Cool Bandz

With the popularity of Loom Bands still very much in evidence, here is an alternative way of making funky bracelets (without the problem of multicoloured elastic bands left all over your house).

Cool Bandz from Flair's Cool Create Range is a kit for making wristbands reminiscent of those issued at music festivals (or hospitals!). Aimed at girls aged 6+ it was a perfect review product to be put to the test by my little Addy.

The kit contains the Cool Bandz Unit which serves to store the materials for the wristbands as well as housing a 'laminating dispenser' and hole punch for actually making them.

The instructions state simply "choose a band and decorate with stickers". There are 24 bands to choose from in an exciting variety of designs. I actually thought that they were a little too exciting. Most of them didn't leave much scope for further decoration. I also felt that the manufacturers could have been a little more generous with the gems and stickers, especially given the cost of the kit.

Addy enjoyed covering her choice of band in stickers and we moved onto the next stage of the process which was laminating.

By laminating it actually meant covering the band with a strip of sticky tape but the Unit is cleverly designed to feed the band under the dispenser for an accurate application.

Finally, a clip is added so the band can be fastened. A hole is made in both ends of the band using the integrated hole punch.

With the holes lined up the clip can be pushed through and snapped shut.

The kit provides 12 clips but they are reusable. Once the materials are exhausted, there is no reason why imaginative children could not use any paper cut to the correct width and decorated to make truly unique creations.

Addy enjoyed making her wristband but egged on by her little brother thought that pulling great lengths of tape out of the dispenser to hear the noise it made was more fun! Thankfully, the tape can be replaced with a standard 19mm mini sticky tape roll.

Cool Create Daisy Chains

I do enjoy craft projects and always like having a go at craft kits with the children. At nearly six years old, Addy is now quite capable of reading instructions herself and taking much more of a leading role in working out what's what.

Recently, we tried our hand at making 'Daisy Chains' from a Cool Create set we were sent to review.

The set contains a daisy design storage box for all the little components of the daisies. The lid of the box doubles up as the flower making unit.

It is quite possible to thread the flower parts onto the plastic stems without using the unit at all, but the technique of building the flowers on the unit, adding the stems and pushing the flower up the stem with a pretty little flower picker (which can also be converted into a hair clip) does make the process more interesting.

Once we had assembled a flower on each of the petals of the flower making unit, we were able to 'pick' them as if we were picking real daisies. The system used to link the individual flowers is exactly the same as real daisy chains except for the fact that the spilt on the stem is preformed and it is much less fiddly! The flower making unit is also used for linking the flowers.

There are clips included to turn the chains into jewellery but the chains are a bit flimsy and my daughter was perfectly content simply making longer and longer chains.

My son, never one to miss a chance to to explore the more feminine side of his personality, made daisy chains too. He abandoned it in favour of making 'flower towers' that involved threading all the decorative beads provided onto the flower stems and shouting "FLOWER TOWERS" at the top of his voice. It may not have been the intent of the manufacturer but it is all good for the development of hand eye co-ordination and enabled him to be creative (and loud!) in his own way.

The craft session was all over fairly quickly but for me, the longing for summer days spent lying in the grass and making real daisy chains, will last much longer!

Cool Create website coming soon

The Joy of Cardboard Boxes #zackandquack

Earlier this month, I was lucky enough to be one of the bloggers chosen to host a 'Zack & Quack Craft Party' to coincide with the launch of a brand new kids show on Nick Jr. The Craft Parties were just part of Twitter Extravaganza where everyone was invited to join in and tweet with the #ZackandQuack hashtag.

I received a big box of craft materials and some exciting goody bags for our guests to take home with them.

I love an excuse for a bit of a get-together with other mums and my two little ones were very excited at the thought of having friends over to our house. We sent out our invitations.

For me, a party of any kind is a reason to do some baking. I baked. I also tried my hand at making origami frogs from instructions provided in the party box. It was tricky but I persevered and they made cute little cake labels.

Before the guests arrived, I set up work stations for various craft activities and organised the seating in my living room so everyone could be comfortable for watching the premiere of Zack & Quack. For all the preparation work and during the party, I was tweeting about the event.

— Paula (QWERTY Mum) (@PaulaHaylock) February 7, 2014

The guests began to arrive and excitement levels rose. Before long, everyone was involved in sticking, cutting and generally getting creative. It was lovely to see. We had a couple of exploding glue incidents and glitter glue spread so thickly it would most likely take a month to dry but the children were thoroughly engaged with their tasks.

When the time came for the start of the Zack & Quack show, we got the children seated. There was a welcome change in the noise levels of the party as six pairs of eyes were all transfixed by the images on the screen. A wonderful calm descended as Zack and his duck best friend Quack worked their magic on the spellbound viewers. For me, it was time for a much needed cup of coffee before the final part of the party.

The children were unanimous in their opinion that Zack & Quack was GREAT!!

Our final activity was crafting on a grand scale. The children, hopefully inspired by the show, were invited to use their imaginations to build whatever they wanted as a team from materials provided.

Three of our little guests decided that all they needed to do was jump in a box and exclaim gleefully We made a boat!.

The project became more ambitious when one of our mums let loose her own creativity. The kids loved helping with the transformation and playing with their own cardboard vehicle. The following day, the 'box train' was still the source of much amusement for my children and our visitors (including some old enough to know better!!)

I had some lovely feedback from the party including - Best party ever and the best party bag! 

Watch Zack & Quack Fridays at 4.30pm on Nick Jr.

Craft Party Treasure Box

My eldest daughter has two Godchildren, a boy and a girl of similar ages to my two little ones. My children love it when they come to our house.

We invited them over to try out a new review product that I had been sent, Treasure Box Party. 

Treasure Box Party provides everything you need to make six decorated treasure boxes with bead bracelets to go in then. I think it is a fantastic idea for children's parties - a bit different from the usual Pass the Parcel and Pin the Tail on the Donkey!

We covered the table with protective paper and let our four little testers get on with it.

The kit contained sheets of self adhesive jewels that all the crafters loved and stuck to their heart shaped treasure boxes with abandon! They looked wonderful. I did find a few stuck to my polished floorboards later when it was time to clear up but they came off fairly easily!

There were also six little pots of pink and purple paint and enough brushes for one each. The instruction sheet shows delicately painted flowers, hearts, stars and moons. Our crafters were more inclined to dollop it on thick and created swirly marbling. It maybe lacked the finesse of the illustrated examples but I thought they looked glorious. We did have a little problem with the children being too impatient to wait for the paint to dry (and it took some drying time with how liberally it had been applied!) but nothing too serious.

The set is aimed at the 5-8 age group. Two of our testers fitted into this range (albeit the lower end) with two being younger. The younger two only required minimal supervision and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. However, their ages did work against us for the second part of the craft project - making the bracelets. Colourful beads and charms were provided along with a length of stretch cord. I am sure that slightly older children would enjoy threading the beads to create their own designs but it was too fiddly for our group. I have put them away for another day.

I was impressed with the quality of the craft materials and the children were all delighted with their creations.

http://www.interplayuk.com/craft-party/treasure-box-party

Knit Your Own Zombie

The chill in the air and the carpet of autumn leaves is leaving no doubt as to the time of year and Hallowe'en is very nearly upon us. Usually by now, my house would be decorated and parties planned but I have been very slow to get going for some reason I have yet to fathom. I have, though, completed a craft project which combines my love of the macabre with my knitting hobby and made this handsome little fella.

The pattern is from Fiona Goble's Knit Your Own Zombie which I highly recommend (should you have any leaning towards knitting needles, yarn and the undead).

The protruding entrails do detach completely from the 'gut pocket' leaving plenty of room to insert a brown rat should you desire. I have made the rat but my personal preference is for the guts. I just love the colour!

One day I may progress onto sensible and useful hats, gloves, scarves and jumpers but for now, I'm having far too much fun.

Kodak Christmas Photo Craft Challenge

I love taking photographs and recently I have discovered a new passion for knitting. I thought there had to be some interesting ways to combine these two hobbies and the Kodak Christmas  Photo Craft Challenge gave me just the incentive I needed to get creative.

This is the image I decided to use for my Christmas Photo Craft.

I love my daughter's cheeky little expression and the outline of the head is quite clean which made it easy to cut out. 

This is the knitting part of the project.

I have been busy making little knitted decorations for my Christmas tree. The hat and beard of my knitted santa seemed to lend themselves perfectly to the idea I had for this challenge.

I adjusted the size of the photograph and printed it. I cut out the head and added a knitted beard and hat. All that remained was to hang it on the Christmas tree!

My Kodak Christmas Photo Craft Challenge

Cute Cupcakes - a Toyologist review

Galt Cute Cup Cakes Kit 

£5.99

"This pretty plaster moulding kit lets you mould and decorate 4 mini cupcakes and a cake stand to display them on. Add sparkle with glitter glue. They almost look good enough to eat!"

I misunderstood what this was at first. I thought we were making real cupcakes... to eat. After the initial disappointment, I remembered the Plaster of Paris kits I had as a child and felt a warm flood of nostalgia.

The kit said that it was not for children under 5 years. My 2 year old (who could actually add "and three quarters" after the 2) is not aware that she is under 5 years!! Obviously she was heavily supervised but  I think that she actually did a pretty good job. She has certainly learned a lot of new vocabulary in the course of the craft project. 

Unpacking the kit I was surprised at how tiny the models were but this was a good thing for me because I have a slightly out of character love of miniatures.

We mixed the plaster (the 2 year old thoroughly enjoyed this part) and filled the moulds. It was difficult to get the tops level and smooth, especially as by the time we had finished blobbing and dolloping, the plaster was already beginning to harden. The controlling perfectionist part of me really wanted to take over and make sure everything was exactly right but I forced myself to allow the kit to remain in the hands of the intended users.

The dried models slipped easily out of the moulds (which is more than can be said for the latex moulds I used as a kid - I lost count of the number of headless Donald Ducks I made because the model separated at the neck as I tried to ease the mould off the last few millimetres of the sailor's hat).

Both the cupcakes and the stand are constructed from two separate pieces that need to be glued together with the PVA glue provided. The bumpy surfaces didn't really fit together very easily but with enough glue they held and didn't look too terrible. Again, the perfectionist in me wanted to sand the surfaces smooth to make a perfect fit but that would have been horribly messy and not an appropriate task for a little one. I satisfied myself by picking the rough edges off with my fingernail! The 2 year old loved to squeeze the glue out of the tube but was not too impressed at having to wait for it to dry.

The instructions suggest that the models should be painted before glueing but putting them together so they actually looked like cupcakes before painting made it more exciting for the 2 year old and they were easier to handle.

Overpainting!

The painting part was great fun. I was concerned that the paintbrush provided was too fine - good for detailed work but frustratingly slow for larger areas. This did not prove to be true. The acrylic paints were lovely and thick so the paintbrush could be well loaded (a fact my daughter tested to the limit!). I painted one cupcake myself (just for purposes of this review you understand - nothing to do with the fact that I was getting far too into this!) The paint, in invitingly lovely pastel shades, covered beautifully with one coat.

The 2 year old was totally absorbed and did not consider herself "finished" until every drop of paint was used up! This of course meant that the models were somewhat "overpainted". Everything ended up a rather homogenous nondescript shade of yuk but did go through some beautiful marbled pastel stages in the process. She got paint everywhere but it all cleaned up easily with a damp cloth.

Lots of mess

Every drop of paint used up 

Then came the glitter phase. A bit of sparkle was just what our cupcakes needed and the 2 year old was happy to oblige.

Before I started this review I imagined that I would conclude with something like "I'd rather spend the money and time making edible cupcakes" but my opinion has changed. As you can probably see from the video, the 2 year old got a lot out of the project and the finished product is small and discreet enough to not be a monstrous eyesore. As much as I would have liked eating the real cupcakes, at least this way is calorie free!