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Friday 30 August 2013

Review: Art Attack from Disney


You know what it is like during the long summer holidays, you need to lots of fill up those endless days, so when I was asked if I wanted to review some Art Attack goodies I of course jumped at the chance. I had assumed these would be the craft kits that I have seen in the shops before with craft bits to make up a specific item but I was mistaken, it seems that Disney are now doing some Art Attack goodies of their own.

We were sent a nice selection of items which all said they were suitable from age 3 upwards. The girls got to work with the starter kit quickly and painting was the first thing they wanted to do. As well as the three colours that came with the kit we added some colours from our paints and they had fun. Above is Miss M’s creation, which I am really quite proud of as she is my energetic one and never sits down to paint, colour or such, she would normally much rather be jumping around on the trampoline.

For painting you get three different heads that screw onto a plastic handle to paint with and I loved the look of these, such fun to mess about with a mini-mop head I thought but in truth it just took loads of paint and did not create that much on the page. I think these might be much better for younger kids with less dexterity that my 6 year olds. 

The starter kit retails for £15 normally and contains all you see here –



I see all the Disney Art Attack products are on special at HobbyCraft at the moment though and the starter kit is just £5.00, that's a great price!

We also received some pens and pencils and these are good quality but again I think are aimed at the younger kids. The pencils are really chunky, bigger than an average pencil and thus you need a bigger sharpener for them.

The one thing that the girls really adored was the paper embosser. I can honestly say this has been used every day we have been at home since it was opener. You cut a strip of paper to size, feed it in and it gets embossed with stars and they think this is fabulous, we have had embossed pictures, postcards, bookmarks, leaflets – you name it!


Disclosure: We were sent these craft supplies free of charge for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Saturday 17 August 2013

Review: Imaginabox

Recently my girls received a parcel each from Imaginabox and they were super excited to open them. It is a nice touch that the parcel comes addressed to the child. The plastic bag is durable and would last being left out in the rain and then the inside is colourful and the boxes sturdy to protect your crafts.


Imaginabox is a monthly crafting kit aimed at children aged 4 - 8 years. Each kit contains everything you need to make four good craft projects and it comes with a really easy to follow instruction booklet that explains how the crafts should be done. Miss M is just 6 and she could mostly read the instructions herself. The kits are aimed at parent and child time though and it is nice to get involved and help your child make something.

I think these kits are perfect if you are not crafty yourself but your child is pestering you to get involved in some projects or if you just know it would be a good idea to help them develop skills in this area. Each kit has been designed to be fun and educational and the projects sit nicely alongside the foundation and KS1 teaching curriculum. Imaginabox say that they have designed the kits to help develop communication and socialisation skills, motor skills, numeracy, problem solving and imagination.

When your child opens the box they are greeted with a number of pastel bags all clearly numbered and each one represents a different craft and then in your first kit you receive a starter bag with scissors, spreader, glue and paintbrush. With each kit of you will receive the tools you need to do those tasks and you will receive different tools or paints with each kit so you can build up your craft box. The only things it is assumed you will have are pens and pencils.

Miss E is my crafty twin and she obviously loved this but I was super surprised at Miss M who normally only has a moments concentration as she enjoyed the Imaginabox too, I think this was because it was very prescriptive and she liked to follow the instructions and have something at the end she could play with rather than just a picture or ornament. We left the box on the table for quite a few days and the girls kept coming back to it for 1/2 or so at a time.

If you wish to buy a taster box the price is £19.95 including P&P or you can sign up for a monthly subscription an the price reduces to £16.95 per month ongoing and I was pleased to see there is no minimum term or tie-in clauses.  You can also save by paying for 6 or 12 months upfront, check out the pricing options here - http://imaginabox.co.uk/about/.

The box we received is a holiday themes box and you can see the crafts the girls made here, their favourite was creating a suitcase and holiday money, tickets, passport etc for their teddies. This has given them a lot of fun.


I like the fact that on the website there are lots of free extras that you can download and use. This month there is i-spy bingo for the car, making a holiday journal, holiday postcards and lots more. It is worth taking a peek at these great free printables.

Disclosure: We were sent two imaginabox for the purposes of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Friday 9 August 2013

Clarks 100 things to do - Paint like a famous artist


As you'll know my children and I are working our way through the Clarks new initiative '100 things to do before you are 10'. The first 50 things have been launched for summer and the next 50 will follow in the autumn.

So far we have - Played water wars and written to a penpal.

This week Miss E tackled the task number 6 - paint like a famous artist.

She was lucky enough to have a unique and personalised work of art sent through to her from the artist Dermot Flynn who is known for his work painting with food. He did the art pieces for the Marmits love it or hate it campaign. Miss E had a picture of herself panted onto a T-shirt using household stain products! A little different but she was chuffed. Here he is doing the art work -


Miss E had fun the other day creating a masterpiece t-shirt for herself. She also used some food products to make her artwork, this is what she created -


Disclosure: I was provided with Clarks vouchers to take part in this initiative. I have not been told what to write and I remain honest.