Recently, I was offered a chance for my twin girls (who just turned 5 in July) to try out some arts and crafts kits made by a company called Creativity For Kids.

Since we’re still in the midst of summer vacation (and I’m starting to struggle for fun and new things to keep the kids occupied (and thus any surviving remnants of my sanity intact), I leapt at the chance with all the ferocity of a mother lion desperate to feed her young (lest they start gnawing on her).

We received the Deluxe Glitter Art Kit

“Add some sparkle, shine and shimmer to all of your craft projects. This deluxe art set includes an array of glitter glue, shaker-top glitter pots, glitter stickers, glitter paper, gift tags, envelopes, greeting cards, craft glue, trinket boxes and more. This is a perfect craft activity for parties, holiday projects and seasonal crafting.”

The twins LOVED this kit! I had to fight them off to get this pic of the insides:

The only thing I had to take away were the shaker-top glitter pots, as the potential for mayhem loomed large with those.  The rest of the items included were no problem for my girls to comport themselves with decorum.

The girls eagerly set to work right away on making some cards for their daddy’s desk at work.

We were pretty impressed with what the girls did with the cards!

And the trinket boxes turned out very lovely as well!

The Tile Art Necklace Kit

“Turn ceramic tiles into amazing art you can wear and share. Decorate eight 1″ square tiles with fun paper designs, ribbon, rhinestones, pearls, and glitter accents. Includes colorful cotton jewelry cords, Jewelry findings, scissors, stencil and 3 gift boxes.”

This is what was inside this kit:

At first I thought this would be great for the girls, as they love to make presents for their friends, but each step of the way required time for glue to dry.

5-year olds are not known for their vast realms of  patience.  I managed to get them through gluing the backs on the tiles and picking out the designs/gems/decorations they wanted on their pendants, but with each glued-on addition (and requisite drying time) I had to scramble harder to find other activities to distract them with.  The recommended age for this craft kit is actually 7+, and I’d have to agree. Probably it’s a nice activity to do when you can relax with a good book and cup of cocoa during drying times.

We finally got to this stage:

and the girls finally gave up.  Halle chose the bird design, Zanna (for reasons she wouldn’t explain) chose the “D”, and I chose my initial: “L”.

We haven’t actually completed this project because the girls are still too frustrated by it, so I’m going to put it in our art supply cabinet for future use.

Moving right along, the next kit we tried was the Mossy Meadows Gnome Garden Kit

“Everything you need to create an enchanting home for 3 wee gnomes. This all-inclusive garden craft kit includes a garden dish, potting mix, wheat grass seeds, bark house, leaf-shaped pond, mossy rocks, stepping stones, resin gnomes, toadstools, ladybugs, paint, brush and a mister – just add water and a little sunshine.”

Since the girls are head-over-heels in love with making Fairy Houses, this seemed like and actually turned out to be a home-run hit!

They never got bored with it and had a great time painting and arranging the objects for the garden, and then sprinkling & pressing down the wheatgrass seeds (possible allergen for some?) and misting the garden.

The only things I had to be aware of (since the girls are kind of young) was that the original paints that came with the kit would dry permanently – so I substituted washable non-permanent paints (just had to be careful when watering the garden or the paint would run), and the mister bottle to water the garden is a little hard for small hands to handle.  The girls gave it a good try though, but finally asked me to help them out with that part.

And after a week, the garden had grass! The girls were very happy about this and have let the garden sit on our living room table unmolested – this is a pretty rare thing and a testament to how much they loved this kit!

 

So overall the girls had a great time with these kits, and they certainly staved off the incessant whines of “Mooooom! I’m BORED! Can we do something NEW?”

And what’s even better is that Creativity For Kids and MomSelect have offered me the chance to host a giveaway for a Craft Kit Gift Pack that one of my readers at TwiceBlessedLife.com can win!

It includes:

Beach Buddies Shell Craft Kit (ARV $17.99)

and

Deluxe Glitter Art Kit (ARV $29.99)

Just enter with the rafflecopter form below 🙂

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Disclaimer:  I received the free products mentioned in the review as part of a promotional program with MomSelect. All opinions are my own.