The Jucee Crew Blogger Challenge

We are always up for a challenge, so when Jucee invited us to take part in a fun craft activity, recreating some of the Jucee Crew characters from fresh fruit, we jumped at the chance. Supplied with an assortment of fruit, art materials and some Jucee sugar free drinks to quench our thirsts while we worked, we set about making our own Ozzie Orange, Archie Apple, Lizzie Lemon, Peggy Pineapple, Luigi Lime and Maisie Mango!

Jucee juice drinks, Jucee squash and Jucee 100% pure fruit juices all contain no added sugar. They make up a great tasting, great value range of drinks, made extra fun because of the cute, fruity characters on each bottle or carton. The individual juice boxes and sports top bottles are perfect for when on the go with the kids. They contain no artificial flavourings or colours, and like the rest of the range, are 100% sugar free.

The fruity characters that make up the Jucee Crew are a super cute way of introducing fruits to young children, making drinking juice drinks even more appealing. My crew of Freddy along with his cousins Addy and Dyl were very excited about getting creative to make their own Jucee Crew fruity friends.

Armed with a selection of fruits, some googly eyes, Sharpie markers, glue and other arts and crafts bits and bobs, they made some lovely characters. (they also enjoyed eating the fruits afterwards so nothing went to waste!)

According to the kids, Ozzie Orange is a fruitastic character who loves playing football with his little kicking legs. Archie Apple loves Kung-Fu and Lizzie Lemon wears a pretty blue hat and always smiles. Peggy Pineapple is a crazy character who looks after the little ones! I loved the kids' imagination when it came to making the characters and playing with them, giving them their own personalities and voices.

Find out more about the range and meet the Jucee Crew at www.jucee.co.uk.

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.

       

Father's Day Crafts from Baker Ross

When it comes to special occasions, nothing beats a homemade gift from a child who loves you. Knowing that they have put in their time and effort to create something special makes them the most precious of presents to receive.

For Father's Day, Baker Ross have a brilliant range of crafting goodies to help children make something really special for their dads. Freddy received some of the sets and we hosted an after school get together with his cousins to try them out. 

The things we tested out included:

Father's Day Foam Stickers: pack of 120 £2.99

Tie Book Mark Kit: pack of 4 £2.99

Toolbox Photo Frame Kit: pack of 4 reduced from £3.96 to £1.99

Car Wooden Desk Tidy Kit: pack of 3 £3.45

Father's Day Car Cards: pack of 8 £1.99

With Baker Ross products, you know you are getting a brilliantly thought out craft activity containing everything needed to make something that looks great. With pre-cut foam pieces and self-adhesive stickers, many of the kits are really easy and straightforward to do. Children just need to add their own artistic flair to make a design that their dads will love.

The children seemed to really enjoy doing the crafts for their dads. They don't always stick religiously to the instructions, but they all put their own unique spin on the activities to create unique gifts. The foam stickers were stuck on with some wild abandon at times, but this makes the gifts even more unique!

We particularly loved the Father's Day self-adhesive foam stickers. With shapes such as guitars, ties, lap tops, footballs, moustaches, newspapers, remote controls, power tools, golf clubs and PS3 controllers, there are designs to match any dad's personality. There are also slogan stickers with phrases such as 'World's Best Dad' and 'King for the Day', which are ideal for card making. We used the stickers to personalise the car shaped wooden desk tidy, which we filled with sweets to make a lovely gift. Alternatively, you could use paints to create a unique design on the easy to assemble 3D wooden car.

The tool box photo frames will grace any dad's desk and will look fabulous with a family photo inserted. They look really cool once completed and are a lot of fun to make with the assortment of self-adhesive tools to stick on around the foam frame. The frame is free standing, slotting into a base.

The tie bookmarks come in four different designs and the 'Dad Rocks' one complete with a guitar sticker is perfect for Ian. The other designs include sports, a race car theme and a #1 Dad design. They would be a perfect additional gift if buying a book for dad this Father's Day.

The colour in car cards come in three designs; a camper van, a Mini and a race car. They can be coloured in with felt tips, crayons, pencils or paints and come complete with envelopes. 

Seeing how proud Freddy was to have made his daddy a selection of such lovely gifts was a delight. He and his cousins carried out the crafts with such enthusiasm and really enjoyed creating the things that they made.  There are going to be two very happy daddies on Father's Day!

Find all these Father's Day craft packs plus hundreds of other themed craft ideas and accessories at www.bakerross.co.uk.

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.

Stampin' Up Hip Hip Hooray Designer Card Kit

It's always very special to receive a handmade card from a loved one.  Knowing the love and effort put into creating a card especially for you makes it a wonderful keepsake to treasure.  However, if you are anything like me, you may struggle to think of creative ideas or find it hard to execute any ideas that do bubble to the surface.  Sometimes, I just need a little help to get my handmade mojo into the swing of things.  That is why, when I was sent a Stampin' Up UK Hip Hip Hooray Designer Card Set to try out, I knew it'd be the ideal kit to get me crafting cute, fun and stylish cards (that were also quick and easy to make!)

The Stampin' Up Designer Card Set compromises of 20 printed card bases (10 each of 2 designs), 5 sticker sheets, 20 envelopes, 1 sheet of Stampin’ Dimensionals, 18' Whisper White Twine; 10 mini paperclips; 3-piece Hip Hip Hooray Stamp Set & clear stamp block and 1 Basic Grey Stampin' Spot mini ink pad.  It also comes with an instruction sheet with guidelines on making the card designs. You can make up a whole batch of 20 homemade greetings cards for special occasions.

The first thing to do is to make up the stamps, sticking the self-adhesive rubber stamps to the backing sheet.  Bar one small mishap where we put one on upside down, we achieved this pretty easily.  The stamps say "Hip Hip Hooray It's Your Day", "Just For You" and "Thanks" making the kit pretty versatile.  The instructions give you a technique where you can mask off some of the big stamp so you can use either of the phrases on its own, with or without the pattern that divides them.  This brings even more versatility to the product.

I loved the quality of the cards with their spotty or lined designs.  The sticker sheets are really impressive as the pieces are made from strong card that peels away from the backing.  They stick securely and look very professional on the finished items.

We chose to make one of the more simple cards for our first try, which was very easy to do.  The patterned card made it very easy to line up the stickers to get a good finish.  Then it was just down to using the stamp to print the message onto the card.  OK, at this point there may have been a little nudge that caused a little smudge on the ink, so it wasn't a perfect result, but it wasn't bad for a first attempt.  Once you start, your confidence grows and you learn techniques that you can then apply to future projects.

Stampin' Up sell a whole array of paper crafting products and kits, including some seasonal things, which are really fun. (I love the Halloween range!)  There are products for all levels of crafting expertise from beginners (like me!) to the more experienced crafters.  The kits are a great starting point for those new to crafting and are also a great idea for craft parties or for gifts.

The Stampin' Up products are sold through independent demonstrators as well as online.

Hip Hip Hooray Designer Card Kit is £17.95 and makes 20 lovely homemade cards with envelopes, (and of course adds three versatile stamps to your collection).

Getting Creative with a Zack & Quack Craft Party

Zack & Quack is the new hit TV show on Nick Jr featuring Zack and his duck friend Quack who, together with the help of their friend Kira, enjoy adventures and solve problems in their pop-up paper world.  To celebrate the premiere we were invited by UKMums.tv to host a crafts party to coincide with the showing of the first episodes.  Armed with mountains of cardboard boxes, glue, stickers, paper plates, cardboard tubes and lots of imagination, the party guests made their own creations inspired by Zack & Quack!

There were cardboard cameras, paper plate faces, decorated treasure boxes, iced biscuits, origami Belly Up frogs and a brilliant box racing car!  Crafting is always so much fun and kids love to get creative. 

The Zack & Quack show itself kept a roomful of boys and girls totally engrossed!  They all really liked the animation and the humour had them giggling.  The stories were fun and the children loved how Zack solved his problems by making things out of paper in his pop up world.  It was definitely a big hit.

Look out for Zack & Quack on Nick Jr at 4.30pm on Fridays.  You can also check out the Nick Jr website on www.nickjr.co.uk/shows/zack-and-quack where you'll find lots of craft ideas and activities.  You can also watch clips from the show and meet the characters.

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!

Easter Crafts with Hobbycraft #cbias

Although the current weather is more Christmas than Easter, the season of chocolate eggs, Easter chicks and bunnies is nevertheless fast approaching.  We have been taking part in an exciting 'shoppertunity' with Social Fabric to create some homemade Easter themed crafts using products purchased from Hobbycraft.  We have a brand new Hobbycraft store that has just opened in a retail park near to where we live, so I was really keen to pay it a visit and check out all the products on offer.  I love browsing through all the different aisles: the bakeware; the children's craft sets; the jewellery making; the papercrafts and of course the seasonal aisles!

To find out what we got up to on the very snowy day that we visited Hobbycraft to buy the items we needed to get crafty, take a look at my Hobbycraft Shopping Experience G+ Album.

I felt really inspired after reading this poem, which is printed on the wall behind the tills, and ready to help the kids make some Easter craft gifts!  I love doing craft activities with my family but I am no expert when it comes to doing complicated projects. So the crafts that we chose to do are all simple and perfect for children to carry out with some adult supervision.   The range of Easter themed stickers, ribbons and decorations makes it easy to add a seasonal twist to any craft project.  We loved all the cute designs featuring cartoon bunnies, fluffy chicks and colourful eggs.  I bought loads of stuff that will keep us going throughout the Easter holidays, and if the weather doesn't improve we will appreciate the joys of a nice indoor activity such as arts and crafts.

How to Make Decorative Easter Sweetie Jars

1 Kilner Jar (£2.79)

Decorative Paper (£2.00)

Easter Ribbon (£1.00)

Easter Foam Stickers (£1.00/£1.50)

Edging Scissors (£2.00)

Sweets to fill the jar

Cut out a circle of decorative paper using the edging scissors to fit the top of the jar.

Stick on with glue.

Using decorative Easter stickers decorate the lid.

Fill the jar with sweets and shut lid.

Add stickers to body of jar.

Tie a length of ribbon around the top of the jar and add a label.

It makes a great Easter present and an alternative to a chocolate egg.

Kizzy did a great job and enjoyed creating a bespoke jar to give to a friend this Easter.

We are going to expand on this idea to make jars containing the dry mix to make Easter cookies and decorating them for gifts for the grandparents.  It's such a nice idea for a present and would work for any season or occasion.

How to Make Hand Painted Egg Cups

White Ceramic Egg Cups (69p each)

Rainbow Markers for ceramics (£3.99)

This is such a simple and lovely craft idea whatever the age of your children.

The Rainbow Markers are quick drying and smudge proof.

Simply draw your design onto the egg cup and leave to dry.

For a great Easter gift, pop in a small chocolate egg.

All three children enjoyed this activity together.  Designs can be as simple or elaborate as the ability of the child allows, so anyone at any age can enjoy decorating their own ceramic egg cup.  

Ella, Kezia and Freddy had real fun.  I love how hard Freddy was concentrating on his 'modern art' design.  (I hear scribbling is all the rage in the art scene this year!!)

Craft Kits for Kids

Hobbycraft sell a range of great value kids' activity packs from just £1.00.

We bought a kit to make an Easter Chick in a nest, which included everything needed to make it including double sided tape and a felt pen (£1.00).

With a bit of help, Freddy made a chick that he was very proud of!  It is such a great value kit and something that would make a lovely gift to give to crafty kids this Easter.  It would also be a lovely going home present  for children if you have an Easter party.

So if you want to 'hop' along to your local Hobbycraft to stock up on some 'egg-citing' Easter arts and crafts bits (I love a good pun!) you can find your nearest store, discover some ideas for projects and look at the extensive range of products on the website at  www.hobbycraft.co.uk.

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® #CBias #SocialFabric.

Making Valentine's Day Cards With Freddy

Today Freddy was off nursery as he has a nasty cough.  Having his company meant that we could do some craft activities together for Valentine's Day. As a family, we enjoy any excuse to have a themed day with food and activities planned around the occasion, and Valentine's Day is no exception.  You don't find me and Ian having a romantic meal for two, instead it's family fun for five!

 I dug out all the crafty bits and bobs that were even vaguely heart shaped and let him go wild with a glue stick and some cardboard.  I love the idea of making homemade cards for special occasions.  Shop bought cards are so expensive and I end up binning them, but homemade ones cost nothing and are kept forever.  They are a wonderful record of your child's artistic development, showcasing their creativity.  I have over 20 year's worth of my children's drawings, paintings and cards packaged up in my garage!! (No wonder I have an issue with clutter!)

Freddy is a very active child who runs around, dances, kicks things, throws things and plays hard.  He also has a fabulous vocabulary and a sharp sense of humour and is amazing with technology.  Although he loves educational games on the computer and can recognise many of his letters and numbers by sight, he is extremely reluctant to pick up a pencil or crayon.  He does not like to draw or colour in and makes no effort towards the early mark making that becomes emergent writing.  In fact he can't even hold a pen. He just doesn't get it!  I don't know if it is because he is a confused left-hander (his dad is a leftie) or if his eyes are the problem or whether there is something else going on...or whether it is just a 'boy thing'.  I'm sure once he is at school he'll get into  the swing of writing and drawing, and if not we will be able to work out what the problem is.  But for now, rather than pressuring him into doing something he really does not want to do, I think that doing craft activities is a good way for him to develop the necessary fine motor skills required.  He enjoys it too, so everyone is happy.

Freddy loved sticking the foam shapes, material hearts, paper hearts  beads, sequins and googly eyes onto his design in a display of carefully considered and precisely positioned randomness!

I loved that he made the top heart into a face.  That is a very Freddy thing to do!  So although he wasn't impressed with the idea of signing his name inside the card, which is for his daddy, he stamped his personality all over it and it will be much treasured!

Get Crafty On The Beach

Enjoy Beach Art With Your Children This Summer!

British beaches aren't always sandy paradises where you can bask beneath a blazing sun, but that doesn't mean you can't have loads of fun!

One idea for an activity for the kids is to make a Beach Art Family.

Collect as many different shaped rocks and pebbles, pieces of seaweed and shells as you can find.  Give little ones a bucket and let them help (always under a parent's watchful eye of course!)

Find a surface to create your art on...a flat area of sand is ideal.

Use all of these natural craft products to make your family!  Make yourself or each other...it is amazing how many variations you can come up with using different shapes of pebble!

Pebble eyes, seaweed hair and rock body parts go together to make your likeness in seaside form!

It is free, natural, fun, crafty and creative.

There isn't even any tidying up to do afterwards!

Take photos of your finished art attack to remember it by!

Our Beach Family

Making Union Jack Cushions

A Rainy Day Craft Activity...Sewing A Union Jack Cushion

Unfortunately, yesterday was a rather wet and cold and windy day for the Jubilee celebrations and our street party was cancelled.  So instead of singing God Save the Queen while eating scones and cucumber sandwiches with our neighbours, we were stuck indoors.  But with an Interplay My Style Make Union Jack Cushions set to try out, we could get down to some patriotic crafts instead!

The set includes everything needed to make two hand sewn felt Union Jack Cushions, one large and one small.  The cushion pads come vacuum packed and spring up when removed from the plastic packaging.  You just need your own scissors and you're ready to go.  The pre-cut felt pieces are sewn together according to the instructions using the coloured thread.  The sewing holes are ready punched and line up well.

9 year old Kizzy set off stitching together the pieces and although I had to unravel a few knotted threads she did quite a good job initially.  She did however get a bit confused as to how to assemble all the parts and I have to admit that with my lack of spatial awareness and lack of sewing skills I wasn't much help.  I'm pretty sure we had two of the diagonals sewn on upside down!  Kizzy found it a bit complicated and fiddly as we progressed.

We persevered together, and even though we ended up probably doing some bits our own way, rather than sticking to the instructions, we did end up with a rather nice little button-up cushion at the end of our session.  It isn't perfect...but we were proud!

The Union Jack Cushion Set costs £14.99 and is aimed at ages 8+. 

Kizzy is not a naturally gifted seamstress, but she was quite pleased with the finished pillow.  I'm sure with practice she'll improve and quickly surpass my sewing talents!!  But between us, we had fun and created a Jubilee souvenir that will forever remind us of the day that our street party was rained off!

Face Painting Fun #Project 52

Freddy decided to have some fun with my face paints, using big sister Ella as a model!  I think he did quite a good job!!!

Aquarelle…Painting By Numbers has been Re-Invented

I am always interested in arts and crafts products as I have some very creative children who enjoy getting crafty.  I was offered an Aquarelle set by Ravensburger to try out for UK Mums.tv and was impressed with the fact that it had just won the Best New Toy at the London Toy Fair 2012 in the creative category.

We received a mini set in a cute cat design to try out.  It comprises of a pre-printed mini canvas 8.5 x 12cm, a palette, paint brush, dropper and three primary coloured bottles of watercolour paint.  A colour chart in the instruction leaflet tells you how to use the paint plus water to make any colour you like to use on the picture. 

The design on the canvas looks a lot like a painting by numbers, except there are no numbers!  Young artists can be as creative as they like making the picture using whatever colours they wish.  They can experiment and personalize the picture however they choose, which gives them much more freedom in their creativity.  The watercolour  technique is easy to pick up and children can start painting straight away.

The most ingenious thing about the Aquarelle is the fact that the design on the canvas is created using colour repellent lines.  They stay visible even when painted over retaining the detail of the picture even if you go over the line.  The super fine paint brush makes fine detail quite easy to achieve, and the special lines really do help achieve an impressive finish.  The paint is very thin and ink-like and goes on the canvas really well.  It mixes well to make a whole range of shades to get the desired result.  Sometimes, the more complicated painting kits can lead to frustration as young children attempt to recreate the intricate design as per the instructions.  Aquarelle avoids this problem.  The cute picture is brought to life with the colours and looks really impressive from the start with each finished piece being a unique work of art.

Aquarelle is aimed at children aged 8-13 and is definitely one of the best sets of this kind we have ever used for ease of use, creativity and end result. The kits are available as Mini, Midi and Maxi sizes with themes such as cats, dolphins or world cities.  The watercolour paints are much more user friendly than the heavier oil based paints and give a much nicer finish.  Move over Painting By Numbers, Aquarelle is here!