really is quite lovely.  It is aimed at girls aged 8 and over and Kizzy was able to make her dolls without any help.  Younger children could have a go with parental assistance.  We loved the idea of making handcrafted gifts to show your friends how much you care.  It is a lovely tradition.  The end result was really good and relatively easy to achieve with a little patience.  Kizzy really enjoyed making the dolls and is excited to share Suki with her friend.

Kokeshi Dolls